| S. Florida mortgage firms scrambling amid subprime squeeze
South Florida has much at stake in the furor over the quality of the so-called subprime mortgage market that sent Wall Street into a tizzy last week and has lenders across the nation re-examining loan portfolios.
The region has a higher rate of loans to borrowers with shaky credit than the national average. Meanwhile, the troubles of New Century Financial Corp., the nation's second-largest subprime lender, have affected local offices of one of its subsidiaries.
Home 123 Mortgage, which has offices in North Palm Beach, Boca Raton and Plantation, has stopped funding existing loans and accepting new business, as has New Century.
The Home 123 offices remain open, and employees are working to find new lenders for clients and arrange for closing agents to refund any money they might be holding.
Mortgage lender New Century Financial files for bankruptcy
NEW YORK: Once a highflier in the booming U.S. market for making risky mortgage loans, New Century Financial filed for bankruptcy court protection Monday. New Century listed liabilities of more than $100 million in its Chapter 11 papers filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware - the largest bankruptcy case to date in the subprime mortgage sector. The industry's woes have raised fears that trouble could spread to the wider mortgage market and dampen U.S. economic growth if consumer confidence and spending were to shrink. But the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, told Congress last week that the weakness "does not appear to have spilled over to a significant extent." For New Century, where executives grew rich as its stock soared and where top sales people were treated to vacations in Europe and the Caribbean, the end came particularly fast.
All About Your Credit Score
A credit score is a number that helps lenders and others predict how likely you are to make your credit payments on time. Each score is based on the information then in your credit report. Why Do Your Scores Matter? Credit scores affect whether you can get credit and what you pay for credit cards, auto loans, mortgages and other kinds of credit. For most kinds of credit scores, higher scores mean you are more likely to be approved and pay a lower interest rate on new credit. Want to rent an apartment? Without good scores, your apartment application may be turned down by the landlord. Your scores also may determine how big a deposit you will have to pay for telephone, electricity or natural gas service. Lenders look at your scores all the time.
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