but with single family homes still in short supply, diana olick spoke with the biggest builders at the home building conference in new york. >> reporter: the tone at the jpmorgan home building conference today was a cautious optimism. home builders are seeing increased demand from buyers but also increased costs of construction. >> this is a tough market condition. we've seen the market recover since the downturn but the recovery has been slow, steady and in a pretty tight band. >> reporter: lennar, one of the nation's largest public builders has hedged its best investing in multifamily apartment buildings and single family rental homes. it's not building entry-level homes even though that's where demand is highest. >> are you all missing a huge opportunity here? >> well, the first thing you say is that demand is the highest. it might be high demand but not enabled demand. we're still mortgage constrained. it's hard for first-time buyers to get the downpayment and to qualify for a mortgage. >> reporter: home construction is climbing out of the pit of construction but for single family

diana olick was there. >> reporter: the warm-up is under water. the heat comes when the tunnels turn techno. it's everything you'd expect from imax movies, only in this brooklyn theater, you don't sit back and enjoy the ride, you do it. >> imax is always looking for opportunities to take the brand, the technology, and frankly the focus on larger than life experiences to different places. >> reporter: it was an easy ride for the $1.7 billion movie "empire" to coast into fitness. >> fitness, you have a market of people migrating to more boutique, personally engaging experiences. we have opportunity to accelerate that trend. >> reporter: the cost is a competitive $34 a class, $350 for a month-long membership. >> it's pretty low, actually, for new york standards. >> reporter: they describe the class as totally awesome and extremely stimulating but they might not choose it as a regular workout. welsh sees it more as an entertainment destination. >> i think for me it's something that i would take friends or client something totally different than your r

but as diana olick reports, skeptics wonder just how many first time home buyers the program will really help. >> the new home loan from the nation's largest lender requires just 3% down payment for a conventional fixed rate loan funded by fannie mae. >> we're offering a simplified product that is less expensive and we think a far better way for someone to buy their first home. >> the down payments can come from a gift, perhaps from parents or community down payment assistance programs. borrowers do not have to complete a home buyer education course, but if they do, they can get their interest rate slightly reduced. borrowers must have a 620 fico score and need mortgage insurance. critics argue this is a return to a time when borrowers didn't have enough skin in the game. but wells fargo claims it is still low risk to the banks. >> with this product, we're being very clear that they have to have the ability to repay the mortgage, we have to make sure that they have a history of repaying debt, or at the very least responsible management of their finances. >> but there are a couple of hitc

diana olick has more on what's shing up to be a very strong spring market. >> reporter: there just aren't enough homes for sale. that's one reason builders are seeing big demand. falling nationwide and mes are especially in major cities. inventories dowble digits in seattle, atlanta, portland, lottdallas, and kansas city just to make a few. new listings are down as well as potential sellers are a ngbuy. n't be able to find >> we got in theou market because of the super-tight inventories creating demand and massive job growth. this is a great setup for a slow and sy recovery. >> reporter: slow but not so steady. sales of newly built homesumps nearly 17% in april after falling in the months before. but it's not just that headline turning s. it's the price. edian price of a newly buil home soared nearly 10% to $321,100. the highest reading on record. the last peak was in 2006. not only is demand pushing home prices higher, builders are basically absent from the starter home market because most of the action is on the pricier end, which in turn skews that median number higher. that was clear

not stupid. >> our diana olick. should they go public? to or want to, i think not. i think he's probably right about how the market would not be forgiving. this is the hot workout now, what have you got next. people get tired of it. totally the opposite of soul cycle. >> would you get in the soul cycle ipo? >> no. >> because you've never done the workout? >> i'm always suspicious of any of these hot companies. all your -- you know, the next thing you'll be trying to do is sell me more go pro cameras. >> there are classes now, trampoli trampolining -- >> throwing boxes around the back yarld and you don't need any of this stuff. >> i want to stay away from the beach body stuff. when you get middle age, the beach body theme you want to steer away from. >> do you have something to watch next week? >> the jobs number. >> and the bond market. i think it's going to be what happened overseas in the bond market. >> guys, thank you so much for joining us. that does it for "closing bell." "fast money" begins right now. >>> "fast money" does start ri

