1) Juan Jose Perez hatched an elaborate foreclosure rescue scheme in California, pretending to be a lender and scamming hundreds of struggling homeowners out of up to $1.2 million in advance fees. 2) One of Perez's victims was Jose Serrano, a dump truck driver who was facing foreclosure after falling behind on his adjustable rate mortgage payments. Serrano was sent documents by Perez's company that falsely stated his loan had been modified. 3) Prosecutors have charged Perez and seven others in his operation with grand theft, money laundering, and conspiracy for their rescue scam. Perez has fled to Mexico and prosecutors are seeking his extradition. The case highlights the proliferation of scams that

1. bloomberg markets may 2009
56
Foreclosure
FLIMFLAM
ProsecutorssayhomeownersacrosstheU.S.facing
defaultaregettingswindledbysomeofthesamebrokers
whoinitiallypeddledsubprimemortgages.
By Edward Robinson
Inearly2008,CherylAnnMontero,
aCaliforniamortgagebroker,held
aseriesoffreeseminarsintheclub-
houseoftheLoneTreeGolfCourse
inContraCostaCounty,asuburban
areanearSanFrancisco.Theattend-
ees,homeownersfacingforeclosure,
weredesperateforarescuefrom
theirwoes.UsingaPowerPointpre-
sentation,Monterodeliveredone.
Shesaidherfirm,Freedom
FinancialSolutions,couldpressure
lenderstostopforeclosuresbychal-
lengingthelegalityofloanagree-
ments,accordingtocourtrecords.
Herfee:$2,500upfrontanda$2,000
monthlypaymenttocoverlegal
costs.Promotingherservices
Clockwise from top,
Alejandrina Maldonado,
Rosa Conrado and Jesus
Martin Flores pleaded
guilty to grand theft in
a scheme to rip off
homeowners facing
foreclosure.

3. ‘There’s just been an explosion of vulnerable
homeowners and people preying on them,’
the Arizona attorney general says.
bloomberg markets may 2009
58
on the Web site Craigslist, Montero, a blond-
haired, blue-eyed woman who looked like a soccer
mom, became known as a foreclosure escape art-
ist. “All the real estate agents knew about her
classes,” says Kay Trail, a realtor in Antioch. “She
was one shrewd sister.”
She was also a ripping people off, says Ken
McCormick, a prosecutor in the Contra Costa
County District Attorney’s office. A player in a
new confidence game exploiting soaring defaults,
Montero didn’t have a team of attorneys to con-
front lenders. Instead, her firm took a small own-
ership stake in some of her clients’ houses and
filed for bankruptcy, temporarily suspending fore-
closure proceedings on those homes, according to
an investigative report filed in court by prosecu-
tors. In the end, she didn’t deliver lower mort­
gages for the 10 homeowners who paid a total
of $52,000 for her services, McCormick says.
Montero did have mounting financial woes
of her own: In September, she filed for personal
bankruptcy, according to court records. “She
couldn’t make it in real estate anymore, so she just
changed hats,” McCormick says. “But she was tak-
ing money and doing nothing.”
he prosecutor charged Montero with 36
counts of grand theft and related charges in
December. She pleaded not guilty and is free
on $100,000 bail. Her lawyer, Cameron Bow-
man of San Jose, didn’t return telephone
calls for comment.
Rescue scams are springing up across the U.S.,
says California Deputy Attorney General Angela
Rosenau, exacerbating a housing crisis in its third
year. The predators are persuading troubled bor-
rowers they can intervene with their lenders and
negotiate lower payments on their mortgages, law
enforcement officials say. Instead, the players,
often out-of-work real estate professionals who
peddled subprime mortgages during the boom,
pockethundredsofthousandsofdollarsinad­-
vance fees and disappear or bleed their victims
by charging monthly payments.
“There’s just been an explosion of vulnerable
homeowners and people preying on them,” says
Terry Goddard, the attorney general of Arizona,
which recorded the third-highest rate of residen-
tial foreclosures in 2008, after Florida and
Nevada. “People miss their payments, and they
are about to be repossessed, and someone walks
in the door and says, ‘I’m here to help.’ You just
can’t underestimate the power of desperation.”
The swindlers are thriving largely because the
lenders and Wall Street banks that inflated the
housing bubble by originating and securitizing
subprime loans have been slow to help homeown-
ers as those mortgages blew up. The State Foreclo-
sure Prevention Working Group, a coalition of 37
attorneys general and banking supervisors, found
in a study released in September that lenders were
not providing mortgage relief for 8 out of 10 delin-
quent subprime borrowers last year. “Many vic-
tims have made attempts to work with lenders,
and they’ve been frustrated,” Rosenau says.
