Late payments on home-equity loans rose to a record in the first quarter ...

As the Treasury Department training company, Goldman Sachs, records incredible profits, the housing market is fighting a battle to save the economy. The 275 billion that the Federal Government allocated to infuse into the housing market is failing to get into the hand of the borrowers. It is staying with the bankers paying down their debt and fix their bottom line.

Home prices continued to tumble in April, falling 18.1% from a year earlier -- but the change from March narrowed sharply, indicating that housing markets may be starting to turn.

The data on new home sales for the month of May is going to be a disappointment even for the green shoots crowd, at least on the surface. Sales of new homes in May fell by 0.6% to 342,000 on an annualized rate. Dow Jones had estimates calling for a 2% gain to 360,000. The numbers in April were revised to 344,000 from a prior target of 352,000 originally reported.

While existing home sales are not a true barometer of new home sales, there was at least a bump up in existing home sales for May. This rise of 2.4% to 4.77 million annualized units compares to 4.66 million units annualized in April and compares to Dow Jones consensus estimates of 4.80 million. Before you celebrate too much that you can finally get rid of your I.O. loan, there is a reason here to suspect that the rise is there that isn’t necessarily the biggest news for sellers.