PIMCO’s well-known manager Bill Gross said in a letter to clients that President Bush needs to “write some checks” and bail out troubled homeowners. (Here’s the full letter, for those that are interested.) From Bloomberg: Bill Gross, manager of the world’s biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., urged the Bush administration, rather than the Federal [...]

Another day, more news on Countrywide. Fitch Ratings said this morning that it is revising its rating on Countrywide Financial Corp., reflecting the now-approved $2 billion investment in the lender by Bank of America. Fitch said it is moving to rating watch “evolving” from an earlier “negative” watch. From the press statement: The Rating Watch Evolving reflects the [...]

A new report issued by McDash Analytics shows that July delinquencies across all mortgage categories climbed by 30.2 percent versus year-ago levels — and with the exception of VA loans, every major loan category is now showing an increase in delinquency activity relative to year-ago levels. Here’s the full report, which is offered for free this [...]

A whole lot of Countrywide discussion today. There is some very interesting commentary from the folks over at Calculated Risk tonight, who speculate that the $2 billion invested in Countrywide by Bank of America might potentially be in the form of a so-called floorless convertible bond, also known as a death spiral bond. (For a quick [...]

It looks like Tanta at CR is on this story as well, but after my earlier post on loan modifications today, I felt compelled to highlight some pretty bad journalism from Gretchen Morgenson over at the New York Times. The story (”Assurances on Buybacks May Cost a Lender“) essentially makes the wholly erroneous claim that Countrywide [...]

(August 23, 2007) — Market Kinetix, LLC, has announced that Carteret Mortgage will be offering Market Kinetix’s patent-pending credit analysis software solution Deal Maker Score to its 300 nationwide branch locations.

(August 23, 2007) — The Houston based law firm of Hughes Watters Askanase, L.L.P. was recognized by Fidelity National Foreclosure Solutions for its high attorney performance rating.

The Office of Thrift Supervision said earlier in the week that thrift-based mortgage banking activity has continued to grow, with total mortgage origination volume reaching $194.6 billion, up 14 percent from $171.1 billion in the year-ago period and up 15 percent from $169.2 billion in the prior quarter. Reflecting this growth, thrifts originated 23.7 percent [...]

Freddie Mac released its monthly volume summary today (available here), which showed continued growth in the GSE’s retained portfolio. Reuters reports: Freddie Mac said on Thursday its huge mortgage holdings rose at the fastest pace in 16 months in July as the company took advantage of a faltering housing market to scoop up cheaper mortgage-backed bonds [...]

Freddie Mac’s market rate survey is out today, and it shows that 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.52 percent with an average of 0.4 point for the week ending August 23, 2007, down from last week when it averaged 6.62 percent. One year ago, the 30-year fixed rate averaged 6.48 percent, the GSE reported. Other rate information: The [...]