“That’s why these scams are so successful.”
President Barack Obama is trying to coax banks
to rewrite mortgages with a $75 billion plan begun
in March that could reach 4 million borrowers.
The administration is encouraging lenders to
slash interest rates so mortgage payments amount
to 38 percent of a borrower’s monthly gross in-
come. If the lender reduces payments further,
to 31 percent of income, the government will pick
up half of the losses.
Obama’s plan faces a major hurdle: Mortgage
service companies often can’t reduce home loans
because they’ve been packaged and sold to inves-
tors who expect a steady stream of income. Coun-
trywide Financial Corp., acquired by Bank of
America Corp. in 2008 as the housing market was
collapsing, sold almost all of the loans it originated
previouspagecourtesyofficeofthecaliforniaattorneygeneral,ianwhite(top)
Angela Rosenau,
a California prosecutor,
says rescue scams
are proliferating.
T

4. 59
may 2009 bloomberg markets
Iconwerk
5.Homeowner’s $7,000
in checks is deposited
in defendant’s bank
account.
2.Homeowner receives
a flier promoting
a fictitious foreclosure
prevention program and
a toll-free phone number.
3.Homeowner calls the
number on the flier,
giving loan and personal
information.
1.Defendants obtain
from public property
records the name, address
and loan amount of a
home­owner in default.
4.The defendants send
­homeowner a fake
agreement with lower
monthly payments.
Rescue
Scheme
Prosecutors say
Foreclosure
Prevention Services
fleeced homeowners
by posing as a
mortgage rescue
program,asfollows.
to investors and services them for fees, says Scott
Kurzan, head of mortgage investor relations at the
lender. In many instances, Countrywide is barred
by contracts from changing loan terms without
investor approval, he says. “Investors want to
make sure their rights don’t get trampled,” says
Kurzan, who is based in Calabasas, California.
If incentives don’t compel lenders to reduce
mortgages, Obama supports giving bankruptcy
judges a stick. The House of Representatives has
approved the so-called cram-down measure that
allows bankruptcy courts to lower the balance due
on mortgages on primary residences, a privilege
now granted to landlords with multiple dwellings.
The measure moved to the Senate in March. “If
the mortgage industry knows a judge can wipe
out the principal, then lenders will become more
involved in reducing mortgages,” says Kathleen
Day, a spokeswoman for the Center for Respon­
sible Lending, a Durham, North Carolina–based
consumer advocacy group.
Money managers who specialize in mortgage-
backed securities say that allowing courts to alter
mortgages will scare away investors and drive up
the costs of home loans. “How can I tell my clients
they should come back into the market if the gov-
ernment rewrites mortgages after the fact?” Sajjad
Naqvi, a senior vice president at TCW Group Inc.,
said at the annual conference in Las Vegas in Feb-
ruary for the American Securitization Forum,
a trade group. “Cram-downs could cripple the
securitization industry.”
Republican lawmakers say the measure
amounts to an unfair bailout for consumers who
made reckless bets during the housing bubble.
“Under this plan, those who bought more house
than they could afford would keep the big house
but escape the responsibility of paying for it,” says
Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, chairman of the
Republican Study Committee, a policy group.
As the debate swirls in Washington, self-styled
mortgage rescue specialists are flooding home-
owners from Florida to California with offers of
salvation. “They’ve jumped into the vacuum,” says
Joseph Gentili, an assistant attorney general in
Florida’s economic crimes unit. In Florida, which
recorded more than 500,000 foreclosures last
year, communities stretching from the golf-course
subdivisions of the Gulf Coast to the Miami sub-
urbs are festooned with placards and flyers pro-
moting mortgage rescues. Gentili’s 20-person
team is pursuing 40 investigations.
In a lawsuit filed in October, the Attorney Gen-
eral’s Office accused a Fort Lauderdale company
called Outreach Housing of bilking more than 600
homeowners out of $2 million. In January, Blair
Wright, Outreach’s president, filed a motion to
dismiss the lawsuit in circuit court in Broward
County. The following month, the Florida Office
of Financial Regulation shut down the company.
Wright didn’t return calls for comment.
