Editorial

PMI Mortgage Insurance Co., the U.S. subsidiary of The PMI Group, Inc. released its Fall 2007 U.S. Market Risk Index(SM) today. The report ranks the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) according to the likelihood that home prices will be lower in two years.

Does it seem important to anyone else that banks, realtors, and insurance lobbied so strongly for deregulation and greater independence from government scrutiny? It does not seem coincidental that the mortgage products failing so miserably in 2006 and 2007 were not even available to borrowers until late 2004 and 2005. Option ARMs, low doc/no doc, stated income, were not available until after consumer protection was restricted in the best interest of the financial institutions.

According to a report from Moody’s US subprime mortgages written during the first half of the year are going delinquent at the fastest rate this decade. The average rate of “serious loan delinquencies” in the 2007 bonds is higher than those created last year, a vintage considered to be one of the worst-performing ever. The ratings agency defines “serious delinquency” as loans that are 60 days or more overdue, and includes properties in foreclosure and those already foreclosed upon.

Bear Stearns Residential Mortgage and Encore Credit Corporation will be a single unit under the name Bear Stearns Residential Mortgage, the bank said in a statement. The move will mean reducing staffing by 310 jobs. Encore Credit is a sub-prime mortgage lender, while the Bear Stearns Residential Mortgage lends for Alt-A mortgages.

New York’s Citigroup Inc. said they would take billions of dollars in charges related to bad loans to high-risk U.S. homeowners.

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