Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Countrywide Buying America?

Countrywide has been doing very well recently in executing their plan to own all the homes in America. As you can see from the chart the growth of their real estate owned portfolio is impressive. I know they must be anxiously awaiting the wave of subprime loans resetting so they can get those keys. A well placed source at Countrywide stated that 70%+ of the subprime folks that are calling in to refinance can't refinance because they are upside down or can't afford the new risk adjusted rates that are between 8-12%+ for a 5/1 ARM. We are running a contest to see where the readers think the Countrywide REO portfolio will end by year end. We will be giving away a copy of Devil Take the Hindmost:A history of financial speculation by Edward Chancellor and a copy of The Black Swan:The impact of the highly improbable by Nassim Taleb. To participate please send your best guess to mrmortgage at thegreatloan.com. If you would like to be added to the Mortgage Market Report include that in your email as well. We will not spam you. Winner will be announced on Jan 1st.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Mortgage, not to burst your bubble of righteousness, but most Countrywide REO is not owned outright, but owned as trustee for investors. And that in most cases, whether to forbear or restructure isn't really Countrywide's decision, but the investor's.

Anyway. You may resume your regularly scheduled schadenfreude, already in progress.

The Editor said...

Of course sir I agree. I understand CDO's and RMBS instruments. Of course you have your SIVs also that hold CDO which issue CP to do a carry trade which is now blowing up. Ala $100B MLEC. But, that level of detail would make most reader's eyes glaze over. The overall tone was meant to convey sarcasm and be a witty take on the disaster that is the REO situation. .
Thanks for commenting.

ProblemWithCaring said...

ugh - anon. was that really neccessary? Countrywide ISNT trying to buy all of America. Um...thank you?

Anyway - my guess is 17,481 by New Years Eve.

Jack Payne said...

Countrywide's reach is so elongated that as it goes, so goes the stock market. With 1,000,000 foreclosures and most of the ARM resets to trigger next year, it's hard to see anything positive.

Westside Bubble said...

LOL! Good one, Mr. Mortgage.