Lender forecasts continued slump

Countrywide Financial, the biggest mortgage lender in the U.S., said yesterday that the country’s housing market might not recover until 2009. Countrywide said it was seeing more borrowers with good credit defaulting on loans, and its chairman noted that home prices were falling “almost like never before, with the exception of the Great Depression.” The news triggered a sell-off in the stock market, causing the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index to fall 30.53 points, or 2 percent, its biggest one-day drop in almost five months. Countrywide’s own stock, meanwhile, fell to its lowest point since late 2005. more [NYT] and
more [WSJ]