Ameriquest Move Raises Jobs And Bubble Debate
Some press reaction to the Ameriquest layoffs. “The parent of Orange-based Ameriquest Mortgage said Tuesday it would lay off one-third of its nationwide workforce and close all 229 of its retail branches, in the latest sign of retrenchment in the real estate market. The move to cut 3,800 jobs from a total of 11,000 is a dramatic shift by Ameriquest, which in recent years became one of the largest lenders to people with poor, or subprime, credit ratings.”
“As the company boomed, it faced allegations that some sales agents used heavy-handed tactics and deception to persuade consumers to take its loans.”
“Some analysts said the decision to jettison Ameriquest’s branches suggested that the company might be concerned it couldn’t effectively control what went on in those offices. ‘I would guess it is very difficult to provide profit incentives to branch managers in far-flung locales and expect them to comply with all relevant laws,’ said Daniel K. Osborne, a Phoenix-based investment fund manager.”
“A number of mortgage lenders have cut staff in recent months, including Washington Mutual Inc., Aames Investment Corp. and ECC Capital Corp. Orange-based Acoustic Home Loans, like Ameriquest a subprime lender, closed its doors last month. Orange County has been home to many subprime lenders.”
“‘This is an inefficient market, dominated by many undisciplined participants’ who have been pricing their loans below cost in an attempt to gain market share, analyst Mike McMahon said. Cutthroat pricing has guaranteed a loss on virtually every transaction, he said. Irvine-based ECC Capital said that in the fourth quarter it was, in effect, making loans for $102 and selling them for $101.”
“Ameriquest slashed 1,500 jobs in December. A sister company, Argent Mortgage, laid off 640 people in January. The closures include a handful of Ameriquest and Town and Country retail branches in Sacramento, Rancho Cordova and Stockton, possibly affecting dozens of employees in the region.”
“The nine Massachusetts branch offices of the huge mortgage company Ameriquest will close as part of a nationwide cut of 3,800 jobs. The largest subprime lender in the Boston area, Ameriquest wrote $3 billion in mortgages in 2004 in Massachusetts.”
“During his first day on the job Monday, Dennis Carroll eagerly looked forward to a bright future as the new manager of the Ameriquest Mortgage Co. office in downtown Salt Lake City. Carroll and 11 other employees were told that effective immediately embattled Ameriquest was closing the Salt Lake office.”
“‘When they started courting me in February I was reluctant to even consider their offer. I was OK with the job I had,’ Carroll said. ‘But they kept making their offer sweeter and sweeter and after awhile I started looking forward to starting a new life with my family in Utah.’ Now, Carroll said, he’s stuck in Utah without a job.”
“A banking giant shut down all of its branches in Western Washington on Tuesday, leaving thousands of local customers in the lurch. Ameriquest is closing 26 branches in Washington state. Peter Demerick of Bremerton thought all he needed to do was fax his mortgage papers in to Ameriquest. But he didn’t expect to get a disconnected number, and now he’s still trying to get answers.”
“Demerick is sure his mortgage broker had no idea. ‘I’m sure he was totally shocked. If he knew about this yesterday, he was a great actor. At this point they’re cutting and running.’”
From CNN Money. “Those looking to glimpse the future of the housing market may want to start watching help-wanted ads rather than the real estate section. Experts who say the housing market is cooling, but won’t implode, argue that solid job growth should be enough to prevent a collapse in home prices. But others who see a housing ‘bubble’ ready to pop say a developing slowdown in home building itself could hurt job growth enough to put a big dent in housing.”
“‘We’ve been building too many homes in a market maintained by speculation. And job growth is not going sustain that,’ said Dean Baker, an outspoken advocate of the housing bubble theory.”
“Add job losses at mortgage firms, building supply retailers and real estate agencies and the downturn in home building could itself further weaken one of the key supports for real estate. One of those worried about just that is James McShirley, owner of Sulphur Lumber near Indianapolis. He’s already laying off staff and not filling open positions due to a slowdown in orders from his builder clients.”
“‘We’re holding off as much as we can because qualified people are hard to find,’ he said. ‘But there will come a point where we have to face that (more layoffs) and it could be soon.’”
“The move to cut 3,800 jobs from a total of 11,000 is a dramatic shift by Ameriquest, which in recent years became one of the largest lenders to people with poor, or subprime, credit ratings.”
Should this be taken as a sign that underwriting standards are going to recover from their all-time record trough (”Anyone who can fog a mirror can qualify for a home loan”)?
I am not sure we are out of the woods yet with getting rid of shoddy loans. I still get junk faxes with loan offers daily. Actually just got one this morning that made me cringe. I hate these guys.
I cant believe they can still legally sell this garbage:
The fax says:
I think you will find that this is the lowest fixed mortgage rate available in the market today. Some restirctions may apply. This is a limited time offer so call now
2.6% ** Fixed minimum payment for 10 years.
Home loans up to 4 Million.
Approval in minutes, no income verification = OK
Low credit scores = NO PROBLEM
Delinquent, Foreclosures, Liens, Bankruptcy = OK
Get cash now and consolidate debt = OK
At the bottom in very tiny print it says
** ARM. Call for details. Advertised rates are not guaranteed and are subject to change.
Anyone want the phone number to hassle these jackholes?
How does that fixed 2.6% payment work? Is that 2.6% IO or do you have to pay more than that, ie some principal.
Who holds these loans? Banks? Aren’t they worried about the principal going above collateral? Even with a piggy back loan, if there’s nothing down and the principal is growing…then by definition the collateral is less (unless it’s growing too).
I wish someone could explain how exactly these loans work and who funds them.
Here is a site which has a great calculator for option ARMS
http://mortgage-x.com/library/option_arm.asp
You do pay more than the stated minimum interest rate of 1.25% for example. But you pay less total than an IO loan. I’m not sure how long you can go on paying min. int. But I could see that when they expire, it’s going to cause problems for many.
brian b…
for some reason my response was posted at bottom of thread… I tried to nest it here, oh well…
Gives a quick description of Option ARM as I understand them…
This is a bank portfolio loan. This is described on Blogs as a “toxic” or “suicide” loan. It was created 25 years ago for wealthy individuals as an alternative to a bridge loan. The start rate as low as 1% adjusts annually for the first five years by ~7% eg a $1000/mo payment yr 1 becomes a $1070 payment yr 2. The Negative interest is tacked on to the balance of the loan. At the end of 5 years the loan recasts monthly to have full amortizing over the following 25 years. NegAMs are a way for a bank to show a hefty (non taxable until rcvd) profit yet a profit that is fully fungible and makes the bank statement look good to investors. Generally the maximum the loan can adjust to is ~10%. The loans are tied to indexes such as the Monthly 1yearTreasury Bill average, the Cetificate of Dedposit average, or a special index such as World Savings uses.