The California Department of Real Estate is
fielding so many complaints from homeowners
that Commissioner Jeff Davi has directed his
entire, 160-strong enforcement staff of attorneys,
investigators and auditors to probe more than 250
foreclosure rescue companies serving thousands
of clients. From February to mid-March, the
department ordered 27 firms to shut down for
violating regulations.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation formed a
team in December to investigate foreclosure res-
cue cases. “A number of them previously worked
in subprime mortgage companies,” says Travis
Yarbrough, the supervisory special agent leading
the unit in Washington. “Some of these perpetra-
tors have gotten very creative at separating home-
owners from their money.”
Theschemesrunthegamut,fromsmall-scale
playerstargetingasinglecommunitytoelaborate
conspiraciessweepingentirestates.CherylMonte-
rostartedFreedomFinancialSolutionsinDecem-
ber2007,accordingtotheinvestigativereport.Her
officewasafewblocksfromaTiffany’sjewelrystore
inWalnutCreek,aSanFranciscosuburbwhere
four-bedroomhomesfetched$1millionatthe
heightofthehousingboom.Monteroranathree-
personoperationinwhichshetoldhomeowners
thatshecouldfindtechnicalviolationscommitted
bylendersinloancontracts,thereportsays.
Monteroblunderedduringoneofherseminars
bydroppingthenameofanattorneywhoshe
claimedwasworkingwithher,thereportsays.One
ofMontero’sclientscalledthelawyer,whohad
neverheardofMontero,andheinturncomplained
totheauthorities.“That’swhatgaveusaheads
up,”saysMcCormick,theprosecutor.
Juan Jose Perez, 47, a Mexican immigrant who
started a foreclosure rescue firm in the garage of
his San Bernardino County house in 2005, hatched
a more ambitious scheme, prosecutors say. Perez’s
Foreclosure Prevention Services masqueraded as
a lender to rip off hundreds of struggling home-
owners throughout California for as much as $1.2
million, according to an affidavit filed in Superior
Court in October by investigators with the Cali-
fornia Attorney General’s Office. Perez, who’s
been charged with grand theft and conspiracy, has
Source: Court records
6.Homeowner loses
house as defendants
empty bank account and
disappear.

5. bloomberg markets may 2009
60
returned to Mexico, and a warrant has been issued
for his arrest, prosecutors say. He couldn’t be
reached for comment.
Tofindhisvictims,Perezandhisteamallegedly
combedthroughpublicpropertyrecordsavailable
ontheInternetfordefaultnotices,whichdisclose
thenames,addressesandloanamountsfordelin-
quenthomeowners.LastAugust,oneofhiswork-
erspulledsuchanoticeforahouseownedbyJose
SerranoinSoledad,California,afarmtownabout
atwo-hourdrivesouthofSanFrancisco,prosecu-
torssay.Thatmonth,Serranoreceivedamanila
envelopeinthemailmarked“FinalNotice”inlarge
blackletters.ItreportedhowmuchSerranoowed
inbackpaymentsandsaidhewasrunningoutof
timetoreinstatehismortgage.“Youmayqualify
forspecialconsiderationthroughaprogram
designedtosaveyourproperty,”theletterstated.
“Callusimmediately.”
Threemonthsearlier,Serrano,45,adump-
truckdriveratalimestonequarry,sayshehad
stoppedpayingthemortgageonhis$569,000
house.Underthetermsofhisadjustable-rate
mortgage,Serrano’smonthlypaymentshotto
$2,500from$1,618afterhisinitialteaserinterest
rateof1percentjumpedto8percent.Atthesame
time,theslowingeconomyforcedthequarrytocut
hishours,leavinghimwithonly$2,250intake-
homemonthlypayfrom$3,200whenheworked
full-time.Unabletosupporthiswifeandsix
daughters,aged8to22,Serranotriedinvainto
persuadehislender,AuroraLoanServicesLLC,
asubsidiaryofnowbankruptLehmanBrothers
HoldingsInc.,tochangehismortgagesohecould
continuepaying$1,618amonth.“Theyalwayssaid
thesamething:‘Hey,yousignedit,’”Serranosays.
“SothelasttimeItalkedtothem,Isaid,‘I’mnot
goingtopayanymore.”’Auroraspokeswoman
DeborahMuniesdeclinedtocomment.
A soft-spoken man who likes to roast pork
shoulder on his backyard grill, Serrano is proud of
the six-bedroom tract home he bought with a 30
percent down payment of $169,000 in 2005. “I put
in all this tile,” he says, pointing to the dining
room floor. Serrano was relieved when he received
the notice about the foreclosure prevention pro-
gram last August. “I was going to lose all the
money I’d invested in the house, and this made
me hopeful, so I called,” Serrano says, shaking his
head at the memory.
