Investors took a new look at housing-related stocks in January and seemingly liked some of what they saw, especially after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates twice near the end of the month. Half of the 10 real estate companies that comprise the hypothetical Inman Index posted healthy stock-price increases in January while the other half suffered further drops in their already-battered valuations.

Solidly in the plus column were mortgage lender IndyMac, title insurers First American Financial and Fidelity National Financial, and home builders D.R. Horton and Toll Bros. In the negative column were mortgage broker Countrywide Financial, secondary market giant Freddie Mac, Realtor.com operator Move Inc., lead generator HouseValues and realty brokerage ZipRealty.

The biggest winner of the month was IndyMac. Investors pushed up the company’s shares to an $8.17 closing price Jan. 31 from a $6.08 opening price Jan. 2, a one-month gain of more than 34 percent. Shares hit a low of $4.01 Jan. 22, a week after the company announced a staff cut of 2,403 jobs, or 24 percent, of the workforce. Look for fourth-quarter earnings Feb. 12.

Fidelity and FirstAm also notched impressive gains in January. Fidelity was up almost 34 percent to $19.42 from $14.53, while FirstAm rose more than 28 percent to $43.58 from $33.92.

Fidelity reported a fourth-quarter 2007 net loss of almost $45 million, or 21 cents per share, compared with net income of more than $71 million, or 34 cents per share, in the prior-year fourth quarter. The recent loss included a boost of almost $136 million in the company’s claims-payment reserves.

FirstAm announced a plan to spin off its title and specialty insurance businesses into a separate public company. The existing company will own the mortgage and property information, risk-assessment, and financial data and analytics businesses. FirstAm also said it will buy back an additional $300 million of its own stock on top of a prior repurchase authorization of $500 million, of which $60 million has yet to be executed.

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