The Loans can also recast at any time the loan exceeds the value of the property by some number - generally 10%. The bank can order an appraisal at any time.
Only change is more banks are using 25% instead of 10% as the cap level.
Start rate is good for 1-3 months. After the initial “fixed period” of one/three months the interest changes on a monthly basis, not annually.
The minimum payment associated with the start rate changes every 12 months and can usually increase by no more than 7.5% of what the previous year’s minimum payment was.
Good correct the interst changes monthly, and the payment rate changes annually. Duh wish I could correct before posting!
AmeriQuest Mortgage-Loathed and hated by all appraisers.
Fee deadbeats to boot.
Shed no tears for the fall of these azzholes.
Did you get the pics of the Ameriquest offices?
Yes, thanks!
The real change will come when (if) banks are stopped from making option ARM loans with FDIC insured money.
If that happens prices will tank here in Socal immediately. Easy credit, no doc no income verification negam ARM loans have been the driver for all of the price increases here. Actually I should say majoritiy of the reason. The other part is all those housing related jobs, which as we are seeing are quickly going away. If you get rid of the funny money loans, housing jobs would vanish as quickly as prices would drop.
Wouldnt that be great.
The culture of debt is still alive. This ad was at the top of the page on Yahoo Finance today:
Make your home work harder for you. Unlock more cash from your property with a HELOC.
“Make your home work harder for you” - sums up the culture of debt mentality in one sentence.
Makes perfect sense to me John. Your home works harder, gets big muscles and then it kicks your ass! Nice HELOC!
yes, same problem in the Netherlands. Officially you only get government insurance for ‘responsible’ loans, but in reality an I/O mortage for 10-20 times income is no problem.
On the other side, I’m also against government-insured loans for 30-year fixed mortgages because government should not interfere in any way with that market - even if it is a ‘responsible’ loan the government insurance drives up loan amounts and home prices to ridiculous levels because it removes all risk.
In my country if you get these loans, you can never end in debt if you have to sell your home - even if the market goes down 75%, the semi-government fund will pay the difference. If there is a housing crash in the Netherlands, the taxpayer will pay dearly because more than 75% of recent mortgages has this protection
Wow. That’s amazing.
You’re right about the govt not insuring these. Adding a little risk premium would actually be a good thing.
The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that credit is a very, very bad thing. Sure, there are some occasions when it provides a useful service, but it really just causes prices to rise without any additional benefit.
Starting to think credit markets are just another way for the wealthy to extract ever more money from the poor masses. Imagine what houses would cost if there were no mortgage market. True, we would never get rich off of housing, as prices would almost exactly match wage inflation; but is that such a bad thing? People would have to save, and the frugal would benefit the most. What am I missing?
What? Defer gratification?? In America???
Well it was only yesterday when Ben posted an Amerquest article where the CEO Aseem Mital stated ” We are moving strategically and decisively to remain a LEADER in an indusrty…blah blah”".
Now this is true Leadership for yah…”bail don’t plan, don;t answer the phone….sounds like Dot com..brokers - I have heard about!
I would like to advise Dennis Carroll that Salt Lake City is a much more beautiful city to live in that what is going on in the OC. Please find a reputable job there (instead of with thieves) and make a nice enjoyable life for you and your family in the lovely mountains and valley of Salt Lake. You won’t regret that. More family friendly, lower costs, more social, and cleaner. I would like to wish you luck there. Be glad to leave what has become of CA, from a lovely place to a area going down hill quickly. Ciao. I grew up in SLC, and lived in OC also. I know which one is better.
I agree SLC is a great city..I’ve only been there about 3 times in my lifetimes but I was impressed with how clean even the downtown areas are, how nice the people are, and the skiing at Alta was great.
How many of your lifetimes are you able to remember?
I actually feel sorry for the loser who was shitcanned on the first day. UGH. Then I think about all the people he was going to screw over and i think - What goes around comes around. I guess he can live in his Hummer
No what happened to that guy is no cool for many reasons and the fact that it doesn’t only happen in the mortgage industry which for some makes it outstanding. I’ve known a few folks that has happened to that worked for G.E. not a pretty picture to be stranded like that no matter the industry.
He has a pretty good lawsuit in CA.
As far as Utah goes who knows what their labor laws are.
A lot of California companies have that practice. Relocate and dump it’s cheaper that way
If the employees are too stupid to look into labor rights in CA vs other states.
I learned my lesson. I got stiffed in OR for $5K, when in CA they would have had to pay up.
I agree with you, people with no morales. People who screw their customers for a buck, deserve the rath of God. Personally, no sympathy for them.
“Past housing downturns have seen builders slash their work forces by up to 40 percent, said (Dean) Baker, the housing market bear, and with an estimated 3.5 million people working in residential construction, the loss of more than 1 million jobs would obviously cause problems for the labor market.
Add job losses at mortgage firms, building supply retailers and real estate agencies and the downturn in home building could itself further weaken one of the key supports for real estate.”
Baker takes a circumspect view of labor market reality, which makes him a “bear”. The only wild card is where and how quickly a slowing economy will find room for large numbers of newly unemployed RE sector employees over the next three years. It is hard to imagine unemployed RE workers getting snatched up into comparable positions at the same time a housing market downturn turns off the housing ATM which fueled consumption spending over the past six years. Contrast Baker’s appraisal to that of the NAR prostitute:
“What we had in the past couple of years was an unprecedented frenzy of activity,” said Lawrence Yun, senior economist for the National Association of Realtors. “That’s what we’re seeing: A decline from a frenzied, unsustainable rate.”
“Our experience says prices do not go down when there’s job creation in the local economy,” said Yun. “In local markets where they are flat on jobs, they could see prices decline. But we’re projecting 2.3 million new jobs this year. The job market is providing a buffer. It’s a counter force to rising rates.”
“But we’re projecting 2.3 million new jobs this year. The job market is providing a buffer. It’s a counter force to rising rates.”
Losing relatively high paying construction and mortgage finance jobs but gaining jobs at Walmart and McDonald’s should be quite a “buffer”.
That is the RE economists out.
The rest of the economy won’t be able to absorb their excess labor and that is why the RE bubble burst.
Not because there was a bubble.
I can remember in 2004 and some of 2005, when the monthly job report was full of constrcution and mortgage financing NEW job growth averaging near 150,000 most months and at times near 200,000…but then those statistics were supplanted with “the domestic worker job add for 2006..
Well the good news for Wall Street…”we got Job growth”, even if it doesn’t pay minimum wage…kind of reminds me of the Clinton days when all the new hires were for fast food…It’s all good, pass me some more of that Kool-aide! thanks….
