Replying to:

Posted by Gray on 08/17/07 at 07:05 AM

Somewhat OT, but an interesting tidbit in a story about the run on Countrywide Bank:

““It’s because of the fear of the bankruptcy,” Ashmore, president of Irvine’s Impac Mortgage Holdings, which escaped bankruptcy itself recently by shutting down virtually all its lending and laying off hundreds of employees told the paper. “It’s got my wife totally freaked out. I just don’t want to deal with it. I don’t care about losing 90 days’ interest, I don’t care if it’s FDIC-insured—I just want it out.”“
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Across_country_red_flags_could_signal_0817.html

Yeah, nice folks, those realtors. They were the last to see that there’s a huge problem on their market, but the first to rescue their money from the consequences of the crash…
——-

Posted by Darin on 08/17/07 at 07:13 AM

Our wedding song, love it.

Is there some way to tag/mark the ones that definitely need an update.  If so, I’d mark this one as a ‘first-mover’ REO worth the update.

Posted by Iblis on 08/17/07 at 07:31 AM

We need a schadenfreude button to click on.

Posted by Live And Work In Irvine on 08/17/07 at 08:02 AM

I’ve got to admit, I gasped when I saw that in the LA Times this morning.

Shame on everyone involved in this debacle :-(

Posted by No_Such_Reality on 08/17/07 at 08:07 AM

Is there anyway to check what the actual auction price was?  My understand was the opening bank bid is the outstanding loan balance plus accrued interest, charges, fees from the foreclosure and past due payments.

Is that correct?

Posted by Herbie on 08/17/07 at 08:09 AM

I wonder if there was an ulterior motive for the president of Impac to publicly announce he was withdrawing his cash from Countrywide Bank. 

Speaking of which, what public company is going to hire a panickey executive that withdraws FDIC insured cash because his wife freaks out on him?

Posted by Smithers on 08/17/07 at 08:16 AM

Shouldn’t the acking price be based on what will attract offers from qualified buyers in today’s market?  The seller’s costs have no bearing whatsoever on what the asking price should be.  Unless this listing prices is attractive to potential (qualified) buyers (I have no idea), they are just wasting their time.

Posted by Sue on 08/17/07 at 08:45 AM

Credit crunch imperils lender
Worries grow about Countrywide’s ability to borrow—and even a possible bankruptcy.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/la-fi-country16aug16,1,4356409.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Countrywide—which made 1 of every 6 home loans in the U.S. in the first half of this year
...
However, the turmoil could spook depositors at Countrywide Bank, an Alexandria, Va.-based savings and loan that has grown dramatically since Countrywide Financial bought it in 2000. Nearly 40% of the bank’s $57.7 billion in deposits were not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as of March 31, according to the FDIC website.

“If something happens to the parent company, the bank should be able to stand alone,” said FDIC spokesman David Barr, who advised worried depositors to talk to the bank about structuring their accounts so they are completely insured. The FDIC insures individual accounts up to $100,000, but a married couple can insure up to $1 million in deposits at a single institution by setting up multiple accounts, Barr said.

Posted by Sue on 08/17/07 at 09:05 AM

Bernanke’s Rate Cut Restores Volcker Tradition

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB118736821516201080.html?mod=b_hpp_9_0002_b_online_exclusives_weekday_r1

Posted by Herbie on 08/17/07 at 09:29 AM

Maybe blogger can give robot Sue her own separate page for posting links to news articles.

Posted by Trooper on 08/17/07 at 09:32 AM

I appreciate her links.

Posted by graphrix on 08/17/07 at 10:10 AM

I appreciate her links as well. I also appreciate that she posts under one name only.

Posted by Trooper on 08/17/07 at 10:37 AM

yes…Herbie and S…one in the same ?

Posted by awgee on 08/17/07 at 11:07 AM

Thanks for the links Sue

Posted by Major Schadenfreude on 08/17/07 at 11:42 AM

I enjoy Sue’s links too.

Please keep it up Sue!

Posted by Sue on 08/17/07 at 11:48 AM

Thanks!  You’re welcome.

You’re right, I should put all the links and sort them somewhere.

I got myself a domain name, but it’ll take awhile to get everything all set up.  In the meantime, I’ll just keep putting the links here as always.

Posted by EvaLSeraphim on 08/17/07 at 11:53 AM

Good article.  Thank you very much!

Posted by ashbobash on 08/17/07 at 12:13 PM

I like your links too, Sue.

Posted by jaye on 08/17/07 at 12:29 PM

Yep, no fancy dancy talking about the great attributes of why anyone would want to purchase that house.  The taxes alone would be $7,637 a year or $636 a month.  After owning a few homes in my lifetime, I realize now that it’s just a box to eat, sleep, and poop in and costly to maintain. Someday when this fiasco is on its way to recovery, I plan to sell and live in a nice apartment.

