12,000 Mortgage Loan Layoffs

Countrywide, the nation's No. 1 home lender, said yesterday that it would cut as many as 12,000 jobs, or about 20% of its workforce. It said the downturn in the housing market and the credit crunch related to sub-prime loans have created the worst conditions ever seen by the modern mortgage industry.

Countrywide Chairman Angelo Mozilo said in a letter to employees yesterday. "Unfortunately, the only way to accomplish this is to make significant reductions in our workforce, in fact, this current cycle is certainly the most severe in the contemporary history of our industry."

Our first post about possible Countrywide layoffs was 9-26-06 National Home Price Drop..Catching up to San Diego’s Continuing Slide. Our other post about Countrywide was: Subprime Loan Implosion, Subprime Home Mortgage Lenders in Big Trouble, Largest US mortgage lender Takes a Big Foreclosure Hit, #1 US Mortgage Company to Go Bankrupt?, Countrywide Has Started layoffs …Thousands Could Be at Risk

Facing foreclosure? 9 options

Facing foreclosure? 9 options - MSN Money: "Check your options, get help, be realistic -- and most of all, don't dawdle.

By Liz Pulliam Weston

Real estate markets are slowing. Interest rates are ticking up. And the phones are ringing at ByDesign, a Los Angeles-based credit counselor, as homeowners start to panic about not being able to make their mortgage payments.

'The number of people asking for appointments to talk about foreclosure is definitely up,' said Susan Ulaga, the nonprofit service's senior vice president of counseling. Rising rates 'are really putting a crunch' on homeowners with adjustable-rate loans." San Diego downtown condominiums