When Countrywide Financial Corp. announced last week that it plans to hire not fire 2,000 employees and open not close 100 retail locations across the country, it made some in the industry wonder if the nation’s largest home mortgage lender sees an end to the sour housing market.

“I don’t know if it means everything will be just great from now on, but it means something something good,” said Delores Conway, director of the Casden Forecast at the University of Southern California’s Lusk Center for Real Estate.

For its part, Countrywide isn’t calling a bottom to the housing market. However, it is indicating that it thinks it’s near.

“We see it as an opportunity to seize market share,” said Countrywide spokesman Rick Simon. “The market is at a low point now, but it will rebound. It always has. And when it does, we’ll be in a better position than we were before the slump began.”

The announcement was surprising partly because it came less than six months after the Calabasas company chopped more than 3,000 jobs, mainly in its subprime lending sector, and less than a month after it reported its fourth-straight quarter of declining profits. Less than a month ago, Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo even described the nation’s real estate market as “turbulent.”

Countrywide’s latest lending numbers bolstered the company. Total mortgage loan funding grew 5 percent to $43 billion in March while average daily mortgage loan activity jumped 17 percent to $3.1 billion.

“By looking at Countrywide’s numbers, it’s apparent that the subprime lending shakedown didn’t spread to the general lending sector or the commercial side like many feared it would,” Conway added. “People are still buying houses and lenders will still do everything they can to help them do that and Countrywide’s move confirms that.”

Indeed, Countrywide’s move is partly in response to the subprime shakeout, in which many lenders that extended loans on generous terms to less-than prime borrowers are being hurt.

Simon explained that because two dozen or so subprime lenders have shut their doors or have filed for bankruptcy, a trove of employee talent has been left adrift and the lender wanted to pick them up now.

“Most of the new hires will be commission-based sales positions, meaning there is little capital expense for Countrywide to hire them,” he said. “They take a job, bring their relationships and customers into the Countrywide family and pick up right where they left off. The payoff is huge while the risk and expense is very minimal. Whatever business they bring in will be gravy.”

Simon also said that some of the hires would be filtered to the company’s budding auto insurance business.

“We do much more than write mortgages,” Simon said.

“It’s basically a case of the rich getting richer,” said Mark Morgan, an analyst with Rockdale Securities. “They’ve been saying the market will rebound and things will get better and this is them putting their money where their mouth is by adding staff and expanding business.”

The other side

Certainly not everyone is sanguine about the prospects for the housing and mortgage industry.

“Seeing Countrywide make a move to expand and automatically assuming the real estate slide is over is irresponsible,” said Kerry Vandell, a finance professor and head of the Real Estate department at the business school at the University of California Irvine.

“Even Countrywide’s riskier subprime loans were on the higher end because of their superior lending practices,” he said. “So they were sitting in a great position to begin with while a lot of lenders out there can’t say the same thing. There is still a long way to go before we’re out of this slump.”

Vandell estimates that the slump will continue for at least a year. However, he did say that the move by Countrywide is a sign that the slump might have hit its bottom.

“Now, how long will we bump along the bottom? We’ll have to wait and see.

“We also have to keep in mind there are other factors involved in this recovery unrelated to the real estate market,” Vandell continued. “Like the economy and interest rates. If those stay strong and low, respectively, it will only help the recovery. If the economy begins to tank and rates begin to rise, it’s a whole different ballgame.”