Stories related to: subprime mortgages

Americans are shifting from being homeowners to renters in rising numbers, the New York Times reports, all but wiping out gains made during the boom. The percentage of homes headed by homeowners dropped from 69.1% to 67.8% this year, which sounds modest, but is, in fact, the biggest decline in 20 years. President Bush's ambitious "ownership society" plan hoped to see more low-income and minority families own their own homes, but these groups have been hardest hit by the subprime crisis. More »

Martin Sullivan has stepped down as AIG's CEO, and the company's board named chairman Maurice Willumstad his successor, insiders tell the Wall Street Journal . The insurance giant's stock has plummeted more than 50% since October due to subprime writedowns, and Sullivan is still embroiled in legal battles with his former boss. The new chief may start with a clean slate, but the state of American real estate remains daunting. More »

US homeowners are literally burning down their homes instead of paying their subprime mortgages. Last year saw a dramatic nationwide jump in apparently debt-motivated arson, the Los Angeles Times reports. “I'm busier now than a one-armed paper hanger,” said one investigator. “What is happening is terrifically economically driven.” So far, the numbers are small, but they have insurers on edge. More »

Some Wall Street hedge-fund managers earned billions betting against the market last year, with the top of the class, John Paulson, shaking loose $3.7 billion, the New York Times reports. With the US median family income at $60,500, the booty embarrassed even some of his Wall Street peers. “It’s not illegal,” said Pimco's CIO. “But it’s ugly." More »

Homeowners struggling to avoid foreclosure are about to get a boost from the Federal Housing Administration. The FHA commissioner is expected to announce plans to expand an aid program that will allow borrowers saddled with negative equity to write down part of their mortgages and refinance their homes with cheaper FHA-insured loans, reports the Wall Street Journal. More »

Homeowners facing foreclosure could soon be getting a helping hand from the Bush administration, the Washington Post reports. Details are being finalized on a plan that would see portions of loans forgiven for people who now owe the bank more money than their house is worth. The remainder would be refinanced into smaller mortgages backed by public funds. More »

The credit crisis that’s roiled financial markets has its genesis in the housing boom that began in 1998, David Leonhardt writes in the New York Times . The boom led lenders to create new financing options—including subprime loans—as investors saw potential for huge returns. Low interest rates encouraged investors, and homeowners, to stretch themselves too thin—and the seeds of crisis were planted. More »

Stocks rallied in the afternoon to recover big early losses, buoyed by a prediction from Standard & Poors that the end was in sight for banks' subprime writedowns. The Dow—at one point down more than 230 points—finished up 35.5 points to close at 12,145.74, MarketWatch reports. The Nasdaq gained 19.74 points to end at 2,263.61, and the S&P 500 rose 6.7 points to 1,315.47. More »

A panel led by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is seeking a major overhaul of rules affecting mortgage lenders and a credit market decimated by risky subprime loans and loose oversight, the Wall Street Journal r eports. Among panel recommendations to be released today: Strengthen mortgage lender and broker oversight Establish licensing standards for mortgage brokers More »

Capping a week of gridlock, GOP senators yesterday blocked consideration of a Democratic-backed housing-relief bill. The mortgage industry had fought hard against the proposal, which would allow judges to slash interest rates for low-income homeowners facing bankruptcy, the Washington Post reports. The bill also included billions of dollars for local communities to buy up subprime mortgages. More »

Homeowners burned by the subprime mortgage meltdown shouldn't be looking to the federal government for help, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told the Wall Street Journal yesterday. Facing down mounting congressional pressure for stronger measures to stem an epidemic of foreclosures, Paulson dismissed proposals on the table as "bailouts" for reckless lenders, investors and speculators. More »

Ben Bernanke’s report to Congress on monetary policy offered a grim outlook on the economy, but ABC News sees some signs that good news may be around the corner: workers in Silicon Valley, a national economic bellwether, feel good about their prospects. Rising exports, the recently-passed stimulus package and the future rate cuts Bernanke will probably make at the Fed’s March 18 meeting are additional reasons for optimism. More »

With one in 10 US homeowners owing more on their homes than they’re worth, the highest proportion of negative-equity loans since the Depression, the government is weighing plans that would apply the brakes to the rapidly accelerating housing market collapse, the New York Times reports. Possibilities include federal loan guarantees and spending billions refinancing at-risk mortgages. More »

Societe Generale's annual profits plummeted a whopping 82% after a record $4.9 billion fourth quarter loss fueled by subprime woes and the actions of rogue trader Jerome Kerviel, reports Bloomberg. France’s second-largest bank today said net income was 947 million euros, compared to 5.22 billion euros in 2006. SocGen warned further losses could come in the first quarter. More »

Asian stocks slumped today after reports in the Financial Times that a struggling arm of private equity heavyweight Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. missed a second payment on billions of dollars of commercial debt just 6 months after two of its founders poured $270 million into the company. Investors cashed out as fears of a global credit meltdown flared, reports the Wall Street Journal.  More »

The subprime crisis has forced the British government to do what it dreaded: nationalize a bank. What's the fallout from the Northern Rock takeover? Gordon Brown "put quite a good face" on an unpalatable decision, says Philip Stephens of the Financial Times. Nationalization hasn't hurt him much, but the dithering has. Result: An election is probably years away. More »

Still struggling with billions of dollars in subprime losses, Citigroup blocked nervous investors from bailing out of a hedge fund specializing in corporate debt, reports the Wall Street Journal. Investors tried to pull more than 30% of $500 million in assets from CSO Partners, which posted an 11% loss last year and was re-funded with $100 million from Citigroup last month. More »

The Bush administration was a “willing accomplice” to predatory lending practices that cost thousands of Americans their homes and endangered our economy, Eliot Spitzer writes in the Washington Post . When state attorneys general (including Spitzer at the time) tried to act against a spike in deceptive and even illegal loans, the feds mobilized an obscure agency to shut down the regulators, the New York governor claims. More »

Swiss banking giant UBS today reported an $11.23-billion fourth-quarter loss—the largest ever by a bank — and its first full-year loss ever, after taking $13.7 billion more in subprime mortgage writedowns, reports the Telegraph. UBS, which still has a $27.59-billion exposure to subprime securities, is likely to take further markdowns in the next quarter, the company said. "UBS expects 2008 to be another difficult year," the bank said in a statement. More »

US criminal prosecutors investigating the subprime mortgage mess want to find out if UBS deliberately misled investors, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Swiss banking giant may have put mortgage bonds on its books at high prices despite knowing their valuations had plummeted. There are multiple probes into the mortgage crisis; until now most of them have involved civil authorities. More »