Serranosayshetalkedwithawomanwhoiden-
tifiedherselfasLily.InfluentSpanish,shetold
Serranoherorganizationwouldnegotiatealower
mortgagewithhislenderifhequalifiedforafore-
closureprogram.ThewomanhadSerranofaxover
hisloanagreement,paystubsandotherpersonal
financialinformation.
In early September, a man identifying himself as
Benae called and said he was with Aurora. Serrano
says the man told him he’d qualified for the pro-
gram and his mortgage had been reduced. Serrano
would have to pay a $3,750 penalty and then could
resume making $1,618 monthly payments. Days
later, Foreclosure Prevention Services sent Serra-
no the clincher: a four-page “Extension and Modi-
fication Agreement” on what looked like Aurora
letterhead. The agreement, which prosecutors say
markhamjohnson
To find his victims, Perez and his workers
allegedly combed through property records
available on the Internet for default notices,
which disclosed the names, addresses and
loan amounts of delinquent borrowers.
Jose Serrano, with his
family, faces a foreclosure
on his California home.

6. B
bloomberg markets may 2009
62
with relatives in Mexico, abandon the house and
rent an apartment. That would mean walking
away from $200,000 in equity built on 25 years of
toil, first in the tomato fields of the Salinas Valley
and then behind the wheel of a truck. “I feel like
I’m about to lose everything,” Serrano says.
On Oct. 24, Rosenau, the deputy attorney gen-
eral, busted Perez and seven members of his
alleged ring. Three of Perez’s co-defendants are
charged with grand theft, money laundering and
conspiracy, and two others are charged with
money laundering and conspiracy. Rosa Conrado,
Jesus Martin Flores and Alejandrina Maldonado
pleaded guilty to grand theft in January and are
cooperating with prosecutors. Lawyers for Con­
rado and Maldonado declined to comment, and
Flores’s attorney didn’t return a call.
Even as Rosenau seeks help from the U.S.
Department of Justice to extradite Perez from
Mexico, she fears the case is a harbinger of even
larger swindles to come. “This is a volume busi-
ness, and right now there’s a lot of homeowners
who feel like they have no options,” says Rosenau,
47, a former U.S. Army major who helped lead a
logistics unit in the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
Foreclosure rescues aren’t just being pushed
by criminals; a new industry operating on the
edge of legality is mushrooming in states with
soaring default, says Gentili, the Florida prosecu-
tor. A crop of new companies are using Web sites,
toll-free numbers and commercials on late-night
TV to ply homeowners with promises.
ernadette Perry, a former mortgage broker,
and Dean Shafer, a marketing executive, co-
founded Loss Mitigation Services Inc. in
Orange County, California, in February 2008
to assist distressed homeowners in avoiding
foreclosure. As a broker, Perry sold Alt-A
mortgages, which are marketed to borrowers with
decent credit scores yet shaky proof of income. As
the imploding housing market vaporized her com-
missions in late 2007, Perry and Shafer decided to
try mortgage rescues.
Shafer, now chief executive officer of Loss Miti-
gation Services, created a mailer informing hun-
dreds of homeowners they might be eligible for a
loan modification that could reduce their princi-
pal or interest rate. “We were thinking it’s game
over, but we gave it one last shot and sent this out
and it lit the phone up,” says Shafer, a youthful-
looking 48-year-old who parts his hair in the mid-
dle and quaffs protein shakes.
Today, Loss Mitigation Services buys property
data collected by First American Corp., a Santa
Ana, California–based loan data provider. Shafer
sifts through the data to produce leads for his tele-
marketers and direct mail. “We expertly present
your scenario in a way that optimizes your loan
modification outcome,” reads a brochure mailed
Convinced his home was saved, Serrano
removed a frayed card from his wallet
depicting Christ on the cross and kissed it. He
then signed the document and sent a cashier’s
check to ‘Payment Processing Center.’
was fake, even had a toll-free number for “custom-
er care inquiries.” Convinced his home was saved,
the truck driver removed a frayed card from his
wallet depicting Christ on the cross and kissed it in
gratitude. Then he signed the document and sent a
cashier’s check to “Payment Processing Center.”