A friend of ours was a manager at Ameriquest Mortgage and make some HUGE $$ while he was there. Lucky for him he left and is working elsewhere a few months ago!!
I wonder how many of the Ameriquest loan officers are bag holders of investment houses purchased since 2001 with their own brand of no down I/O neg-am ARMs? After all, why pay more than the teaser rate if you are just going to flip it for a huge profit within a couple of years? Oh, just lost your job? Mortgage resetting? Inventory up, prices falling, can’t sell, interest rates up, value down, can’t refi? LOL!
No wonder, there are quite a few of them. I know a few who are going to be in deep s*** if their company lays them off.
OT, but gold seems to be going parabolic these days. Time for BB to make the hard choice: Take away the punch bowl, or let let the $US go into second tier status as a reserve currency.
http://tinyurl.com/zskfp
Gee, I wonder which of those two choices he’ll take.
Radar O’Reilly hears choppers in the distance.
Volcker’s predecessor chose gold, which led to a premature end to his career as Fed chairman…
This is an election year. You already heard in last week’s FED testimony how the committee was all hounding him about how it’s time to stop raising. There are 2 sides to this coin and either way, after it gets flipped, the US economy loses. At this point it’s a matter of deciding which loss stings more and then there’s all that political influence. In no way is FED policy for the remainder of this year a sure thing…
i heard BB was saying that he was not happy to be misunderstood about his testimony of stopping the rate increases soon.
It is a gigantic shit sandwich and everyone is going to have to take a bite.
So, if BB raises rates we’re screwed, and if he lowers rates we’re screwed. Is the rational conclusion then that if he keeps rates the same we’ll all be OK?
He ain’t done raising the rate.
Not even close.
Overly-optimistic fools interpreted his remarks incorrectly.
All he meant to say was…”We’re watching it.”
That’s a FAR, FAR CRY from…”We’re done.”
People who don’t want the party to be over heard what they wanted to hear…not what he said.
You can put most of the American media in that boat, too.
They will not raise rates in the face of an declining stock market and slowing economy, regardless of the dollar. Their job is inflation control to the extent they do not punish the economy.
The stock market is going to tank before they have an opportunity to raise rates 2 or 3 more times. This will force them to pause and the dollar to tank.
If the market tanks sooner, or later, they will pause and the dollar will tank also. They can’t win.
Getstucco: 2nd tier $ reserve status…
Well the truth is…this cannot be allowed..not yet anyway! Key is on USDx @ $80. Below there and we can all kiss it goodbye..1st tier, 2nd tier and 3rd tier currencies become their worthless selves….Trillions will be spent and defended at this level by all world bankers…
.Are big and powerfull people worried YES
You see you can’ have a 1 world government and central power weilded from handfull of elite privleged Harvard/ Oxford/ Rhode scholar fiat banker types………if true economic exchange can exist outside of their DEBT FOR MONEY SYSTEM!
gee my post above was edited..
Arab conflict not about race, religion, oil, least of all demacracy it’s about HAWALA - their system of commericial exchange.
Worried central bankers include China, Aussies, Several South and Central countries..
Nope, not edited.
Questions.
Is it true that only 5% of people who get foreclosure notices lose their home? This is according to DATAQUICK in California.
http://www.sbsun.com/business/ci_3777263
The numbers are correct with these caveats 1) The preforeclosure could be sold; 2) The preforeclosure could be “short” sold (mortgage lender takes a haircut; 3) The end lender pays a workout specialist (me) to prepare a mortgage that is within the borrowers finances. - As I posted previously, the last 4 years were OK for me - not great - now I am busy,unfortunately in the past I coul help 70%+ of the preforeclosures, now only 30%.
Workout specialist…nice job, Hoz! Think you’ll be sitting pretty for a long time with that career!
Unfortunately, as I have gotten older, I’ve let myself get emotionally involved with the borrowers - not good.
That’s interesting. It probably depends. Maybe in previous cycles 5% would lose it. They were temporarily out of work or something. Now people are likely unable to make skyrocketing payments, even though they have the same job they always have.
I like how it said it was still under the level needed to affect prices. Well, in a normal market maybe. Given a market at sky high levels compared to affordability, this time it may be a little different.
Unfortunately - I agree in the past a downturn in SD or NYC did not affect the country as a whole. This is a nationwide asset bubble fueled by easy credit. In previous downturns there has always been a balance of savings, now we are in negative savings mode. If the US were an individual, it would already be in Bancruptcy Court.
As soon as those mortgage, banking, construction jobs start getting cut all across the nation we will then start hearing about the “national housing bubble.”
Wow, it really is different this time after all.
I think depends on where we are in the cycle, as somebody said. If somebody can sell their house in a rising market, they’ll be able to get out and pay off the lender. To some degree that is the situation now. But when prices come down hard, that 5% will rise - a lot.
We are right at the beginning of the collapse:
Step A: You are here. Whether the rate of home equity extraction implodes from here (as shown) or decreases more gradually is a matter of debate, although in past boom-bust cycles, the bust rate of decline has been significantly more rapid than the boom rate of growth. What is not debatable is whether the rate of home equity extraction will revert to the mean rate of about zero, from the current rate of more than $250 billion annually. It will.
In fact, the rate of home equity extraction will tend to overshoot the mean to reach an extreme negative rate of equity extraction (building equity) that’s twice the rate of positive extraction that occurred during the boom phase. This relationship occurred in the previous two cycles, which bottomed in 1982 and 1995, respectively. This implies negative equity extraction of minus $500 billion per year at the cycle trough. Chart 2 shows a more optimistic prediction of negative $250 billion occurring between 2015 and 2020. This more prosaic estimate accounts for government efforts to mitigate the impact and minimize the overshoot, by offering specialized loans, making direct purchases of securitized mortgage debt, and so on.
http://tinyurl.com/q75r9
Labor situation (May 3) and Bloody Tuesday (May 2 post)
http://www.xanga.com/russwinter
Thank you, Russ!!
Brookfield Homes Corp. (BHS : brookfield homes corp com
on Wednesday reported first-quarter net earnings of $18.87 million, or 68 cents a share, down 0.4% from $18.94 million, or 60 cents a share, in the year-ago period. There were 27.8 million shares outstanding, compared with 31.5 million last year. Revenue fell 6.1% to $142.9 million from $152.2 million. The Fairfax, Va.-based homebuilder said if 2006 home closings fall to a level of 1,400 units, it expects earnings for the year of $7.20 to $7.60 a share. The company had previously forecast a per-share profit of $7.60 to $8.20.
Yep — just saw that myself. Stock really gave up the ghost these past few days BEFORE the news came out … and is now dropping a bit more. Hmmm. What a strange coincidence.
