Countrywide Mortgage Portfolio Deteriorates Rapidly

From the WSJ: Countrywide's Mortgage Woes Deepen

The ... lender's annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission ... showed a big increase in late payments on option adjustable-rate mortgages, known as option ARMs. ...

As of the end of 2007, payments were at least 90 days overdue on 5.4% of option ARMs held as investments by Countrywide's banking arm, up from 0.6% a year earlier. Countrywide held $28.42 billion of such loans as of Dec. 31. The company said 71% of the borrowers were making minimal payments. Only about a fifth of the borrowers were required to document fully their incomes before receiving the loans.
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Countrywide disclosed that half of the $87.04 billion of mortgage loans held by its bank are backed by homes in California and Florida, two of the states hit hardest by falling home prices.