Category Archives: Risky Lending

Lenders: “Wall St. told me to do it”

Posted on May 8, 2007 by grim

From the NY Times: A Cross-Country Blame Game Visitors to Ownit Mortgage Solutions’ offices here are met by an abandoned reception desk and three dying potted plants that appear to have gone months without water. How appropriate. Ownit filed for … Continue reading →

Posted in National Real Estate, Risky Lending | 31 Comments

Did unqualified buyers fuel the boom?

Posted on May 7, 2007 by grim

From the Associated Press: Tighter mortgage market shuns bad credit In the past, lenders didn’t want to give mortgages to people with below-average credit because it was risky, said Kathe Newman, a professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey who … Continue reading →

Posted in New Jersey Real Estate, Risky Lending | 191 Comments

“‘You cut my [expletive] deal!”

Posted on May 7, 2007 by grim

From the Washington Post: Pressure at Mortgage Firm Led To Mass Approval of Bad Loans Maggie Hardiman cringed as she heard the salesmen knocking the sides of desks with a baseball bat as they walked through her office. Bang! Bang! … Continue reading →

Posted in National Real Estate, Risky Lending | 3 Comments

NC law did little to curb predatory lending

Posted on May 7, 2007 by grim

From the Wall Street Journal: Predatory Lending: Hard to Tame North Carolina Has Mixed Results Protecting Subprime Borrowers By CHRISTOPHER CONKEY May 7, 2007; Page A5 eight-year-old North Carolina statute has become a model for federal lawmakers who want to … Continue reading →

Posted in National Real Estate, Risky Lending | 1 Comment

Don’t take the punchbowl away

Posted on May 6, 2007 by grim

From the Baltimore Sun: Failure to regulate non-bank lenders helped cause subprime mess Anyone looking to point a finger of blame for the meltdown in the subprime mortgage market may need more than two hands. It took the action, and … Continue reading →

Posted in National Real Estate, Risky Lending | 3 Comments

Move over subprime, FHA is back

Posted on May 4, 2007 by grim

From the Boston Globe: Panel: Expand FHA role in subprime lending US House panel voted to expand a federal agency’s powers to help low-income borrowers at risk of losing their homes as Congress pushes legislative fixes for the subprime mortgage … Continue reading →

Posted in National Real Estate, Risky Lending | 2 Comments

The (illegal) American Dream

Posted on May 3, 2007 by grim

From the Wall Street Journal: Big Banks’ Loan Push: Illegal Immigrants Mortgages Get Pitched To Underserved Market; Critics Find Some Risks By ROBIN SIDEL May 3, 2007; Page C1 The nation’s big banks, scrambling for customers, are pitching mortgages to … Continue reading →

Posted in National Real Estate, Risky Lending | 123 Comments

Paramus Alt-A lender shutters business units

Posted on May 1, 2007 by grim

From the Record: Paramus lender shuts subsidiaries, cuts jobs The Paramus-based lending and loan payment collecting arm of a real estate investment trust is trying to shake off a serious bout of the subprime contagion. Within the past two weeks, … Continue reading →

Posted in Risky Lending | 2 Comments

Agressive accounting or just plain fraud?

Posted on May 1, 2007 by grim

From the NY Times: Accounting Said to Hide Lender Losses In the spring of 1998, the chief financial officer of New Century Financial, a lender to home buyers with blemished credit, wrote an unusual paper describing a then little-known accounting … Continue reading →

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Little banks and billion dollar brokers

Posted on April 30, 2007 by grim

From the Philly Inquirer: Mortgage loans are going global If you get a home mortgage from Abington Community Bank in Jenkintown, chances are the money will come from deposits kept there by other residents of Philadelphia’s northern suburbs. The 140-year-old … Continue reading →

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Bet the house.. Lost the house..

Posted on April 30, 2007 by grim

From Newsday: Their homes hang in the balance Thomas and Joy Geist have lived in the same house in East Meadow for more than 50 years. Their home is the focal point of their family, the place where children and … Continue reading →

Posted in Risky Lending | 2 Comments

Welcome back prepayment penalties

Posted on April 29, 2007 by grim

Very interesting story out of the Asbury Park Press this morning: Prepayment of home loan can be costly As most of your know, loan pre-payment penalties are not allowed in New Jersey. These penalties, as the name implies, require that … Continue reading →

Posted in New Jersey Real Estate, Risky Lending | 1 Comment

Rags to riches and back

Posted on April 29, 2007 by grim

From the Staten Island Advance: Dream House to debt nightmare Helen Rice-Lyles was staying at a homeless shelter in Queens when she got a call from a broker who told her he could help her buy a house on Staten … Continue reading →

Posted in Housing Bubble, National Real Estate, Risky Lending | 2 Comments

Regulators demand foreclosure leniency

Posted on April 27, 2007 by grim

From Reuters: U.S. regulators have way to deal with subprime mess U.S. regulators who failed to restrain excessive lending in the subprime mortgage market may be able help defaulting borrowers from losing their homes by persuading banks to avoid rushing … Continue reading →

Posted in National Real Estate, Risky Lending | 2 Comments

The piggy bank is tapped out

Posted on April 26, 2007 by grim

From the Wall Street Journal: Home Equity Stalls As Housing Market Cools and Rates Rise, Owners Grow Wary Of Tapping Lines of Credit; How Banks Are Courting Borrowers By RUTH SIMON April 26, 2007; Page D1 After years of piling … Continue reading →

Posted in National Real Estate, Risky Lending | 182 Comments