Well they’re still making it hand over fist. Revenues declining slightly is not exactly a crash. You need revenues declined by 30% and profits went negative.
80’s bubble crash in NJ saw dramatic job losses, particularly in the construction industry. Posted two graphs up from the BLS that show nonfarm payrolls from 81 and construction jobs from 90.
Jobs Key To Housing
“Jobs key to hosing”
AKA my posting name The Hoz!
OT, but the effectiveness of HB pump-and-dump is losing traction –
http://tinyurl.com/o7skt
Quite the dump beginning at noon for the HB’s, eh. That’s about the time the weekly mortgage survey comes out. Probably up for like the sixth week in a row, I hardly bother checking it any more.
Like 40% of the job creation in this country in the last decade has been real estate related.
When I first licensed as a certified residential appraiser, I was Lic.
#150 out of an original batch of 400+ appraisers in 1991.
Numbers eventually went over 1800, crashing incomes and ruining established businesses.
State didn’t give a rats azz, ’cause all they wanted was the licensing fee income.
The glut of appraisers also facilitated the mortgage rackeetering game where lenders could now shop around for value, or use a real estate agent’s specific rubber stamp “number hitter”.
Everyone can now see the wreckage from this system.
Real estate is usually a last ditch effort to salvage some sort of white collar job, relative to downsizing and lay-offs of mid-management types. Wonder where everybody’s gonna go now.
“Real estate is usually a last ditch effort to salvage some sort of white collar job, ”
———————————————-
Yeah, so they can say “I’m a Real Estate Professional.”
A true Profession is takes many years of intense study as a prerequisite to entry, followed by rigorous Board Exams. LOL!
Bwwwaaahhhhaaaa snap out of it. What an elitest and pretty naive comment.
Elitist? Naive? Maybe you should go find the legal definition of “professional” and you’ll see that he is correct.
You are a complete idiot. It’s obvious where your sentiments lie. Why are wasting your time on this blog? My father was a mechanic…I’m a CPA. The elitist argument doesn’t follow.
Apologies, that comment was meant for Mr Income Stream.
Understood. The direction of your reply was pretty clear and rightfully so. [laughing]
“My father was a mechanic…I’m a CPA. The elitist argument doesn’t follow.”
What’s your point?? That both you and your father are professionals.
If that is what it is what is the barrier of entry to turn a wrench. Maybe I’ll go out in the backyard and ask the guy working on my car what state test he had to pass to turn a wrench.
I don’t get your point.
Okay dumbass, let me explain it to you in terms that you can understand since that went completely over your head. There was no barrier to entry for my father who was/is blue collar and working class yet there was for me. He was not a professional in that sense because he had no formal training. Elitist implies that one has advantages that others do not due their social standing. I didn’t have those advantages and still had to meet professional requirements to enter the particular role/career I selected. Professional standards are not elitist. Getting into an Ivy school might be, but the professional standards are not. Either you meet them or don’t. How you meet them was up to you.
mrincomestream,
pretty much every professional gets to be certified (not necessarily by state though). Mechanics ESPECIALLY, their standards are quite high if you are talking about a decent joint, and regular qualification courses are mandatory.
And IT professionals have like a dosen of certifications, and the pace of training has to keep up with technology. Just to be proficient in Microsoft enterprise-level solutions you’d have to spend a lot of time and money too. (I’m not even talking about the Oracle/IBM/Sun gang, where you’ll think of committing suicide at one point in training.)
From this point of view real estate professionals are not really professionals, since their certification is at minimum, and takes at most a month of study.
Max-
I think you and a few others need to do a little more research on the what it takes to maintain a license in the real estate industry. I don’t know where you are but in California it takes more than a month of study to maintain a real estate license for more that 18 mo’s.
And as far as certification goes depending on what you want to do. The certification for these things are pretty intense. Just the difference between a agents license and a broker license is pretty good. If you want to be certified as a CCIM that’s pretty intense too.
I think a lot of folks here are really speaking from ignorance more than anything. It’s really a whole lot more too it and no different than IT or Mechanic’s if those are allowed to be called professions by some definitions here.
In this state I have seen instances where Lawyers and Doctors have flunked the R.E. Exam. So if it was as easy as these folks are trying to make it. It should be a no brainer for these professionals Right
I have a friend who just got her real estate license after passing the exam. Her studying for the exam? A weekend review course. Period. Nothing else. Not even self-study. Compared to my two master’s, internships, apprenticeships, and passing of exams that take more than a weekend to review (CFP and EA for example) which do you consider a profession?
I agree with him. Realtors will vanish like dust in the wind. The barriers to entry in this profession are ZERO!!!
That wasn’t about whether or not being a Realtor is a proffession or not. There are a lot of “proffessions” out there that don’t quite hold up to his elitest standards.
In reality, there are very few. What occupations require you to be self-insured or rather bonded. What occupations are there requiring that? Very few.
Not trying to be flip but in some cases janitor’s are required to be bonded and self insured, Security guards along with that also in this state they have to study pass tests, and background checks. Does that make it a profession. Then I ask what is the barrier of entry for those jobs.
Thanks for the correction Realtors and Janitors are Equal- Finally we agree!
and security guards!
Well if that’s the case then Crispy, you could make a valid argument that Lawyers, Doctors, CPA’s Realtors, Janitors, and Security Guards should all make the same level of money because they’re barrier of entry is the same.
I know you are in the real-whore field so I will stop. Sorry to offend your “profession”.
Comment by mrincomestream
2006-05-03 12:32:56
Not trying to be flip but in some cases janitor’s are required to be bonded and self insured, Security guards along with that also in this state they have to study pass tests, and background checks. Does that make it a profession. Then I ask what is the barrier of entry for those jobs.
_______________________________________________
Look. I’m not aware of any janitor positions requiring self insurance or those working in IT for that matter. The legal definition of the word “professional” does not include bank tellers, mechanics, carpenters or the like. One can duck and weave all he wants but it doesn’t change the fact that the word had been perverted to pump up ones ego in lieu of a pumped up salary.
Yea, I know I responded to Crispy and JWM along with definitions of professional and elitist. I don’t know whether it was censored or lost. I’m not going to revisit it because I don’t know whether it was censored or lost.
I agree mostly. When I passed my ground school on the first try in 1970, I did not consider myself a “professional” pilot. In the 80’s, when I got my real estate license on the first try after one semester of night classes, I again did not consider myself to be a “professional”. I sold one house on a land contract while working as a machinist and spent approximtely 9 hours in the next 12 years keeping my RE license current by paying for “RE Ethics” classes and such. The vermin in the office discouraged me from seeking further work in the “profession”. They would lie their asses off and fail to disclose to make a sale. I didn’t want to be a member of a club with no minimum standards.
