Quelle: bloomberg.com
Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, will make it easier for customers to keep their homes by changing the terms on $16 billion of adjustable-rate mortgages.
About 52,000 customers with subprime loans can refinance into prime or government-backed mortgages through next year, the Calabasas, California-based company said today in a statement. Such loans usually have lower rates. Another 30,000 who may miss payments, or are already late, will get more affordable terms.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson last week called the housing slump "the most significant current risk to our economy" and urged lenders to modify more loans. Countrywide, which funded more than 1.8 million mortgages this year, has been criticized by housing advocates who say the company has done little to stem record U.S. foreclosures.
"Lending has never been an altruistic business, but having lots of failed transactions on your books is never good," said Keith Gumbinger, vice president at HSH Associates, a mortgage research firm in Pompton Plains, New Jersey. While Countrywide will make less money, the modified mortgages are less likely to fail entirely, he said...
