KB Home, Ryland Group slide as Greenspan says boom over. (Wall Street West).

LOCAL homebuilding and mortgage company stocks took it on the chin last week after Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan declared the housing boom had peaked.

The stock prices of L.A.-based KB Home and Calabasas-based Ryland Group Inc., the two largest locally based homebuilders, fell 5.9 percent and 6.3 percent, respectively, on Marci 4, the day of the speech. The following day, KI Home said new home orders for the quarter ended Feb. 28 were down 20 percent from the like year-earlier period.

As of March 6, KB Home shares were trading at $43.43, down 20 percent from a peak o. $54.39 set June 25, 2002. Ryland shares, a $38.64, have fallen 34.3 percent from a their 52-week high of $58.87, set last May 6.

Despite the conclusions of Greenspan and evidently, the investment community, Ryland continues to be bullish on both the local and national housing fronts.

"Approximately a third of Ryland's homes are sold to first-time buyers," said company spokeswoman Pam Krebs.

She described January's new home sales as "positive," while declining to release specific figures. "That continues to be a growing segment."

Meanwhile, the stock of Calabasas-based mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp., whose $452 billion loan-servicing portfolio as of Dec. 31 represented a 37 percent increase from a year earlier, has fallen 6 percent since peaking at $55.82 on Feb. 3.

Countrywide's debt was placed on negative watch by Fitch Ratings Feb. 7, prompting a Feb. 20 response from Countrywide.

"The market environment remains vibrant and the competitive landscape remains very favorable," Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide's chairman and chief executive, said in the statement.

Greenspan stopped short of proclaiming a bubble, but noted that last year's 7 percent home price increase "cannot reasonably be expected to be maintained" while "some slowdown in the rate of mortgage debt expansion is to be expected."