diana olick is in washington with more. good morning, diana. >> good morning, simon.and if you can press a button, you can do it anywhere, because there are literally hundreds of demands of fitness offerings, and some for free and some for a fee, and all part of a big new business that is raking in the bucks. >> reporter: at the santa monica, california, he headquarters, the company that brought fitness to your home for a subscription fee of around $13 a month, they say it is 68% of the users who want both dvds and on-demand. >> instead of cannibalizing it, it is enhancing it. >> reporter: but the money is fueling competition. brick and mortar gym chain crunch which has 150 locations in the u.s. now launched on demand classes two years ago, and the service is free to most gym members or $9.99 a month on its own. >> it is a powerful brand, and we felt that adding the online digital experience helped to extend the brand outside of the four walls of the gym. >> and now i have to say that i have been a dvd girl for a long time, but i just got the roku and the on demand st

. >> ahead of that existing home sales right now with diana olick. rl, existing home sales in april up 1.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.45 million units. that's slightly better than expected. street was looking for just 5.4 solid. sales up 6% year over year, march revised up slightly. the most interesting part in this report was really the regional differences. we saw sales in the midwest up 12.1%, sales in the west down 1.7%. what's up there? prices. plain and simple. the midwest is the most affordable region of the country, the median price there for a home $215,000. compare that to the west where the median price is $365,000. median price nationally 232,500, that's up 6.3% year over year and realtors saying home price gains are reaccelerating. and this is due to a housing shortage, inventory 2.41 million homes for sale that is up 9% month-to-month. we usually see that increase in the spring. it is down, however, year over year down 3.6%. the problem is we're not seeing a lot of sellers put their homes on the market, not a lot of new l

diana olick has more on this innovation. diana? >> and why do we care about millennial s and their mortgage, kelly? >> because they have peak ed. now after more than a decade of growing urban concentration, the millennial trend of downtown living is in decline. granted many of these millennials who are living cities will not be able to buy a home, so they'll be able to rent in the suburbs. there's still a great debate about whether lending is too tight or too hard for young buyers to save if a down payment. i will not argue that here but i will show you findings from the new millennium mortgage tracker from elliemae. 30% were government insured fha loans. women were listed as the primary borrower on 31% of those loans. the fico score was 724 and the average age was 30. men were listed as the primary borrower on 66% of closed loans. they had an average fico score of a higher 727, average age, 29. in context fhl is only 22% of the general loan population, so young people are using that low down payment option which also allow for sli

. >> diana olick, thank you very much. we have breaking news.> sources investigating the hack attack in bangladesh confirm the investigation is now focused on as many as a dozen banks around the world. the source telling me that the focus of this investigation is on banks in asia, but the source would not say whether these were necessarily other central banks in countries in asia or whether these were private banks in asia, but the news here is that the investigation into that hack attack now focusing on up to a dozen banks. so that's a big expansion what we knew so far, guys. >> eamon, thank you very much for that. >> oil prices continue to climb. investors waying the possibility of that would be june hike. for more on where investors should be focusing their attention, we turn to tom purcelly and eric. let's take the short turn to start, eric. a good week. big, round numbers. is it time for a breather? >> look, i think the market is going to trade in the united states range bound for a while. the big issue for us on the year is going to be ear

our own diana olick has more in d.c. on that. hey, diana. >> hey, simon. u.s.the best driver of growth is to expand internationally. the u.s. topped all other countries in opening retail brick and mortar stores overseas last year, according to cbre. all right, so where are they headed? no shock the top cities are in asia. the list starts with hong kong, then singapore, tokyo and taipei. after that moscow, london, dubai, beijing, bucharest and doha. now, which stores are most popular? well, blue jeans, believe it or not. u.s. retailers though are taking homeware brands overseas which is traditionally more difficult because the stores are larger and they're catering of course to different cultures. still zara home and creighton barrel have had some successes. as far as foreign brands moving stores here, it's a lot more difficult for them because the u.s. market is more competitive. it's very mature and real estate prices for stores here are very high. now, globally food and beverage sellers led the categories of foreign retailers entering cities, specifically cof

