mortgages commercial and otherwise

  • 05 Apr 2010 at 4:06 PM

More Reasons to Hate Countrywide, Angelo Mozilo

By Zachery Kouwe

The latest issue of Barron’s cites a particularly juicy lawsuit recently filed by Countrywide Home Loans (now part of Bank of America) against Mortgage Guarantee Insurance Corp. over the mortgage insurer’s refusal to pay claims on some of Countrywide’s toxic loans.

MGIC’s investigation of Countrywide’s dirty lending practices, which is attached to a court motion, contains some classic tales of the shenanigans that led to the housing bust.

There’s the part-time housekeeper in Chicago who got a $339,000 Countrywide mortgage after a friend who owned an auto-body shop helped her craft a document stating she was an employee who made $6,833 a month. (She really made about $300 a week.) Not only did the housekeeper never show up at the closing because she had returned to Poland, but the new house was really for her sister and brother-in-law, according to the MGIC complaint. Continue reading »

  • 16 Nov 2009 at 4:25 PM

It’s Alive: Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities Market Stirs A Little

By John Shazar

It took a year and billions in government bailout bucks, but the monster known as the mortgage-backed securities market is twitching.
Developers Diversified Realty Corp. sold its 2009-DDR1 (Frankenbond) today, $400 million worth of the very paper that helped sink the economy. The five-year bonds are backed by 28 malls in 19 states.
Will the world again be ravaged by MBS monsters stalking financial centers around the world? Not if they need federal financing. Frankenbond is the first CMBS deal eligible for TALF money, and the program expires tomorrow.

Continue reading »