I’m a Countrywide watcher. It’s size and reach in mortgage loan origination is worthy of any mortgage originator’s respect and admiration. I had a lot of confidence in Countrywide as it marched to becoming America’s largest originator of home loans. I liked ’em so much that I had a piece of the joint, in my IRA, until April 1, 2007.<\/p>\n
It was no April Fool’s Day joke when I announced that they were in trouble<\/a> because of the Pay Option ARM product. For the Series 7 types, I went from long to cash within 24 hours of writing that post, then short ( not in my IRA) 24 hours later. I was nervously wondering when Wall Street would catch on<\/a> to the problems and decimate the stock; I felt it would be worth less than ten bucks a share<\/a>. Alas, I chickened out and closed the short position to raise cash during the liquidity crunch of 2007; I figured that profit would pay my daughter’s tuition when the market slowed.<\/p>\n Wall Street still thinks Countrywide is a twenty dollar stock<\/a>, even as it trades below nine bucks a share. Are they being fooled, like the Enron debacle, or do they know something that we don’t? While Wall Street fiddles the Mozilo tune, pundits think CFC could file<\/a> any day now. I don’t think a Countrywide bankruptcy is likely. I thought it made sense for the Feds to bail out Countrywide<\/a>; two days later they opened the discount window<\/a>.<\/p>\n How are the Feds bailing out Countrywide today? <\/strong><\/p>\n 1- Certainly, as Countrywide has moved it’s fundings to its federally-chartered bank, any Fed market activity<\/a> benefits them.<\/p>\n 2- I said that they way out of the mess was for Countrywide to originate new loans in less risky programs. CFC has rolled out a major reverse mortgage program and is compensating brokers to refer those loans to them<\/a>. While some people believe its actions violate the spirit of HUD laws, there are no HUD guidelines specifically forbidding this practice. Reverse mortgages are three times Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m a Countrywide watcher. It’s size and reach in mortgage loan origination is worthy of any mortgage originator’s respect and admiration. I had a lot of confidence in Countrywide as it marched to becoming America’s largest originator of home loans. I liked ’em so much that I had a piece of the joint, in my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,26,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-investment","7":"category-lending","8":"category-real-estate","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1810,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1810\/the-countrywide-federal-bailout-act-of-2008\/","url_meta":{"origin":2272,"position":0},"title":"The Countrywide Federal Bailout Act of 2008","author":"Brian Brady","date":"August 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Have you ever felt your stomach drop? I received an e-mail, from reader Robert Kerr today, asking if I had seen Merrill Lynch's downgrade of Countrywide Financial. Merrill Lynch believes that Countrywide might face bankruptcy. Make no mistake about it, a collapse of Countrywide Financial will give everybody in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1855,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1855\/the-new-york-times-goes-on-a-countrywide-manhunt\/","url_meta":{"origin":2272,"position":1},"title":"The New York Times goes on a Countrywide manhunt","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The New York Times on the Countrywide mess and how the company got there:ON its way to becoming the nation\u2019s largest mortgage lender, the Countrywide Financial Corporation encouraged its sales force to court customers over the telephone with a seductive pitch that seldom varied. \u201cI want to be sure you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1250,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1250\/a-farewell-to-arms-one-less-option\/","url_meta":{"origin":2272,"position":2},"title":"A Farewell to ARMs: One Less Option","author":"Brian Brady","date":"April 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Are Option ARMs the next casualty in the non prime mortgage meltdown war? Wall Street fired the shot heard 'round the world in the mortgage default war by demanding repurchases from subprime lenders. Lenders either closed their doors or waved the white flag and allowed the conquering army to annex\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16038,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16038\/but-weve-got-to-have-some-regulation-how-else-are-insiders-going-to-get-their-mitts-onto-sweetheart-mortgage-deals\/","url_meta":{"origin":2272,"position":3},"title":"“But we’ve got to have some regulation!” How else are insiders going to get their mitts onto sweetheart mortgage deals?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Regulation is rent-seeking, Rotarian Socialist graft, and that's all it ever is. Who sold out the housing market? The regulators, of course. AP: Countrywide won influence with discounts. HousingWire: Investigation reveals Countrywide VIP program scope and influence. Bloomberg: Countrywide Used Loans For Favor With Fannie Mae, Report Says. I love\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3317,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3317\/farewell-countrywide-how-the-bank-of-america-merger-will-keep-wells-fargo-as-the-mortgage-origination-leader\/","url_meta":{"origin":2272,"position":4},"title":"Farewell Countrywide: How The Bank of America Merger Will Keep Wells Fargo As The Mortgage Origination Leader","author":"Brian Brady","date":"July 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"WARNING!\u00a0 Long commentary about the Bank of America\/ Countrywide merger ahead: Bank of America Press Release from July 1, 2008 (italicized) with my commentary: CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 1 \/PRNewswire\/ -- Bank of America Corporation today completed its purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp. to create the nation's leading mortgage originator and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2485,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2485\/buying-countrywide-why-bank-of-america-is-the-wrong-buyer\/","url_meta":{"origin":2272,"position":5},"title":"Buying Countrywide: Why Bank of America is the WRONG Buyer","author":"Brian Brady","date":"January 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Countrywide (CFC) has been acquired by Bank of America. This should come as no surprise to Bloodhound readers; we discovered the weakness at CFC last Spring and speculated about the price last Summer. Robert Kerr, Matt Heaton, and Bob Wilson, all Bloodhound readers, tipped me off to conjecture, asked all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}