Little barrier to entry should imply little trust and little value added. There are good agents and brokers out there, but they are fewer and further between. Glad I left that industry, but watching it now is incredibly painful. Six percent on average?
FOAD! (Unless you’re one of the true “professionals”).
What. you mean all those hours spent in detention in elemntary school do not count towards a HS diploma????
It would be better if they shut the whole company down. Big sponsor during the Super Bowl while ripping off the common folk. Keep people entertained while you steal from them.
Ameriquest, I believe, was also the “sponsor” of one of the Apprentice episodes. In other words, they paid Donald Trump millions to be featured on the show. As their task, the apprentices had to design some bogus pamphlet for Ameriquest. They should have been asked to design pink slips instead.
yup, and as ameriquest contracts…donald expands with a new start up mortgage company. Good timing for this vain azz clown
http://www.trumpmortgage.com/home/index.php
SLC nice? Socially repressed- yes- great place to live if you are white, narrow minded, paranoid or right wing reactionary. Some people here at this blog are either deaf dumb and blind or plain idiots. SLC and Utah for that matter rate very low for tolerance, diversity and progressive thought. Orin Hatch has called ‘global warming’ and climate change ‘unproven’ there is a dose of what Utah has to offer.
Check out the new Big Love series on HBO, about a polygamist family. Very entertaining.
Who needs more than one wife when we have Tijuana?
I certainly don’t need MORE than one woman bossing me around.
Oh for heaven’s sake. SLC has probably one of the most liberal mayors in the country (Rocky Anderson). Nice to see how well you tolerate divergent views. (Apparently, if you’re not as liberal as San Fran, you’re “narrow minded, paranoid or right wing reactionary.”)
And yes, the catastrophic scenarios for global warming are unproven — as opposed to the fact that (1) the earth has warmed over the past century and (2) anthropogenic C02 emissions are responsible for some part of that warming, which is pretty well established.
It sure is fun to play Cassandra and blame it all on Republican spoil-sports who don’t grasp the liberal doctrine of inevitable, greed-induced, anthropogenic global warming catastrophy, though…
SLC has plusses and minuses like everywhere else.
Plus: family friendly, it’s quite pretty (the locale, not the downtown), it’s clean, it has beautiful mountains, skiing and lots of outdoor stuff all around, slow pace of life
Minus: that salt lake (I hate it), last time I was there you couldn’t even go to a bar- you had to be a “member” of a bar (WTF?) to get in, it is a little too religious for MY taste (but many others would love that I’m sure, it’s a personal thing), slow pace of life
There are a smattering of liberal minded people in SLC, but I doubt I’d call it “liberal”. Liberal places aren’t just SF, also places like Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Madison, Grand Rapids MI, Austin TX to name a few. SLC would be one of the last major metros I’d put on a “liberal list.” Doesn’t mean they’re all raving neo-cons or ultra-Mormons either…
and there are worse things than simply being conservative (even though I’m a liberal, I see that!)
If I were a regular joe with regular income and several kids and wanted a slower paced family friendly suburban type of place to raise my kids and if I mainly went from work to home and did family stuff, I’d choose SLC over OC in a heartbeat.
if I had a high net worth and needed exotic cultural events and foods and a more fast paced life, or if I were a DINK that liked to travel a lot and go to hip places, or if I were gay or a minority or any other marginalized group then I would choose OC.
Nowhere is perfect folks, hence “everybody wants to live here” is always a fallacy.
clouseau
Grand Rapids, Michigan is a liberal place? You’ve got to be kidding! West Michigan is one of the most conservative areas in the Midwest. Why do you think it is liberal? Or did you mean Grand Rapids, Minnesota?
So we’ll presume you use your denial of global warming as a means to continue drilling for fossil fuels and unbridled consumption of natural resources?
You’re an idiot.
I applaud any and all serious effort to present a marketable alternative to fossil fuels.
That said I would tear GAPING holes in Alaska to produce domestic oil. I am sick and damn tired of paying the Middle Eastern sh*tholes all that $$$$ and all we get in return is grief. It would suck to end up leaving all that $$$$$$ in the middle east and all that domestic oil in the ground once a practical alternative to oil is available…
You just don’t get it. Supply is only have the equation. Demand continues to explode due to the production of HUGE BEHEMOTH vehicles.
Any idea how much oil Shell, Exxon et al. believe is in Alaska. Small drop in the bucket, which is why eventually we’ll drill Alaska . . . when we’re cut off or global supply peaks. Not now, though. It won’t do $hit to prevent the middle east from getting much dinero $$$$$$ from the U.S. Total sideshow.
let me check the numbers. maximum extraction possible for anwr is 1.4 million barrels per day. and can be attained only after several years of development. we use about 20 million barrels per day today with about half (at least) is imported. 1.4 / 20 is about 7 percent. that means we still need to fill up the 43 percent from import. any idea where in alaska can we get that remaining 8.6 million barrels per day?
That max number is hardly fixed. There are thousands of US offshore sites that are promising but off limits. Why not take the oil out of the ground AND PAY OURSELVES? It would drive down the price, at least temporarily while, hopefully, alternatives are developed. Would you rather see the oils sit there and eventually become worthless as we go deeper and deeper in debt to the Muslim world?
This is a simple matter.
We have to pay more. Otherwise there will be no incentive to change behavior. Tax the @!$*ing profits and plough it into alternatives R&D, otherwise ‘disruptive’ replacement technologies will never be implemented.
Now that was a polished response. Shall I tell you what to do with your lingus?
Cutting back CO2 emissions to a point where (according to the global-warming models) it would have any appreciable effect would require massive reductions in energy use. Banning SUVs won’t do it. (I drive a Saturn, 36 mpg, btw.) With China and India industrializing, they’re set to dwarf any reduction in energy use the US may manage. In short, we’re talking either massive economic contraction or massive expense to replace carbon-based energy. Which, incidentally, is why none of the Kyoto signatories that whose communist-era economies haven’t crashed have come anywhere close meeting their treaty goals.
You’re proposing that we go to great expense to stave off a problem whose ultimate costs (your and Al Gore’s blustering aside) simply aren’t known. All things being equal, more CO2 in the atmosphere will warm it by some amount. How much? That’s where consensus ends. You, naturally, want to maximize the extent of warming and its potential negative effects and minimize any positive ones, in order to justify spending what it will take to change things. (No point in spending $1 trillion to avoid $200 billion in costs, after all, so you need to make sure you can show $1 trillion or more in costs from warming.)