Sue I enjoy your links and news!

Posted by Sue on 08/17/07 at 12:46 PM

I keep running into the “recession” and occasionally “depression words on various posts and blogs (ex. http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/roubini/211152), so got curious to know more about more about monitary history and the Great Depression and esp. Bernake’s views of how/why it happened (as clues to what he believes and might try in the future), found these links:

Journalists view of it:
Bernanke Sees Lesson in the Depression: Caroline Baum (Update1)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=aoc.fZ2oSoyE&refer=home


In Bernake’s own words:
Remarks by Governor Ben S. Bernanke, March 2, 2004
Money, Gold, and the Great Depression
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2004/200403022/default.htm

Posted by graphrix on 08/17/07 at 01:02 PM

No Sue has always been Sue.

Posted by n cty on 08/17/07 at 02:43 PM

Nice yard with everyone staring at you from the neighbors windows.  Might as well be a condo.

Posted by Tyrone on 08/17/07 at 04:19 PM

Few more jobs lost in Irvine…
http://tinyurl.com/2wkopf

Bear Stearns Cuts Mortgage Jobs as Share Advance Signals Rescue:
Encore Credit, a Bear Stearns subsidiary in Irvine, California, will eliminate 100 positions, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Bear Stearns Residential Mortgage Corp., based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is reducing its workforce by 140, according to the person, who declined to be named because the number of jobs isn’t being made public.

Posted by Trooper on 08/17/07 at 04:36 PM

no, I meant the two that have mentioned her posts in a not so nice way, were Herbie and “S”.

Posted by Trooper on 08/17/07 at 04:36 PM

no, I meant the two that have mentioned her posts in a not so nice way, were Herbie and “S”...they sound like they are the same person posting under 2 different monikers.

Posted by Sue on 08/17/07 at 05:08 PM

Today’s editorial: No government cure for housing pain
An overheated market is self-correcting; no bailouts or further regulations are needed.

http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/home-loans-buyers-1810407-subprime-mortgage

Mortgage companies are hanging tough, according to recent reports, and not lowering the sale prices on the rising number of foreclosures. These companies fear that sudden price drops will decrease overall home values and will lead to more upside-down buyers and even more foreclosures. But analysts predict that by fall mortgage companies will need to drop prices to unload their inventory. According to DataQuick, July marked the 22{+n}{+d} consecutive month that Orange County buyers bought fewer homes than in the same month a year earlier. Home purchases were 43.5 percent below the 20-year average, according to the Register. As CNN reported, “Builders’ confidence in the new-home market fell to a 16-year low, according to a trade group survey conducted this month, which reports buyers’ problems finding financing spreading beyond the subprime sector.”

Posted by Sue on 08/17/07 at 10:08 PM

Fannie Mae Predicts Price Decline Will Accelerate in ‘08
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/16/AR2007081602393.html

As of June, Fannie Mae owned or guaranteed more than 38 percent of the non-jumbo mortgages outstanding in the United States, up from about 25 percent at the end of 2006, the company said.
...
The company could withstand “the direst of scenarios”—two years of 10 percent declines in home prices coupled with two years of 2 percent increases in interest rates—with “very little loss in cash flow,” Dallavecchia told analysts.
...
The company said its reserves for losses from mortgage delinquencies and related problems as of Dec. 31 totaled $859 million, or three hundredths of a percent of its book of businesses. On a percentage basis, that was unchanged since 2003.

Posted by Trooper on 08/18/07 at 09:29 AM

“The company said its reserves for losses from mortgage delinquencies and related problems as of Dec. 31 totaled $859 million, or three hundredths of a percent of its book of businesses”.

Now that’s a sobering statistic…..I feel better already.

Posted by Sue on 08/18/07 at 10:34 AM

Countrywide Bank works to reassure clients

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-countrywide18aug18,1,5507529.story?coll=la-headlines-business

Posted by Live And Work In Irvine on 08/19/07 at 08:44 AM

This guy was quoted in Barron’s yesterday, with no mention of the pressure from his wife.

Posted by Sue on 08/20/07 at 01:52 PM

Flight to safety hits Treasury bill yields
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/699699f4-4f21-11dc-b485-0000779fd2ac.html

Separately, people close to the situation said Deutsche Bank had taken advantage of new terms offered by the Fed on Friday by borrowing at the “discount window”. Tony Crescenzi, strategist at Miller Tabak said: ”Either the Fed must again cut the discount rate and make it equal to the 5.25 per cent Fed Funds rate, or it must cut the Fed Funds rate, if liquidity is to increase enough to begin absorbing debt securities currently being shunned by large amounts of investors.”

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