now to the blowout home sales number and diana olick live in washington with the pretty big numbers. diana? >> reporter: huge numbers and a big jump in newly built homes up 6.6% for a month to a seasonally adjusted rate to 16,000 units. talk about a beat. sales up 24% from a year ago the highest pace since january of '08 but not just that headline turning heads. the median price of a newly built home sort up 9.7% year over year to the highest reading on record. the last peak was in 2006, and that's a median which means half sold at a higher price and half lower so it may speak more to the shift in buyers, that is, more high-end buyers in the market, especially since builders are basically absent from the starter home market. now you saw that in the big beat by toll brothers today raising expectations for 2016 sales and seeing its already luxury median price head north. the average price in q2 for homes delivered $855,000, up from $17,500 according to the company release. clearly builders are benefiting from the lack of existing homes for sale from near record low mortgage rates and fr

diana olick is live in washington. >> from millennials getting mortgages, who has the higher fica scoreor women? i'll tell you coming up. who are you? i'm vern, the orange money retirement rabbit from voya. vern from voya? yep, vern from voya. why are you orange? that's a little weird. really? that's the weird part in this scenario? look, orange money represents the money you put away for retirement. save a little here and there, and over time, your money could multiply. see? ah, ok. so, why are you orange? funny. see how voya can help you get organized at voya.com. >>> welcome back to "power lunch," everybody. welcome back, michelle. home prices continue to rise, millennials continue to have difficulty moving from renting to owning. now new data out showing how first time home buyers are making the leap. >> diana oh, lick joins us with more. >> michelle, first here's a news flash. the urban millennial peaked that according to a new study from researcher at usc. after more than a decade of growing urban concentration, the millennial trend of downtown living is now beginning a decline. g

ceos of the nation's top home builders are meeting to discuss that and more and diana olick is in newith the ceo of lennar in a "power lunch" exclusive. hi, di. >> hi, ty and we're going to you from the jpmorgan annual home builder conference. we did get housing starts out showing improvements in single-family starts but nowhere near the production levels normal historical demand. let's talk about that with the ceo of miami-based lennar stuart miller. thanks for being here. the question everybody is asking. why are you not building more homes? >> this is a tough market condition? we've seen the market recover since the downturn but the recovery has been slow, steady and in a pretty tight band. the reality is that demand was constrained coming out of the downturn but mortgage availability. it was very hard for people to come up with down payments. more restrictive lending requirements. really limited the number of people that could purchase a home and in particular the first-time buyer was really constrained in their ability to participate. >> but that's what i want to get at is that f

let's head west and see what diana olick has to say about today's strong new home sales. >> reporter: said weird. i'm going to say way weird. i mean, this is up nearly 17%, as you said, but i'm looking at prices too. you had a median home price of $321,100, that is substantially higher than we saw in april of 2015 where we were up around, you know, $280,000. no, we are seeing supply drop to a 4.7-month supply. we were at a 5.8-month supply just one month ago. so you're seeing supply drop. you're seeing prices go significantly higher. this may be a measure of people buying more expensive homes. we saw that in the toll brothers numbers today. they beat on their earnings for q-2 and their median price was significantly higher. so we're seeing the numbers skew toward the more expensive homes. and you're seeing that in this median price on new home sales. the street was looking for 524,000. 619,000, now, a lot of folks are going to say, okay, these numbers have very wide margins of errors, but still that's very significant. and we want to also note that these new home sales numbers are bas