Based on what we know for sure, I couldn’t justify spending what it would take to reduce C02 emissions to 1990 levels. But an insurance policy is always a good thing. That’s why we should be spending money pursuing dual-use technologies — technologies that will have some value even if the alarmist case about warming turns out to be incorrect. Seems to me that alternative fuels are such a technology. They’d have the effect of breaking the oil companies’ monopoly on cheap fuel (and it’s still cheap at $3 a gallon, as demonstrated by the fact that nobody’s really reducing their driving); cutting of the money that goes to nasty autocratic oil-producing regimes, hedging against exhaustion of oil stocks, etc.
If you disagree with me, you’re an idiot.
Blah blah blah. Doubting Thomas never lets the facts get in the way of his opinion. But you go girl, drill your way out of exploding fuel prices. Meanwhile, the rest of us will watch those prices continue to explode.
At least I back my opinion up with more than cheap-ass snark.
Drilling your way out of exploding demand is not a viable solution. Just like you said, an opinion……. that won’t work.
We are conducting an experiment that is not testable or replicatable with global warming.
Unless NASA is working on colonization of other livable planets that I am not aware of.
I think that Pottery Barn rules should apply to the management of the atmosphere.
If you break/change it then you own it.
The restrictive alcohol laws alone would prevent any right-thinking citizen from moving to Utah.
I agree with Peter…particularly the intolerance…You will be isolated and run out of town if you don’t conform…
The whole state is run by the Mormon church. It’s a nice place to ski but you might find yourself out of luck if you like to party & have a beer afterwards. Not the kind of repressed place I care to call home.
The loudmouthed minority of authoritarians posing as Christians are finding themselves on the sidelines as of late. They’ve had their way with Little George running(ruining) the country but thats all over now. The republican freakshow is out of business.
Among other serious vices, the Mormon Church put sodas on their “do not consume” list. Then they bought Pepsico (with all that $$$$$$$$ they loot from their constituents). All of a sudden there was an exception for Pepsi Cola (Coke is still verbotten). Out-of-State vacationers can drink in select spots and there’s a film festival now in Utah where the heathens can consume alcohol and otherwise party.
The Mormon Church seems to look the other way for anything that brings in $$$$$, even if it contradicts their beliefs.
Funny, I call that hypocrisy, not religion…
Are you on crack? Mormon church bought Pepsico? What next, was the moon landing entirely staged? I suggest you get your facts straight.
Well, they don’t own it outright. The Mormon Church, according to Mormons I knew, invested in Pepsico Shares. So, it’s OK to drick Pepsi, if you’re Mormon.
Maybe he heard it was Coke the Mormons owned. People, you need to source this stuff.
The Mormons owning Pepsi is an urban myth. This is a great blog, but there are seem people here who need to check out snopes so they stop repeating ridiculous urban legends.
myths
The Mormon church doesn’t ban caffeinated soda. It bans tea and coffee, and because both those drinks contain caffeine, a lot of people conclude that cola is out, too. But the church doesn’t take a position one way or the other.
Pepsi sucks.
Just for clarification (you may not have been implying it), Mormons are not Christians.
Says you.
Peter, it’s not THAT bad. Yes, Utah is a pretty religious-type GOP territory, but SLC itself is kinda hip, especially lately. I actually find it fun to live in a liberal “hole” in the center of a red donut, liberals tend to be less “totally crazy” than in SF or Santa Monica, if you know what I mean.
That’s why I enjoyed Denver very much.
But restrictive alcohol laws is a bummer. No titty bars with beer.
SLC nice? Socially repressed- yes- great place to live if you are white, narrow minded, paranoid or right wing reactionary.
Hey, you say that like it’s a BAD thing….
Comment by foreclose_me
2006-05-03 14:52:44
Just for clarification (you may not have been implying it), Mormons are not Christians.
___________________________________________________
The fact that their “prophet”, Joe Smith was a child rapist leads me to believe that morons/mormons are as far from Christian as one could get.
there were 200,000 people in the mortgage industry in 2001. at year end 2005 there were over 500,000 people. i would venture to say that with dropping sales volume, upside down borrowers (not refinancable) and technology improvements, we will less than those 200,000 by years end. what striking to me is that ameriquest thinks they can run a web based business model with subprime borrowers. based upon my experience, the only way these people ever got to the closing table was with strong push by the broker, the whole rep and the sales manager.
Agree. Subprime is a face to face - somewhat high pressure close, similar to used cars.
That’s not true, while I agree subprime is face to face. There is really not a high pressure close actually quite the opposite. In most cases your talking about blue collar people who have no chance in hell of walking into a bank and geting a loan because they had a medical expense or job loss and was late on a few payments. Contrary to the popular harping on this board the banking industry is very unforgiving of mistakes or misfortune. Most folks who get these loans need the help and appreciate it. The problem lies when you have the shucksters who because of their greed or last get rich quick scheme have screwed up and will use every mean neccessary to enable his fantasy of his greatness.
I agree with MrIncomestream…
to a point.
Subprime markets CAN serve a purpose. In theory, a lot of people would get the cold shoulder from a traditional bank, and thus their only hope of buying a house is in the subprime field. In this case the subprime mortgage industry can help a consumer achieve their goals, i.e. buy a home (I leave open the debate as to whether or not these subprime borrowers SHOULD be buying homes)
The beef I have with these guys is that most general people don’t know the difference between Wells Fargo and Ameriquest (prime vs subprime lenders). Due to confusion, many PRIME borrowers have been placed into subprime loan options. Often this was due to RACE. (blacks and hispanics incorrectly yet purpusefully put in subprime). The loan officers knew what was going on, and many brokers have steered people to subprime so that the BROKER gets the higher commission.
Admittedly, how many of the loan officers are “bad” and how many brokers “bad”? We’ll probably never know. But the bad eggs have really tainted most all of the lending industry for me.
In a perfect free market world, these subprimers would simply go belly up. But we all know who is going to have to pay for this crap with our tax dollars.
clouseau
I personally don’t believe you are helping folks by giving them a loan when they can’t afford one. What they need is someone to set them down and explain why their income will not support the items they would like to buy (preferably offering to teach them some budgeting skills), whether that be a house, car or whatever. However, this type of advice wouldn’t exactly fall under the domain of a subprime lender now would it? Let’s at least stop the pretention that lenders are doing someone a favor by putting them into a loan that ultimately will result in a BK filing at worse or housepoor at best. Is renting not an option anymore? Secondly, clipping folks who have poor credit by tacking on additional interest expense could hardly be considered a helping hand. The bottom line is that the subprime lenders are acting in their own self interest and that is that. After all, isn’t this capitalism at it’s finest?
I guess… but still…
I seem to recall that it’s typically something less than 5% foreclosure rate on homes to subprime borrowers . (actually, I think it’s more around 2% for subprime, 0.2% for prime) That’s high compared to the really low foreclosure rate on prime borrowers.
