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To: GST who wrote (124159)	4/26/2001 2:27:45 PM
From: H James Morris	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

Gst, lets start a moderated winners thread, and lets include old economy stocks too. As housing still continues to surge. I'll throw out BZH as a place to start. >NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) - Homebuilding stocks jumped on Wednesday after the Commerce Department said new U.S. home sales rose to a record rate in March. The Standard and Poor's Homebuilding index was up 5 percent in afternoon trading. Shares of Beazer Homes (NYSE:BZH) rose $4.95, or 10 percent, to $54.50 on the New York Stock exchange. Shares of KB Home (NYSE:KBH) were up $1.77, or 6.1 percent, to $31.05 on the NYSE. Shares of Pulte Corp (NYSE:PHM) were up $3.38, or 7.58 percent, to $47.96 on the NYSE. Publicly traded homebuilders have been benefiting from lower mortgage rates and rising home prices. The S&P Homebuilding index has risen about 22 percent in the last six months. On Wednesday, homebuilder Centex Corp. (NYSE:CTX) reported a 52 percent rise in fourth-quarter earnings. On Tuesday Pulte and homebuilder Del Webb Corp. (NYSE:WBB) reported higher earnings as higher sales prices and lower costs produced higher margins. Shares of Centex were up 89 cents, or 2.14 percent, to $42.57 on the NYSE. Shares of Del Webb were up $1.75, or 5.7 percent, to $32.55. The Commerce Department said the number of new single-family homes sold in March rose 4.2 percent to an annual rate of 1.021 million units, up from a revised rate of 980,000 in February, far outstripping analysts' expectations of a rise of 910,000. The March figure beat the prior record set in December last year, when sales of single-family homes rose to an annual rate of 1.007 million. Analysts said the number shows the strength of the housing market, despite the fact that last week's Fed rate cut will have little effect on mortgage rates, which are largely dependent on the 10-year Treasury note. In recent weeks, mortgage rates have been rising. For the week ending April 20, 30-year fixed rates were at 7.14 percent, up from the prior week's 7.04 percent, but down 1 percentage point from a year ago. Last week's rate the highest in almost 3 months. Also on Wednesday, the National Association of Realtors said that U.S. existing home sales rose to their second-highest rate on record in March.