October 2007 versus October 2006 results for Countrywide Financial Corporation:
∙ Purchase loan fundings: down 47%
∙ ARM fundings: down 81%
∙ Subprime fundings: down 99%
∙ Daily loan application activity: down 34%
∙ Delinquencies: Up to 5.94% of unpaid principal balance (versus 3.97%)
∙ Pending foreclosures: Up to 1.28% (versus 0.58%)
And no, we don’t have a breakdown for California, the Bay Area, or San Francisco. Tipsters?
Countrywide Reports October 2007 Operational Results [countrywide.com]

9 thoughts on “What A Difference A Year Makes For Countrywide Financial Corp”
  1. countrywide may not survive this.
    they are in danger of being downgraded to junk by all 3 ratings agencies.
    If this happens, then they will have to transfer their bank deposits from Countrywide bank to another entity, which would severely hamper their lending efforts.
    even worse, it would make it more expensive for them to work in the financial markets.
    countrywide has been a dead man walking for quite some time now.
    for article about this, google
    “countrywide, warns, junk” and you’ll get the original articles.
    Again, it is pure fantasy for anybody who thinks that lending will get anywhere near as crazy as it was from 2003-2006 anytime soon.
    Every big player is hurting big. Countrywide, BofA, Wells Fargo, WaMu, Citi, Merrill, Bear Stearns, HSBC, GMAC, you name it. Even the revered Goldman Sachs is probably a big lie (their earnings are all based on Level 3 accounting… in other words, they make up the values of what they hold)
    and more downgrades are to come. some big players are going to go under or change substantially (such as possible breakup of citi as example).
    thus, if you want to borrow money anytime soon, get your financial house in order.
    The idea of risk elimination through mortgage securitization and equity tranches is now gone the way of the Edsel.
    Thus, we will soon test our hypothesis.
    If SF Real Estate is expensive because the people here are affluent/high income earners, then the downturn should not be too great.
    If on the other hand San Franciscans have overextended themselves and are relying on loose lending and leverage, then a huge downfall may be in order.

  2. i think we have already proven that hypothesis ex-sfer. there is way too much wealth either in or wanting to be in sf’s nicer neighborhoods to allow a real correction. i have seen a slight one in the 2 bedrooms in my building of 200+ units. they were selling for 950k and now you can get one for 899k. that is about all we will see in my part of town.
    good luck!

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