New York Mortgage Trust First Quarter Disappointing on Lower Volume

New York Mortgage reported 1st quarter earnings and showed a loss of 14 cents a share. They attributed this to a difficult lending environment but they see a 30 percent increase in lending in the second quarter so far. This could be a very good indicator of the market as a whole as the marketplace stopped with the fear of a bubble but now pressures from housing demands may be re-invigorating the housing and mortgage market.

“While we were disappointed with our first quarter financial results, they were not unexpected given the challenges that persist in the mortgage industry at present. Fortunately though, as a result of the repositioning of our REIT portfolio during the first three months of 2006, we have been able to improve our REIT earnings potential and stabilize our quarterly dividend at $0.14 for 2006. Though our loan origination volume in our mortgage banking subsidiary fell approximately 9.9% in the first quarter of 2006 as compared to the first quarter of 2005, the decrease we experienced compares favorably to the overall industry decline of 20.3% predicted by the Mortgage Bankers Association for the comparable period. Additionally, during the last 60 days we have experienced an approximate 30% increase in loan origination volumes over our January and February volumes and expect that this favorable trend will enable us to show significant improvements in our TRS earnings in future quarters with a targeted breakeven in the TRS by the third quarter of this year,” Steven B. Schnall, Chairman, President and Co-Chief Executive Officer, commented.

MSN Money - PR Newswire Business News: New York Mortgage Trust Reports First Quarter 2006 Results.