Wall Street Leads Consolidation of Subprime Lending Business but might High Risk Loans spell Disaster for the Market?

Salt Lake City, UT / November 30, 2006 / It would seem nationally that the housing market has cooled as new and pre-existing housing inventories increase, adjustable rate mortgages take flight and consumers struggle to keep pace with an economy that demands financially more when truly there is less. But in a world built with risk seekers and fortune makers Wall Street may have found one more untapped resource within the housing market via Subprime loans.

In the past six months Merrill Lynch & Company have purchased National City Corporation's First Franklin lending unit for $1.3 billion; Bear Stearns is purchasing ECC Capital Corporation's mortgage lending unit for $26 million in cash and Saxon Capital has agreed to be bought by Morgan Stanley for $706 million. With consolidation by the Street seeming such a sure thing even H&R Block is considering to sell its subprime lending unit Option One which last year purportedly made $40 billion in loans.

But is this latest fade of consolidating new to Wall Street and how healthy can it really be in today's economy?

Considering who you speak with, Wall Street's love affair with the subprime market isn't new at all. Remember that Wall Street has long since invested in mortgage backed securities also known as collateralized-debt obligations (CDO). CDOs are a type of derivative, that sidestep limits on investing in low-grade debt, which opens the CDO market to insurance companies, pension funds and because of their potential for double-digit gains they are also a favorite among hedge funds.

However, the same risk that pushes the market to crave more of these CDOs now faces significant loss from the subprime market due to increased white collar fraud activity within the real estate industry. As Barron's reported over the next two years homeowners can expect an increase in monthly payments on over $600 billion of subprime lending.

In Utah, a state that ranks second in the nation for mortgage fraud and has an overvalued housing market of 22% as reported by Matt Heimer of the Wall Street Journal's SmartMoney, such statistics could prove disastrous for the CDO Market.

"Traditional lenders rely upon information received by the loan originator and the mortgage broker to ensure that a borrower can repay the loan, but with new forms of no-doc and stated income hybrid loans, lenders are being taken for quite the ride," says Sheri Fitzpatrick, Utah Real Estate Broker and CEO of Perfect Home Living INC., a Non-Profit Organization based in Salt Lake City, UT, committed to the education of consumers, financial institutions and law enforcement agencies on loopholes used during predatory lending practices and other symptoms of real estate fraud by white collar criminals.

"White collar criminals have become smarter in their fraud for profit schemes and know how to beat proprietary software and prevention tools that lenders currently use. It's not until you have organizations like the International Association of Mortgage Brokers, where information sharing is on a global scale within an industry that the loopholes of affording illegal activity are closed for good," Fitzpatrick added.

Still Wall Street is unbothered by the risk threat that fraud plays within the lender CDO market.

"We're starting to see bigger deals now with Option One coming up for sale," says Mr. Howlett of Fox-Pitt, Kelton. "We think we will begin to see over the next 12 months even larger deals."

Recently Perfect Home Living examined the life of loan to CDO stardom and netted the following results - , Perfect Home Living was able to determine that a loan brokered to BNC Mortgage INC., on April 22, 2005 was sold by BNC Mortgage Inc., within the first 30 days according to records to Option One. Option One as well according to records sold this particular loan within 30 to 90 days of receiving it to Wells Fargo.

For each of the three lender's involved, it was determined that a simple review of the original paperwork submitted by the borrower would have immediately revealed to each of the lender's involved that this was a fraud for profit scheme. The borrower in this case had limited income that would not have qualified the borrower for the home loan of $650,000.00.

Nonetheless it's this type of fraud that on a much broader basis gets lumped into bank asset backed securities and CDOs that are funneled through various business units. Units that are completely unaware of the hidden dangers that lie within their portfolios.

But that's not to say that the Street isn't taking notice. Lehman Brothers Holdings INC., has grabbed eight mortgage firms in the U.S. and Europe in the past three years. But in past months Lehman has passed on such opportunities, leaving others on the Street to decide if the profit truly is worth the risk.

About Perfect Home Living

Perfect Home Living assists in implementing programs and providing training to financial lenders as well as educating Utah's consumers and licensed professionals to red flags within Utah's real estate market. For more information or to request assistance please visit us online.

Perfect Home Living INC
1905 W 4700 South #353
Salt Lake City, UT 84118
Tel: 801.502.2508
Fax: 801.528.3321
www.perfecthomeliving.com
Media Contact: Michael Blackburn

Perfect Home Living assists in implementing programs and providing training to financial lenders as well as educating Utah's consumers and licensed professionals to red flags within Utah's real estate market. For more information or to request assistance please visit us online at: http://www.PerfectHomeLiving.com

This release was published on openPR.