Sep. 19, 2007: Talk Like a Pirate Day…at Impac & E*Trade?

Sep. 19, 2007: Talk Like a Pirate Day…at Impac & E*Trade? Rob Chrisman

Gasoline prices going up? What does a pirate pay for a gas?

An aaaaarrrrrrrmm and a peg!

Impac Mortgage suspended some operations last month but has now come out with plans to cease almost all lending and scrap dividends for the rest of 2007 after “disruptions” caused by rising defaults. In a statement it told 144 more employees across the U.S. they’ll be fired as the company ends “warehouse lending, commercial lending and substantially all of its mortgage lending.” Impac plans to keep only a handful of offices that make loans that conform to standards set by government-sponsored mortgage buyers.

E*TRADE announced a “restructuring” and will exit the wholesale mortgage business. The company plans to reduce balances in home equity, consumer loans and securities, replacing these assets as they pay down or mature with margin debt and prime first lien mortgages from retail customers, and in addition will exit its wholesale mortgage operations and will streamline its direct mortgage lending business to focus on its retail franchise.

Accredited Home Lenders posted a big quarterly loss and said its survival remained in doubt.

NovaStar Financial gave up its real estate investment trust status sooner than expected because it could not pay a $157 million dividend to keep it.

Thanks to Stephanie A. in WC.:

Here in Northern California, to help jump-start a soft real estate market the Contra Costa Assessor is asking supervisors to allow California homeowners to keep their old property tax assessments when they buy a less-expensive home in the county. The tax savings is permitted a state law that allows counties to decide whether to offer break for homeowners 55 older. The goal is to permit seniors to downsize into smaller homes without having to pay more in taxes.

What happened when the Federal Open Market Committee cut two key rates yesterday? Despite a huge stock market rally, analysts cut growth and interest rate forecasts for the US economy, expectations of real GDP growth declined, and estimates of further rate cuts immediately popped up. 10-yr Treasury yields bounced around slightly, but seem content for now around 4.50% (currently 4.53%). 30-yr A-paper prices improved, but may give some of that back today. For ARM fans, however, the news was good, as the yield curve steepened dramatically – so in spite of longer-term yields not doing much, short-term rates dropped, resulting in much better ARM pricing.

I was having trouble with my computer. So I called Harold, the computer guy, to come over. Harold clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem. He gave me a bill for a minimum service call. As he was walking away, I called after him, “So, what was wrong?” He replied, “It was an ‘ID ten T’ error.” I didn’t want to appear stupid, but I nonetheless inquired, “An ID ten T Error? What’s that, in case I need to fix it again?” Harold grinned. “Haven’t you ever heard of an ID ten T error before?” “No,” I replied. “Write it down,” he said, “and I think you’ll figure it out.” So I wrote it down. I D 1 0 T I used to like Harold…