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Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Moody's Cuts D.R. Horton to Junk

by Calculated Risk on 12/19/2007 04:18:00 PM

From Bloomberg: D.R. Horton Credit Ratings Cut to Junk Status by Moody's (hat tip Matt)

D.R. Horton Inc., the fourth-largest U.S. homebuilder ... ratings were lowered to Ba1 on concern that a housing recovery won't begin before 2009 ...
The public builder BKs are coming. I'm not saying Horton will go BK, but more of the public builders probably will (like Levitt & Sons). There is simply too much capacity in the industry, plus too much debt, too much inventory, and poor demographics for housing in general. The next few years will be very difficult for the homebuilders, and I suspect 2008 will make 2007 look like a good year.