But it also means that 95+% of subprime borrowers DON’T have to foreclose. Those people presumably got the American Dream, and could only do it through the subprime lenders.
Now I agree that the American Dream is overly hyped… but so are ALL dreams… that’s why they’re dreams. Kinda like the dream of “starting a family” or the dream of “owning a home” or “going to college” or “getting married” and so on. In the end, the “dream” is often more hyped up and self important than the actual act. But without dreams we’d be a dull species ideed!
Hey, if wacky Californians want to throw away 50% of their income on housing, and it makes them happy to do so, then why not call it a “service” for the lenders to allow it. It’s no different (except for scale) than Hummer dealers allowing people to waste their cash on a useless POS SUV, or Apple selling us $300 walkmans (iPod), or the myriad of other stupid ways we are allowed to overconsume.
True “helping” might not be quite the right word. But serving a function might work better….
Subprime (in theory) serves a function.
Predatory lending is a totally different matter. (but it mostly happens in the subprime world)
Here’s the thing I actually agree with both of you to a point. Giving somebody a loan who’s three months down on payments and have no feasible way of paying it back just to delay the inevitable for a few months is nonsense and actually if it isn’t predatory lending is so damn close it’s a moot point to even argue it.
However, especially after the last downturn and understanding how easy it is to manipulate credit reports and fico scores.
I see no problem with subprime lending because it’s actually supposed to be a temporary reprieve to get your credit back so that you can get prime money. Unfortunately a whole lot of folks have taken advantage of it for the wrong reasons.
I can give you dozens of examples where it was used in the right way and helped quite a few folks. I can also give you dozens of examples of people filing BK on less than 10k worth of dept and 6 mo’s later buying 500k in property which in my mind is complete insanity.
My guess is that by the end of the upcoming housing debacle, everyone that has been turned down by a subprime lender will be counting their blessings.
Well that’s the problem in itself not many are turned down by the subprime industry. And those that are bubble or no bubble. Won’t be buying anything now or in the future
What pisses me off about giving loans to people who have no business qualifying because they DON’T have the appropriate income is that is punishes those who have worked hard, and selected careers where they would have qualifying income.
I know that when I was looking at what kind of life I needed to have, I was factoring in things like kid’s school expenses, how much flexibility I wanted to be present for the child stuff, and then factor in college expenses, housing, etc… that pretty much told me what kind of income I was going to need… which in turn told me which careers were going to meet my needs and how hard I would have to work. So if there is no need to have qualifying income… then why bother finding a great career and getting good at it and making money… you don’t need real money for anything… just sign up for a suicide loan and let your house work for you. pisses me off.
and maybe a straightjacket????
“‘When they started courting me in February I was reluctant to even consider their offer. I was OK with the job I had,’ Carroll said. ‘But they kept making their offer sweeter and sweeter and after awhile I started looking forward to starting a new life with my family in Utah.’ Now, Carroll said, he’s stuck in Utah without a job.”
Sounds like this man has some recourse. IF Ameriquest hired him knowing that the office was to be closed. I would be pissed if this happened to me. The guy is without a job and a home because of this scum company.
‘I would guess it is very difficult to provide profit incentives to branch managers in far-flung locales and expect them to comply with all relevant laws,’ said Daniel K. Osborne, a Phoenix-based investment fund manager.
Now that my friends is an apologist. Yeah no company in the country is able to manage that, not Wal-Mart, not Burger King, not Starbucks. Does he think we’re living in Russia in 1965? Sheesh.
The bottom line is that you do not close offices and lay people off if you think your business is, or will be, healthy. You have to read into these things, and this message is a loud and clear “holy crap, the market is imploding..”
-X
BubbleTrack.blogspot.com
“The bottom line is that you do not close offices and lay people off if you think your business is, or will be, healthy.”
That’s what I was thinking too, bubble-x.
Utah voted for G Bush in 2004 by 70% to Kerry’s 30% SLC may have a liberal mayor- by Utah standards but it is still a very socially repressed state and SCL is anything bit liberal. If a state votes so overwelmingnly for Bush, then I would think they(Utah) would agree to the Sean Haniity Rush Limbaugh scheme of things- as for global warming- the ’scientific evidence’ ths far - which means nearly 90% of Climate scientists agree that is theoretically valid- unless you think that Utah and Mormonism have more validity…..the choice is yours.
I hear that the Kos & DU are quite welcoming of your particular brand of bigotry.
Obviously the proposition is this: vote for Bush and you’re a bigot, vote for Kerry and you’re enlightened, right?
Personally, I didn’t vote for either. The choice was between the new Jimmy Carter (Kerry) or vote for a guy of questionable intellectual means (though if grades are any indication, he was smarter than Kerry) who only got into the position to run for president because of his father. Hopefully, substance, instead of whomever the party thinks is the most “electable,” will rule the day. How different would things have been now if it had been Bradley v. McCain in 2000?
Gone are the days when people could disagree without being disagreeable. I’ve lived in really blue and red areas and neither group really gets it and part of the problem is that if group blue is for something then group red will automatically be against it and vice versa.
In addition, in both places I never found one group at large being more “repressed” than the other. You’re acting like SLC is something out of some Hawthorne novel and in that you’re showing your total ignorance.
Peter,
With all due respect, how can you call “white, middle-class” culture socially repressed??? It’s just a different choice of lifestyle. Some people prefer it, some don’t. Isn’t the freedom to associate with whomever we want one of the most precious freedoms of all? IMHO, it’s the FORCED integration policies of the past few decades which have caused so many of our racial & class tensions. I can’t honestly see how forcing people who hate each other to live together is promoting harmony.
BTW, I have been accused here of being so left-leaning that I should be falling over, so it’s not like I am a flag-waving, Bush-supporting Republican (definitely not). But I can still see that there are many perspectives WRT all these issues, and to presume that my way is the only right way is the height of arrogance (and ignorance, IMHO).
Do what you want, and let others do what they want, as long as nobody harms one another.
Ameriquest is not retrenching or repositioning or entering new territory. Were that the case you’d hear an annoucment of a transition period as offices accross the country were closed in an orderly fashion and attempts would be made to place employees in the new divison and attrition would cover the difference. You don’t close offices, you let leases expire. Ameriquest chopped off its leg to postpone the wolves.
Shut the doors, call in the shredders, auction the servers.
No evidence..
I plan on applying for the position of: Director of Forensic Information Systems, New Resolution Trust Corp. Heck, people already call me DOFIS.
Concur. They closed immediately with no notice. This is a response to shitty business conditions!
Just got the email announcing the new issue of Fortune magazine.
Guess what’s on the cover….
