Oops, we made a mess, you clean it up

Former Countrywide Financial Corp. boss Angelo R. Mozilo, whose embrace of exotic loans helped fuel the mortgage boom and meltdown, will face Securities and Exchange Commission fraud charges unless his lawyers prevail in an eleventh-hour appeal, people familiar with the SEC's investigation said Wednesday.

Mozilo is among several former executives of the Calabasas company whom the SEC staff wants to charge in a civil case, one of these people said. He would face accusations of insider trading and failing to disclose to shareholders the risks the company was running unless the SEC's five commissioners overturn their investigators' recommendation. Link

I would like to see that smarmy weasel Mozilo doing the perp walk in a colored Federal jumpsuit, but with only civil charges against him, he will probably only be wrist-slapped rather than soundly thumped for aiding and abetting the loss of trillions of dollars around the world.

And the newest data out on housing sounds very dire indeed...

...the [word from the] National Association of Realtors today… the median home price fell 14% from the first quarter of 2008 to the first three months of 2009, to just $169,000. Of the 152 metropolitan areas surveyed by the NAR, just 18 registered annual price gains. Nearly half of all sales during the first quarter were foreclosed properties or short sales. A whopping 3.7 million previously owned homes are still on the market.

And RealtyTrac, which keeps up with the foreclosure data has this to say:

April 2009 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 342,038 U.S. properties during the month, an increase of less than 1 percent from the previous month and an increase of 32 percent from April 2008. The report also shows that one in every 374 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing in April, the highest monthly foreclosure rate ever posted since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in January 2005.

“Total foreclosure activity in April ended up slightly above the previous month, once again hitting a record-high level,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Much of this activity is at the initial stages of foreclosure – the default and auction stages – while bank repossessions, or REOs, were down on a monthly and annual basis to their lowest level since March 2008. This suggests that many lenders and servicers are beginning foreclosure proceedings on delinquent loans that had been delayed by legislative and industry moratoria. It’s likely that we’ll see a corresponding spike in REOs as these loans move through the foreclosure process over the next few months.” Link

Quite a mess and, no doubt, will be so for some time to come.