Mortgage Crisis Up-ends Home Builders

The recent mortgage crisis is causing the publicly traded home builders to take a beating. This morning Bank of America analysts downgraded Hovnanian, Toll Brothers, and Standard Pacific while reducing stock price targets by almost a third on all the home builders they cover.

It comes as no surprise that a constricting mortgage market will cut deeply into new home starts and number of available buyers. Tougher lending requirements may take a bite out of remodeling as well.