TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the demand for homes is real because they are affordable.
Sometimes the misdirection in the media's interpretation of the mortgage/foreclosure market simply drives me up a wall. Take Thursday's fret story, "Loans That Looked Easy Pose Threats to Recovery," in The New York Times. This one is played big online, much bigger than another story, "Signs of Life as Sales of New Homes Improve." The gist of the big story? Option rate ARMs are going to crimp anything good that could happen from the housing recovery.
But you know what? The amazing thing here is the number of option ARMs that they say we are in trouble on: 500,000 homes. Sorry, I know that number is meant to scare people, but it is truly small, especially when you consider that 17 million homes traded during the period from 2005 to the first quarter of 2007, when the reckless lending set in. Given the charges we have taken in the banking system, the reserves we have, the bottom in housing and the robust market we have -- and it isn't just for first-time homebuyers, and it isn't just for low-dollar homes, despite the impressions made by the media -- you have to take this worry and throw it out.
The Cooper Companies, Inc.
