| A lender's recipe for downfall
The home loan program was dubbed South Street.
It turned the idea of credit risk on its head. Consumers just exiting bankruptcy could get a mortgage with few questions. They could have some of the lowest possible credit scores. And they didn't have to submit any pay stubs or tax returns.
Subprime mortgage lender Fieldstone Investment Corp. of Columbia created the loan program during the real-estate gold rush in 2004 as competitors flooded the market.
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Change in bankruptcy laws pondered amid home mortgage meltdown
WASHINGTON | After being hooked with ill-advised subprime loans on their homes, many thousands of Americans could end up gaffed in bankruptcy courts next year. Despite a new law to make filings more painful, bankruptcies surged by nearly 40 percent in 2007, leading Samuel Gerdano, American Bankruptcy Institute director, to predict "even higher filings this year, as the heavy consumer debt load is made worse by the home mortgage crisis." Some in Congress want to wade in to try to help prevent more — perhaps as many as 2.2 million — homes from being lost to foreclosure. Nearly 20,000 Missourians risk losing homes, said Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat. Sen. Chris Dodd would roll back provisions in the law enacted two years ago to make it harder for people to file for bankruptcy and walk away from their debts.
Mortgage Fears Drive Up Rates On Jumbo Loans
Turmoil in the U.S. home-mortgage market is starting to pinch even buyers of high-end homes with good credit records, in the latest sign of rising anxiety among lenders and investors. This surge in rates on so-called jumbo loans is particularly notable because rates on 10-year Treasury bonds have been falling. Normally, mortgage rates move in tandem with Treasurys, but market jitters have caused investors to ditch mortgage securities. Meanwhile, American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. finally succumbed yesterday to the mortgage-sector chaos that had crippled it in recent weeks and filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of U.S. bankruptcy ... .
DeNaples' priest had deep debt
On a take-home pay of $880 a month, the Rev. Joseph Sica amassed debts of $218,000.
And he owed the vast bulk of the money -- $148,000 -- to a bank headed by his friend, Louis DeNaples, owner of Mount Airy Casino Resort.
How Sica qualified for credit cards, auto and personal loans on a Roman Catholic priest's income, and what he spent all the money on, are mysteries unaddressed by the bankruptcy court papers that document his financial hole.
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Court considers plan for sale of troubled nursing home chain
New Haven (AP) _ A federal bankruptcy judge is considering a plan that could result in the sale of the financially troubled Haven Healthcare nursing home chain. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal says a $50 million loan is the main component of a plan to stabilize the chain, making it more marketable to investors and companies that have expressed a strong interest in buying some or all of the homes. The plan calls for a bidding process to be approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Albert S. Dabrowski by April 1 and for the auction of the homes by May 23. Haven Healthcare filed for bankruptcy protection in November. .
Bank emperor's biggest gamble
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - In a career defined by blockbuster deals, Bank of America chief executive Kenneth D. Lewis has taken his biggest gamble yet with an attempt to rescue the country's biggest mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial.
Lewis may have become a market savior by buying the troubled Countrywide for about $4 billion in stock, and keeping the industry and regulators from the messy task of cleaning up the bankruptcy of a company that is servicing 9 million U.S. home loans with a value of $1.5 trillion.
But Bank of America must first take on billions in mortgages at a time when the nation is facing an ever-widening credit crisis, foreclosures are on the rise and the odds of a recession seem to grow each day.
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Chat wrap
College football stars, such as West Virginia FB Owen Schmitt; Notre Dame S Tom Zbikowski; Cal WR Lavelle Hawkins; USC OL Sam Baker, QB John David Booty; Penn State LB Dan Connor; BC QB Matt Ryan; Kansas State WR Jordy Nelson; Missouri TE Martin Rucker; Texas DB Marcus Griffin; and several members from the national champ LSU team including WR Early Doucet, RB Jacob Hester, DB Craig Steltz. will line the rosters. Be sure to join the players, ESPN experts Mel Kiper and Todd McShay and other guests as we break down heights, weights, 40 times and practice performances all week from Mobile! Wednesday's chatters:
Michigan DB Jamar Adams
Purdue LB Cliff Avril
Ex-NFL QB Scott Brunner
UCLA LB/DE Bruce Davis
Delaware QB Joe Flacco
Ga. Tech LB Gary Guyton
Pitt G Mike McGlynn
Arizona St.
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