September is looking like a much kinder month for mortgage-related stocks. After taking a severe beating in August, the stock prices of most mortgage-related firms were up in the first three days of the month. Embattled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac appear to be out of the limelight – at least for now – and that has helped push their stock prices back up to pre-August levels. Fannie was trading at $7.49 a share while Freddie was at $5.23 a share in the late morning.
But the biggest gains were being posted by private mortgage insurance firms, who have taken some of the biggest stock price hits of any company in the mortgage business this year. PMI’s stock price jumped over 20 percent this morning while MGIC’s price climbed 11 percent. Radian saw a healthy 17 percent jump in its stock price. The next big test for mortgage stocks may come as early as Friday when the Mortgage Bankers Association releases its mortgage delinquency and foreclosure numbers for the second quarter.