To further the illusion homeowners were deal-
ing with their own lenders, Perez allegedly in-
structed his workers to open more than a dozen
bank accounts at branches of Wachovia Corp.,
Washington Mutual Inc. and Bank of America
using fictitious names like “Resolution Depart-
ment” and “Payment Processing Center,” accord-
ing to the affidavit. In December, Sandy Birch, an
investigator with the California Attorney Gener-
al’s Office, found Serrano’s checks in a Wachovia
account opened by one of Perez’s workers and
informed the homeowner that he had been
fleeced of almost $7,000.
Now, with almost $20,000 in back payments
hanging over his head, Serrano is again negotiat-
ing with Aurora for a modification. If he isn’t
approved, he may have to send his family to live
U.S. HOME FORECLOSURE
FILINGS, IN MILLIONS
Sources: Bloomberg, RealtyTrac
Empty Houses
Foreclosures show
no signs of abating.
3.2
2.2
1.3
’06 ’07 ’08

7. 63
may 2009 bloomberg markets
ianwhite
I
Housing Development Corp. in Northern Califor-
nia, says she’s seen Countrywide reject most
appeals for lower mortgage payments from bor-
rowers who aren’t part of the settlement. In Janu-
ary, Countrywide held a workshop at a church in
Antioch, California, to consider applications for
mortgage relief. More than 200 anxious home-
owners lined up outside the church on a wind-
swept night, clutching accordion files stuffed with
loan documents.
nside, Charun and other counselors seated
at two long tables helped homeowners pre-
pare their applications before they saw the
Countrywide representatives. Charun says
the few borrowers who have won relief from
Countrywide received 90- or 120-day for-
bearances, which saddled them with even larger
monthly payments after the suspension ended
and often led to a second default. “This is just PR,”
Charun says, gesturing at the line of borrowers
waiting to see the red-shirted Countrywide reps.
JumanaBauwens,aCountrywidespokeswoman,
saysthecompanyrewrote230,000mortgagesin
2008,includingloansreducedunderthesettlement
to a borrower. “That’s why you do not want to
do this yourself because you could present your
information in a way that kills your modification.”
About80“mitigators”stationedincubiclesat
thecompany’sofficenearDisneylandfieldabout
500callsperdayfrompotentialclients.Since
November,thecompanyhascharged$3,600in
advanceandsaysitwillrefund$2,105ifthelender
rejectstheapplication.Thecompany’sspokesman,
TonyKnightofSitrick&Co.inLosAngeles,pro-
videdfivelettersfromformerclientspraisingtheir
services.Perry,51,whosupervisesthemitigators,
sayssheresentsinsinuationsthatforeclosureres-
cueisarip-off.“We’rethegoodguys,”shesays.
LastMay,LossMitigationServicessentaletter
toonehomeownerfacingforeclosure,BobbyTur-
leyofLivermore,California,thatsaid,“Yourloan
modificationwasapproved.Thefeeforyourloan
modificationis$5,500,”accordingtoacopyofthe
letterprovidedbyTurley.Thehomeownersayshe
paidthefeeinMay2008,yethislender,Washington
Mutual,hasn’tmodifiedhisloan.Intheletter,Loss
MitigationServicessaid,“Wehaveaproventrack
recordwitha97%successrate.”Shafersaysthis
statementisuntrueandthecompanynolonger
usesitinmarketingliterature.“Wemademistakes
inthebeginning,”hesays.“Iwilladmitthat.”
Shafersayshisfirmisn’tcomplyingwithstate
rulesthatdirectmortgagemodificationcompanies
tosetaside75percentofupfrontfeesuntilthe
processiscomplete.Shafersaysobeyingtherule
woulddepletehisworkingcapitalandcripplethe
company.“I’mallforrulesandregulations,but
theyhavetobeforthegoodofthemasses,”hesays.
Commissioner Davi says compliance isn’t
negotiable and the rules are designed to protect
consumers. “We can’t have these people taking
homeowners’ last dollars,” he says. Regulators
haven’t accused Loss Mitigation Services of
any wrongdoing.
Bank of America, which became the No. 1 home
loan maker in the U.S. after buying Countrywide,
last year agreed to modify $8.7 billion in subprime
and adjustable-rate loans for 400,000 borrowers
to settle predatory-lending lawsuits. California
and 10 other states had filed the lawsuits against
Countrywide. The attorneys general alleged that
Countrywide, which saw more than a quarter of
its subprime portfolio default in 2008, had unlaw-
fully pushed borrowers into unsustainable adjust-
able-rate mortgages to fuel its securitization
business. Bank of America didn’t admit or deny
any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
Ffely Charun, a counselor at the Community
Dean Shafer, CEO of Loss
Mitigation Services, says
the firm made some
mistakes in the beginning.

