Filed under: Market matters , Centex Corp (CTX) , D.R.Horton (DHI) , Freep't McMoRan Copper (FCX) , Stocks to Buy , Stocks to Sell , Housing , Cramer on BloggingStocks TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says they should be punished for trying an end run on taxpayers. Love Centex (NYSE: CTX ) ( Cramer's Take ), sell Horton (NYSE: DHI ) ( Cramer's Take )? That's how I feel after reading Horton's pathetic plea to bring back down-payment assistance for this industry, which remains unpunished for all it did to foment the housing crisis. Yesterday, in one of our "Wall Street Confidential" series, I opined that Centex was shaping up to be one of the better builders after making so many right moves in the last year to preserve capital. I didn't care for industry leader D.R. Horton, though. And that was before I read the outrageous comments from Horton CEO Don Tomnitz in Market Watch yesterday, where he decried that the new housing law didn't include more down-payment assistance loans from the FHA. These seller assistance loans plied basically, by the homebuilders that allow homebuyers to use a back door to FHA loans, have been defaulting at very high rates. The Congress, in an actual dollop of wisdom, scrapped them and instead gave people a tax credit of $7,500 to buy a new house, not bad considering that houses have retreated in value to the point that even though you need to put down more money as a percentage basis, as an absolute basis there's ...
Anytime
Filed under: Market matters , Centex Corp (CTX) , D.R.Horton (DHI) , Freep't McMoRan Copper (FCX) , Stocks to Buy , Stocks to Sell , Housing , Cramer on BloggingStocks TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says they should be punished for trying an end run on taxpayers. Love Centex (NYSE: CTX ) ( Cramer's Take ), sell Horton (NYSE: DHI ) ( Cramer's Take )? That's how I feel after reading Horton's pathetic plea to bring back down-payment assistance for this industry, which remains unpunished for all it did to foment the housing crisis. Yesterday, in one of our "Wall Street Confidential" series, I opined that Centex was shaping up to be one of the better builders after making so many right moves in the last year to preserve capital. I didn't care for industry leader D.R. Horton, though. And that was before I read the outrageous comments from Horton CEO Don Tomnitz in Market Watch yesterday, where he decried that the new housing law didn't include more down-payment assistance loans from the FHA. These seller assistance loans plied basically, by the homebuilders that allow homebuyers to use a back door to FHA loans, have been defaulting at very high rates. The Congress, in an actual dollop of wisdom, scrapped them and instead gave people a tax credit of $7,500 to buy a new house, not bad considering that houses have retreated in value to the point that even though you need to put down more money as a percentage basis, as an absolute basis there's ...