Posted on 02/24/2008 2:57:01 PM PST by BGHater
The U.S. home-mortgage industry is in the dumps. That doesn't mean the party is over for mortgage bankers.
Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's largest mortgage lender by loan volume, will host about 30 representatives of smaller mortgage banks for three nights next week at the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch ski resort in Avon, Colo. At one of the country's most-glamorous skiing spots, a regular room on a weekday starts at $750.
The first items on the agenda for guests arriving Monday evening: Cocktails and ski fittings. Next is dinner at the Spago restaurant, whose menu includes Kobe steak with wasabi potato puree for $105. (For the budget-minded, pan-roasted buffalo filet with Kabocha pumpkin flan is $54.)
The annual event is for bankers at correspondent lenders, which originate loans and then sell them to Countrywide. The Calabasas, Calif., lender is paying for hotel rooms, meals, skiing and tips, according to a program distributed to attendees.
The schedule calls for four-hour business meetings Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, followed by skiing and dinner. Those dinners are at Zach's Cabin, where diners arrive by sled, and at Larkspur in Vail, Colo., where the menu includes California farmed Alverta President caviar, listed at $140.50.
Many companies entertain business partners in luxurious settings, of course. But this event stands out because of the company's circumstances. Countrywide's board agreed last month to sell to Bank of America Corp. for about $4 billion, less than a fifth of its market value 12 months earlier.
Rising defaults and falling home prices led to losses of about $1.6 billion at Countrywide in the second half, and the company has reduced its work force by 11,400, or 19%, since July. Countrywide's servicing arm, which collects payments and handles other administrative tasks, has about 90,000 loans in foreclosure, or 1% of the total.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Maybe they’ll have a big avalanche or something
All of these dipsticks defaulting on their loans has to suck for these mortgage lenders.
We eat at the R-C almost every time we ski at Beaver Creek. Usually peanut butter and jelly on the picnic tables outside. They do have nice bathrooms.
Hope they asked for the bankrupt company discount rate.
Neither side is innocent. Countrywide was %100 aware of what they were doing when they were lending to people who couldn’t pay it back.
Sounds nice for the bankers. Countrywide seems to be putting on a good face with this, but its hard to get a good price for your toxic assets when the condition of your company has been worldwide news for the past six months. Considering the financial condition Countrywide is in, I wouldn’t be surprised if Countrywide’s managers aren’t offering to sell their teenage daughters to the bankers.
The assets are not toxic, they are only overpriced.
They sold 4 Billion in assets that had previously been listed at 20 Billion.
Think of it this way. The house next to yours is listed at $250,000 and it's not selling.
Would you give the current owner $50,000 for it?
Would you consider it to be "toxic asset" or a great deal for you?
This current round of bankruptcies is nothing more than an inflated, overpriced market in correction.
True, individuals get burned, but that always happens when greed and avarice get in the way of sound fiscal judgement.
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