From the Arizona Mortgage Guru mailbag:
Question: Well, we just received a notice that IndyMac, who we have a second mortgage with, closed it’s doors. They kindly sent us a notice that they are working with Wells Fargo to offer help refinancing our loan. My concern is this, if we have to go through a “regular” [...]

From the WSJ this morning “FDIC Faces Mortgage Mess After Running Failed Bank“:

It turns out that the U.S. government itself was one of the lenders giving out high-interest, subprime mortgages, some of them predatory, according to government documents filed in federal court.

Reminds me of Lisa Simpson’s line in “Homer the Vigilante“, when Homer sets up [...]

With stocks down 98% from a year ago, rising loan delinquencies and very little liquidity, Indymac, one of the nations top 10 mortgage lenders is done! It’s closing its wholesale and retail operations as well as halting any new locks. At one time IndyMac was a major player in the “Alt-A” market (loans with risk [...]

A few weeks ago I started a weekly series on the mortgage market attempting to cover important elements from news items to blog posts. Regular readers know I slacked off on this promise after week one. However, I must say I did have good intentions. Inertia is the main issue here and converting [...]

I want to make clear to everyone that I don’t agree with everything in this video. Not everyone who took at a sub-prime loan was like Bob (as shown in the video). However, the video does make a point and demonstrates that while the greater focus is on helping those in distress, those who do [...]

Former executives at New Century, which went bankrupt early last year, should be sued and so should it’s auditor KPMG. That is what a bankruptcy investigator is recommending. New Century as you may recall was the No. 2 sub-prime lender before it went down in flames in the Spring of 2007. An excerpt from [...]

Bank of America is buying Countrywide. I guess we should have seen this coming considering how Bank of America had been posting “bail” for Countrywide for quite a few months. From MarketWatch:
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Bank of America Corp. said Friday it’s purchasing Countrywide Financial Corp. for $4 billion, effectively doubling down on a [...]

In the coming months you will hear a lot about “declining markets”. This is because both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac along with all major mortgage insurance providers have introduced strict rules regarding such markets.
Staring January 15, all loans going to Fannie Mae will be subject to the decling markets guideline:
“Current home price trends indicate [...]

Countrywide seems to be in trouble and the market smells blood. According to The Street:
Countrywide Financial’s … shares plummeted to new lows Tuesday amid rumors — later denied — that the mortgage lender could be nearing a bankruptcy filing.
The beleaguered company’s stock closed down 28.3% to $5.43, a new 52-week low. Shares dipped as much as [...]

Well whaddyou know, the mortgage industry impacts the culture at large.  The American Dialect Society chose “subprime” as the word of the year! According to CNN it beat out “waterboarding”, “Facebook”, and “Googleganger?”.  
The group of wordsmiths chose “subprime” as 2007’s Word of the Year at its annual convention Friday.
“‘Subprime’ has been around with bankers for [...]