diana olick joins us with that story. >> melissa, this one is really hitting a nerve.dreds of comments on our piece on cnbc.com. wells fargo is calling it your first mortgage. 3% down payment and wells says less complicated than other 3% products which have been unpopular until now. it's a conventional fixed rate loan. so $417,000 or less, backed by fannie mae. gifts are fine. mom and dad can make the down payment for you or use a community down payment assistance program. you don't have to complete a buyer education course but if you do, you can earn a .8% interest rate deduction. now minimum fico is 620. you do need mortgage insurance. roll that into the race which is likely going to be a little higher on the average 30 year fix. they're estimating about 4.a%. still though, not a the love skin in the game on this loan. wells claims it's low risk to the bank. >> with this product, it's very clear they have to have the ability to repay the mortgage. we have to make sure that they have a history of repaying debt. or at the very least responsible management of the financ

. >> diana olick tweeted out a few minutes ago, the average home price, not the super bubble mansion,s higher than 2006. >> the average home price in the united states is. >> always fun. >> those prices may be higher but stocks are fading after a very solid start. the dow and s&p losing their gains and the nasdaq trying to hold on, higher by more than three points. a gain today would be its fifth straight. that's the first time that's happened since mid-march. boeing and disney are the biggest drags on the dow shaving off about 25 points between the two of them. china's shanghai and shenzhen indexes rallying 3% overnight. no economic news. instead, the rally appears to be tied to the very political battle over whether china's two main lapd stock indexes should be included in some. world's biggest exchanges. bob pisani joins us on the nyse floor with more on this. bob? >> hello, michelle. the worm's largest index will announce whether they will assume stocks from china's indexes there. he's no stocks from mainland chicago, and china's mainland stock markets are the second largest marke

let's get to diana olick on home builder sentiment. >> home builder confidence unchanged in may for thee national association of home builders monthly sentiment survey is stuck at 58 -- is stuck at 58. this is the line between positive and negative sentiment. the index stood at 54 one year ago but is down from recent high of 65 last october. the builders cite increased regulations and short supply of finished lots as reasons for stagnant sentiment numbers. confidence usually rises during the busy spring buying season. if the index is three components, both current sales conditions and buyer traffic didn't move holding at 63 and 44 respectively. buyer traffic still can't fight its way out of negative territory. sales expectations over the next six months did rise three points to 65, indicating that builders expect their market to improve. the lowest mortgage rates in three years are factoring into that number. regionally on a three-month running average the south and midwest both saw 1-point gains to 59 and 58 respectively. the west was unchanged at 57. and the northeast fell three point

steve liesman and diana olick join is us now to break down the numbers and a distinction between aprilhe numbers yearover yea year-over-year. there's been concern out there about overheating in the multifamily apartment market. you know, we're still well below historical averages. i will point that out. we're selling new homes at two-thirds the rate we should. talk to the home builders. why rm you putting up more homes? the answer is we've got higher costs for regulation. we have higher costs for land, labor, everything. and they're also focusing on the high end of the market right now. what we really need is the starter homes. steve, i know you've been talking a lot about health in the housing market but we're not seeing it really on that low end entry level starter home which we so desperately need right now. because inventory is so low. we want to see the builders put up more lower priced homes. >> when i look back at the way housing has played havoc with the u.s. economy, when i go back to the savings and loan crisis, go to the financial crisis of this country, i don't know what th

diane no olick has more. diana? >> new york is throwing out a three-year ruling and its big fine saying there was not enough proof under federal fraud statutes to hold countrywide financial liable for mail and wire fraud. countrywide, of course, was taken over by bank of america in 2008. now this case dates back to mortgages made in 2007 and 2008, thousands of defective mortgages issued by countrywide financial. the justice department had claimed fraud in the department's so-called hustle mortgage program which stood for high speed swim lane. they claim countrywide lied about the loans which had been sold to fannie mae and freddie mac. it won in 2013 and a $1.27 billion fine. the appeals court says while the loans were faulty, there was no proof that countrywide intended to defraud the government. it could, therefore, not be held liable -- it could be held liable for breach of contract but not for fraud. no comment from the u.s. attorney's office in manhattan today. bank of america though said in a statement that it