Posted on 08/03/2007 5:30:27 AM PDT by Hydroshock
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. plans to close most operations Friday and said nearly 7,000 employees will lose their jobs as the lender becomes one of the biggest casualties of the U.S. housing downturn.
Experts said it is likely the Melville, New York-based company will have to seek bankruptcy protection, and no later than Monday.
In a statement, American Home (Charts) on Thursday night confirmed earlier reports that it was ceasing most operations. The company said its employee base will be reduced to about 750 workers, down from the 7,409 it reported at the end of last year. The terminations are effective Friday.
American Home originated $59 billion in loans last year, and mostly to people with better credit than risky subprime borrowers. About half of those mortgages were adjustable-rate loans, whose defining feature is an interest rate that can be adjusted upward.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
I wonder when all the mortgage companies will stop paying those annoying people who call me three times a day to tell me how I could save money on my mortgage?
They’ve run out of suckers to sell deceptive mortgages to. I saw this happen in 1982, and have been waiting for this occur again since 2005.
With the downturn in real estate I still can’t see them coving their backsides even if they foreclose at 80% value.
So the refi bubble is over?
I don’t think there will ever be an end to suckers, nor will there be an end to deceptive marketing practices. What may be ending is investors who are eager to throw money down a hole to buy these mortgages, and who can blame them.
There’s a lot of people out there that create nice incomes on P.T.’s Barnum’s famous quote or in reality one he is accredited for.
Is the bubble now falling into rubble?
The suckers are the people who allow the Federal Reserve to keep us on this boom and bust credit cycle.
Anyone who lived through the 70's understands that getting a mortgage at this time is still so cheap it should put a smile on your face.
If you can't afford the payment with these rates then you are an idiot to try and buy something you can't afford.
“Experts said it is likely the Melville, New York-based company will have to seek bankruptcy protection...”
So why did Spitzer not shut this company down, as he tried to shut down other companies? Could it be that since it was based in NY, he saw no political upside?
I wonder what portion were illegal immigrants?
I’m a proponent of a pure fiat based money system. Where the government spends new money into the economy at a rate to have inflation of about 1-2%. It would actually be a great deal of the government’s needed money as money has to be spent to keep up with technological development and population growth too.
We have a mainly debt backed money system. So in 20 years if we become much more productive and populus we will have to be far deeper in debt then we are now. Just as we are a more productive nation then 30 years ago, but far more in debt.
Under the fiat system I imagine anyone can lend money but no fractional reserve banking. If a bank wants to lend 200,000$ they need to have 200,000$ in deposits.
No kidding! I remember the (Jimmy Carter) days when mortgages were in the 10% range! That's how adjustable rate mortgages came about in the first place!
What happens to all those properties?........and the mortgages that are NOT in default?.......
I remember 13% and higher.........
Most of the paper has been sold already to others, teh rest will be sold at fire sale prices.
lol, i get calls all day long at work on this subject, but they are recordings.
Or another kind of idiot. I have a neighbor with three children (girls). They moved next door two years ago this month, with the intention of fixing up their old home (some 30+ miles away) by the following March (2006) so they could sell it. Well March 2006 soon became June 2006, then August 2006. The old home still wasn't sold, and the family is carrying two mortgages.
Now it's Summer 2007, and the old home is still not ready, though close. Paying the taxes on both properties this June has (he claims) almost zeroed out their bank account. Now the father wants to sell the house next door and move back to the one he's almost remodeled; with a caveat because his family doesn't want to do that. The caveat is that there's a 5 acre property nearby us with a home on it, but that home is unlivable. His proposal: Move back to the original home, buy the 5 acre property and raze the building, rebuilding an new home there.
It would seem at first glance the guy never learns. He's gone through this scenario of two properties for the past two years, now he wants to do it again; this time with ever fewer cash assets than before. But I suspect his real intention is to use the idea of the 5 acre property as a ruse (his two oldest girls want pets and a horse), but once back in the old homestead he'll declare that's it. That's where they stay. He's a controlling bugger, I'll say that for him.
Oh. His wife says he's SO good at managing money.
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