Irvine Housing Blog

Fannie Mae will seek $15.3 billion in U.S. aid, bringing the total owed under a government lifeline to $76.2 billion, after its 10th consecutive quarterly loss.

For the full year, Fannie Mae’s loss widened to $74.4 billion from $59.8 billion in 2008.

After the next government payout, Fannie Mae’s borrowings will carry an annual dividend cost of $7.6 billion, which the company said it will repay by borrowing

more money from the Treasury.

The company said the ability to tap continuing cash infusions from the Treasury this year “is critical to keeping us solvent and avoiding the appointment of a receiver.”

The Treasury on Christmas Eve removed a $200 billion aid limit on each company, extending unlimited backing through 2012.

The two companies own or guarantee more than $5 trillion in U.S. residential debt, and were responsible for as much as 75 percent of the new mortgages made last year.

Fannie Mae’s net worth, or the difference between assets and liabilities, was negative $15.3 billion as of Dec. 31, compared with negative $15 billion on Sept. 30 and negative $10.6 billion on June 30, according to company statements.

For the fourth quarter, Fannie Mae decreased reserves for future credit losses to $64.9 billion from $65.9 billion in the previous quarter.

The amount of nonperforming loans that Fannie Mae guarantees for other investors rose to $174.6 billion from $163.9 billion in the third quarter, according to the filing.

American International Group Inc. posted a wider-than-expected loss after setting aside more reserves for insurance claims and paying down bailout debts.

“While we are not out of the woods by any stretch, these numbers represent a substantial improvement from just one year ago,” Benmosche said today in a recorded message on AIG’s Web site. “We believe we are on our way to regaining our stature as one of the world’s largest and most successful property-casualty insurance operations.”

Fitch Ratings said today that it may downgrade AIG’s property-casualty businesses because the $1.8 billion charge raised “concerns about AIG’s reserve adequacy and underlying profitability, primarily on long-duration casualty business lines.”

Competitors including Chubb Corp. and Liberty Mutual Group Inc. have said that AIG, in an effort to keep customers, is slashing its prices to levels that may be inadequate to cover claims.

AIG’s Financial Products unit, the derivatives trading business that pushed its parent company to the brink of collapse in 2008 with bets on subprime mortgages, reported $80 million in fourth-quarter operating profit

AIG’s so-called partnership investments, which include private-equity and hedge-fund holdings, posted their second straight quarterly gain

Believe me… the folks in Culverdale would have liked to have kept that name. Thank the Irvine Co for the name change. 

There is lots of prestige in Culverdale. Come to think of it, Will Ferrell lived in Park West and got is early education at Culverdale Elementary. Can’t be all that bad.

BTW, that home has a very large back yard. And the neighbor is fully cool. He’s renovated about 3-4 late 50 Chevys (you can see one car parked on the street but covered). And he organized the last few 4th of July gatherings there… with his cars leading the parade. Great family.

Westpark II actually starts right around Barranca and goes up to Irvine Center Drive or so.

It has to be a bitch to pull onto Culver from this neighborhood…when I’d drive down Culver in the a.m. to the freeway I’d see a line of cars trying to get out.  Back in the day it probably wasn’t so bad, but now there’s so much traffic in Irvine that exit has probably gotten worse.

Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?
Hooking up words and phrases and clauses.
Conjunction Junction, how’s that function?
I got three favorite cars
That get most of my job done.
Conjunction Junction, what’s their function?
I got “and”, “but”, and “or”,
They’ll get you pretty far.

It’s a 57 Chevy.