Countrywide hit harder than I expected
It's apparent that Countrywide was hit harder by the subprime marketi than we originally anticipated. I had originally thought based on their perfomance last quarter. The subprime part of Countrywide's portfolio drove down profit by 37% over the previous quarter. I had expected Countrywide's internal knowledge of the California market (and how cyclic it can be) to mitigate some exposure to the fall out in the subprime market. It's apparent that even Pasadena based Indymac isn't immune. "IndyMac, whose Alt-A loans aren't supposed to be as risky as subprime mortgages, reported its lowest profit in almost three years. Earnings fell to $52.4 million, or 70 cents a share, from $79.9 million, or $1.18 million a year earlier."
Media Reports:
Bloomberg on Countrywide's 1st Quarter 2007
CNN Money on CountrywideLabels: countrywide, countrywide1stquarter2007, indymac, Pasadena
KELO, Eminent Domain and California
The city of Monrovia is planning on using eminent domain to take a property owners land. In place of a smog tester and auto mechanic, they are going to but in 15-25 condos priced at 600,000 to 1.2 million a piece. How much did they offer him for his property? $709,000. I know that corner. The property is worth twice that much. But this is just another example of the expansion of eminent domain solely to improve the tax base of the city. It's wrong and I see no clear fix in the near future. A local government stealing property to give to another private party for development for a private economic gain. No public use is planned for this land. They are doing it solely for increasing property tax revenue.
Labels: eminentdomain, KELO, Monrovia, Pasadena