“HIGHLIGHTS FROM YOUR NEW ISSUE OF FORTUNE
May 15, 2006 (Scheduled to arrive the week of May 1, 2006)
COVER STORIES:
The Real Estate Survival Guide:
Harsh Reality Page 94
Hear that sound?
There’s an ill wind blowing through the housing market. Here’s
what the end of the boom means for home values, the economy, and
you.
By Shawn Tully
Ten Tips for Today’s Market Page 105
Whether you are buying, selling, investing, or staying put, here
are some smart moves you can make to get the most out of your
real estate.
By Ellen Florian Kratz”
ken,
hard to believe what a difference six months makes. denver appears to be showing some serious structural weakness right now. even with the record foreclosures, most of my wholesale reps (even “a” lenders) report that better than 90% of their business is either 80/20 or straight 100% deals, mostly interest only arms. when will it end.
OT… good article on ST JOE
How St. Joe Lost Its Halo
By Jim Cramer
RealMoney.com Columnist
5/3/2006 9:17 AM EDT
Click here for more stories by Jim Cramer
http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/markets/activetraderupdate/10283247.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA
Oops… posted wrong one…
Try this one…
The Real Story: Ugly Kid Joe
By Marc Lichtenfeld
Senior Columnist
5/3/2006 1:02 PM EDT
http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/comment/investing/10283337.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA
ROTFLMAO
“During his first day on the job Monday, Dennis Carroll eagerly looked forward to a bright future as the new manager of the Ameriquest Mortgage Co. office in downtown Salt Lake City. Carroll and 11 other employees were told that effective immediately embattled Ameriquest was closing the Salt Lake office.When they started courting me in February I was reluctant to even consider their offer. I was OK with the job I had,’ Carroll said. ‘But they kept making their offer sweeter and sweeter and after awhile I started looking forward to starting a new life with my family in Utah.’ Now, Carroll said, he’s stuck in Utah without a job.”
And the kicker is probably that the guy that recruited him took over his old job on the same day….that’d be a great hollywood script…!!
Often called an Option ARM…
Option 1… Pay the minimum 2.6% interest for the month and have the difference (say your real rate is 5%) added to the principal of the loan (in this case 2.4%)
Option 2… Pay the Interest Only portion of the loan (in this example 5%)
Option 3… Pay the Interest and Principal like a regular 30 yr loan
The option period can last 1, 3, 5, 7 years, etc… After the option period is up your rate adjusts to whatever agreed upon in the contract… Most common are index’s that follow the LIBOR rate, FED Funds, etc plus some percentage added on top of that variable rate… usually can adjust every year after the option period is up…
There is also usually a max your principal can hit with the option adding on… and when you hit this max the loan will adjust to agreed upon conditions… often the 30 year fixed…
I am just wingin it with this description… so I hope you get better advice from a broker that is on here…
cheers
pay rate is generally 1.5%, can go as low as .90%. rate adjusts monthly, interest only is more like 7.5%. the option period in no more than 3 years, then amortizes for 27 years at the fully indexed rate. max cap for the first three years is 7.5% of payment. example $600K, year one-$750, year two-$806, year three-$866, year four (with approximately $114,000 in fresh new principal)-$4462. and that’s without any further deterioration in rates from today. the kicker- the more back points that the broker received, the higher the margin- hence the higher the rate is on the adjusted loan and the amount of neg am the borrower has grown in three years. yuck, truly the “smart loan”.
You are incorrect. On option-ARMs, most of them adjust monthly in rate, starting in the second month. They go to full index plus margin. What remains low is the minimum payment. The below-interest-only option is a minimum payment that results in interest accruing (negative amortization.) Often, this minimum payment is set by the first month interest rate. For example, the first month the rate may be 1%, and the payment is equivalent to P&I on 1% using 30 year amortization. The second month, the rate goes to index plus margin, but your payment remains the same for 12 months, before it is increased. Your payment can increase 7.5% per year for 5 years, at which time the loan payments are P&I for the remaining 25 years at each month’s interest rate.
(I do not do these loans.)
i could be me but didn’t you just confirm everything i said above. i have never lent to anyone but a flipper on these loans anyway (option arms were the lowest cost of funds for quite some time when libor/cofi/codi were low and cash flow was the a big concern). the max payment caps are out the door anyway, as your principal triggers are met before year two (in the current environment).
What are the margins at these days ? What index are most the ARM and IO loans tied to ?
Check out the “banking giant” link that Ben’s so kindly provided in the above article. (In the WA state paragraph)
Things are getting pretty surreal when people show up to pay their mortgage and the shop’s closed.
Ben:
This came out from Reuters on yahoo:
Pretty good…
http://yahoo.reuters.com/stocks/QuoteCompanyNewsArticle.aspx?storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20060503:MTFH72509_2006-05-03_20-34-12_N03406226&symbol=CFC.N&rpc=44
Oops forgot to put it in the Headline was the the Mortgage Industry may lose more jobs
You think a number of these laid off folks and the ones to soon join them in the unemployment lines, are players in the “investor owned” speculator Risklove game?:
Welcome to Salt Lake City, Utah.Growing up in Utah, I found that people believe the world is in great shape,global warming is completely made up. Mormons accounted for 62.4% of the population in 2005. Temple Square,is literally the center of our city,in Utah there seem to be only two options, you either climb aboard the Mormon train or you get run over by it.
everyone will get hit excp gov workers
Just keep telling yourself that…
My attempt to make a nice comment about Mr. Carroll who was moved to SLC stirred a few feathers.
First, I am a Mormon and grew up there. It is a great place for those that like such environment. For those that don’t, there is nobody holding them there. I15 leaves N & S, I80, E&W. This is a housing blog and not a religious intolerance blog. I have not insulted anybody’s elses religion. The Mormon church is officially named “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints”. We consider ourselves Christian as Christ is the center of our religion.
I have also lived in Orange County, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay area for 15 years. CA was nice in the 80’s, but I now detest what it has become. I am happy I have now left there for living. I do NOT care for the liberal politics, etc in CA. And that I feel as a minority being a caucasian, married with a family.
I just tried to give the person some encouragement for an area he wound up in. He has a family, and SLC is a great place for a family. And many folks in SLC are NOT mormon and most of them really like it (or they are free to go elsewhere).
I couldn’t agree more. I’m agnostic and I chose to live in the “People’s Republic of Portland” but I think SLC is a nice, clean city in a stunning natural environment. I’ve been there many times on business, and I’m happy it provides such a great environment for the people who want to live there. This is a *housing* blog, folks. Lighten up.
William, thank you for the nice comment. I am glad you are satisfied with Portland. I have only seen the airport, but hear it is also beautiful.