I don’t know if Angelo Mozilo knows the difference between a curve ball and a split-finger, but given that his 40-year reign as the head of Countrywide Financial is coming to an end, it seems appropriate to reflect on his career as well as his legacy.
While the Mortgage Banker’s Association doesn’t have a Hall of Fame for lenders, two years ago, Mozilo would have been a shoe-in as a first-round inductee if such a distinction existed.
The nation's housing crisis appears to be moving towards another high note -- or low note, more accurately -- as federal and state authorities move to put legislation into effect that promises to change how lenders and servicers both make and manage loans.
The Federal Reserve isn't the only financial entity in a holding pattern, as mortgage rates sat tight for the most part this week amid speculation over the role inflation will play in coming month.
According to Freddie Mac's ($0.00 0%) weekly primary mortgage market survey, released Thursday morning, average rates on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage were at 6.45 percent with an average 0.6 point for the week ending June 26, 2008. That's up slighly from one week earlier, when rates averaged 6.42 percent, and the highest since late August of last year.
Shares in Citigroup Inc. ($51.45 0.84%) fell sharply Thursday after Goldman Sachs Group ($158.18 3.71%) analyst William Tanoma singled the firm out for more mortgage-led losses in its upcoming Q2 earnings report, saying that the firm could take writedowns of as much as $8.9 billion in the quarter.
Sales of existing homes increased in May, beating analyst expectations, as an increasing volume of distressed real estate sales -- including REO and borrower short-sales -- helped resales edge up 2 percent to a 4.99 million annual rate, according to statistics released Thursday morning by the National Association of Realtors. The May estimate is still 15.9 percent off from last year's pace, however, the group said in a press statement.
Our very own Richard Bitner -- managing director here at HW Publishing, and now, a burgeoning author, too -- saw his memoir, Confessions of a Subprime Lender, get some big-time ink today over at the Wall Street Journal.
A lone Senator apparently now stands between a $300 billion expansion of the Federal Housing Administration's mortgage insurance program, and a growing number of Republican and Democratic Senators who want to push their version of a housing relief package through the Senate floor as fast as possible.
It's an issue that's critical for mortgage market participants -- which direction the economy heads in the remainder of 2008. On Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee held its target for the federal funds rate at 2 percent, noting that while risks to economic growth remain, inflation is looming as a potentially more difficult challenge.
The traditional spring selling boost that home builders were counting on to prop up sagging demand never materialized, likely signaling further pain ahead in the U.S housing market in the months to come. The Commerce Dept. reported Wednesday that new home purchase activity fell to a 512,000 annualized pace during May, off 2.5 percent from a revised 525,000 rate in April; the monthly sales number was the worst May sales total since 1991, when the U.S.
As shareholders gathered in Calabasas, Calif. on Wednesday for a key vote over Bank of America's proposed takeover of Countrywide Financial Corp. ($0.00 0%) -- eventually approving the merger by a wide margin -- two state Attorneys General said they had sued Countrywide over alleged unfair and deceptive conduct. California AG Edmund Brown and Illinois AG Lisa Madigan became the latest to pile on legal liabilities to the nation's largest lender and servicer, with separate lawsuits filed just ahead of the key shareholder vote.