8. bloomberg markets may 2009
64
withthestates.“Wearetakingrewritingmortgages
seriously,”shesays.
Obama’shousingplanmayspurlenderstoset
asidetheirresistancetoadjustingmoremort­gages,
saysTomHoller,theleadorganizeratOneLA-IAF,
anonprofitcommunitygroupinLosAngeles.Un-
dertheplan,lendersmustdeterminehowmuchit
wouldcosttoreduceamortgagetoalevelahome-
ownercanaffordversusforeclosingandauctioning
thedwellinginabearishhousingmarket.Ifshutter-
ingthehouseproducesasteeperloss,thenthe
lendermayreducetheinterestrateontheloan
instead,aslongasmodificationisn’tbarredby
investorswhoareholdingthenote.Withthegov-
ernmentsubsidizingpartofthelossfromlowering
mortgagepayments,Hollersays,lendersandmort-
gageholdersalikeshouldbemoreinclinedtopar-
ticipateintheplan.BauwensofCountrywidesays
thelenderisstudyingthegovernmentprogramand
declinedtocommentfurtheronit.
MarkZandi,chiefeconomistatMoody’sEcono-
my.com,isconcernedthattheplan’srelianceon
loweringinterestrateswon’tpackenoughpunchto
makemillionsofsubprimeandAlt-Amortgages
moreaffordable.Zandisaysitmaybenecessaryfor
Obamatointroduceafollow-upplantoslashthe
principalonsuchmortgagestoreflectthepresent
valueofresidences.Inthefourthquarterof2008,
morethan8.3millionU.S.mortgageholderswere
underwater—theirhomeswereworthlessthan
theirmortgages—andanother2.2millionborrow-
erswillsinkifpricesfallanother5percent,accord-
ingtoFirstAmerican.Unlessthosemortgagesare
rebalanced,homeownersmaycontinuetowalk
awayfromtheirhomesandtheforeclosurespiral
willstrengthen,Zandisays.
Conartistsareonlytoohappytoexploitthetur-
moil.AsAngelaRosenauandherfellowprosecutors
watchtheircaseloadsrise,theysaywhatstartedasa
cottageindustrywillbecomealargecriminalracket
ifforeclosuresaren’treduced—aggravatingahous-
ingcrisisthatshowsnosignsofabating.≤
Edward Robinson is a senior writer at Bloomberg News
in San Francisco. edrobinson@bloomberg.net
The Federal Reserve estimates the proportion of disposable
personal income in the U.S. that goes to required payments
on outstanding mortgages and consumer debt. Type DSPB-
TOTL <Index> GP <Go> to graph the central bank’s U.S. Finan-
cial Obligations Household Debt Service Ratio, which climbed
to a high of 14.4 percent in 2006 from a low of 11 percent in
1994. Type DSPBMORT <Index> GP <Go> to chart mortgage
payments as a percentage of disposable income. To graph
foreclosures in the U.S., type HOMFCLOS <Index> GP <Go>.
For a menu of mortgage application volume data from
the Mortgage Bankers Association, a Washington-based
trade group, type ALLX MBAV <Go>. For headlines of news
stories related to negative equity, in which the value of bor-
rowers’ houses drops below the balance of their mortgages,
type STNI NEGEQUITY <Go>. For mortgage-related news,
type NI MOR <Go>.
Type MCAL <Go> for the Structured Finance Calendar
function, which lets you track issuance trends. You can use
the Structured Finance Notes (SFNS) function for a selected
mortgage-backed security to find basic information such as
its servicer. Type ACE 2006-FM2 A1 <Mtge> SFNS <Go> for
information on an MBS issued by ACE Securities Corp. in
2006, for example. Type CLP <Go> to use the Collateral
Performance function to display monthly statistics on
delinquencies and cumulative losses from the mortgages
underlying the MBS, as shown below. Type 2 <Go> to display
data such as pay histories and current amounts for the indi-
vidual mortgages.
Type DQRP <Go> to use the Delinquency Report function
to rank MBSs by the performance of their collateral loans.
JON ASMUNDSSON
TrackingMortgageData
To write a letter to the editor, send an e-mail to
bloombergmag@bloomberg.net or type MAG <Go>.
Economist Mark Zandi is concerned that
President Obama’s housing plan, which relies
on lowering interest rates, won’t pack enough
punch to make millions of subprime and
Alt-A mortgages more affordable.