Posted on 03/29/2008 7:34:41 PM PDT by Lorianne
A year ago Irvine, Calif., was still riding high on the subprime boom; then almost overnight the industry and more than 4,000 good paying jobs vanished.___ IRVINE, Calif. (CNNMoney.com) -- The subprime mortgage meltdown has shaken the entire U.S. economy. But nowhere might the impact be as stark as Irvine, California, a planned community nestled between Los Angeles and San Diego.
A year ago at this time, Irvine was home to 18 subprime lenders, including many of the leaders in the field, such as New Century Financial and Option One. Then, in what seemed like the blink of an eye, 4,100 good-paying white collar jobs were gone, or roughly 2% of the city's work force.
And while that may not sound like a huge number of jobs lost, the ripple effects of the collapse of what was once a vibrant industry has extended far beyond the mortgage lending arena.
Irvine had become the center of the subprime industry almost by accident. As the business of writing mortgages to riskier borrowers grew rapidly in the middle of the decade, many top employees at the established subprime firms struck out on their own, setting up shop nearby.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Here’s another mortgage mess horror story. It’s really sad.
Hi Lorianne, I lived in California and the mortgage companies and banks were giving mortgages at no money down for goodness sake. If you don’t put anything down you just can’t afford the place to begin with.
Well, IF I dropped 10K in Vegas, would you please cry me a tear?
It's not sad, it's not a mess, it's not a horror story, and it's long overdue.
I sold my place there in 06. Watching it on zillow.com is sad for the current owner, but praise God that I got out when I did.
And it will just get worse as the ultra-liberal government of California keeps driving businesses and individuals out of California, with excessive taxation and socialistic regulation.
They are fools and idiots who ALWAYS shoot the goose that lays the golden eggs -— welcome to liberal socialism.
Greed gets out of hand, and some innocent folks always suffer. Texas went through it in the late 80s - early 90s. But the subprime lenders were, generally, a bunch of bottom feeders.
“It’s not sad, it’s not a mess, it’s not a horror story, and it’s long overdue.”
Bump for the most accurate take on this.
I will add that it IS sad if hard-working Americans who play by the normal mortgage rules, have to pay for this crap.
Did I say “if”....?
I think the latest phrase making the rounds is “No bailouts for dumbasses”.
When you work, you work a week, two weeks, or more if you are in sales, with no money up front or as you go. In a way, you give your employer zero down.
I don't see why houses shouldn't be financed just as cars, fridges, aircraft or anything else.
L
I get a kick out of people saying they lost ‘their’ house. Unless you got title, it isn't yours, and you can not ‘lose’ something of ‘yours’ that wasn’t ‘yours’ to begin with.
Hi, I see you are from Massachusetts, Well I lived in Mass. for a long time and not one bank would ever give a loan with zero down. Geez how did you get your house ?
Big deal. You want to play then plan to win and lose.
Win big, lose big....... it is all part of the game. If you are a weak a$$ you’ll cry... and bbbbbuy gold.
No, the house was theirs. They had loan in which the house was used for collateral that they forfeited when they didn’t pay the loan.
I know, I’m splitting hairs here.
Anyways, very few banks here do traditional in house note holding. A few, but only for select customers.( Why give up prime, steady returns, eh? )
I'd say that eighty percent are done by, or end up in a mortgage company. Who has the loan often changes in a year or so.
Lastly, Mass is in a weird place right now and long term is really sick. No population growth. Zero. Also population is getting elderly. Also, home occupancy rates are declining, that is the number of people in a house. So, the near long term is looking grim. No young people, no people, who the heck buy’s these houses the next decade?
All PsOS!! I had a low opinion of real estate agents for years. Now, all that was simply confirmed. What I’m really mad about is the Fed, the U.S. taxpayer, bailing out Bear Stearns and seeing a**holes like Kudlow defending the bail out!
I know someone who works in Irvine. She said during the weeks of the New Century meltdown, you would drive by the Irvine Porsche dealer and it was flooded with lease returns. They would come in the morning and literly dozens of porsches were parked on the street in front of it and on the lot with the keys shoved in the mail slot with notes basically saying, “take it, we can’t pay for it anymore.”
I’ve witnessed this meltdown first hand as well. I work for a major US bank that is a heavy mortgage house. One of the groups I supported was the mortgage backed security broker dealer. It’s been sureal watching the whole thing unfold and that whole division crash and burn.
But when times where good, it was staggering how much money they were making and how quickly the deals were coming in.
But all based on liars loans aka alt-a and subprime toxic waste.
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