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http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070208/mortgage_lenders.html?.v=1
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NEW YORK (AP) -- The mortgage industry plunged deeper into distress this week as two lenders said
sagging home prices and higher interest rates are pushing many borrowers into delinquency.
HSBC Holdings PLC, Europe's biggest bank and a major player in the U.S. mortgage industry, said
the market for "subprime" mortgages, or home loans to people with blemished or limited credit histories, is in trouble.
Analysts' estimate for how much HSBC needs to sock away for problem loans is shy by a fifth, HSBC said.
The London-based bank estimates it needs to set aside almost $10.6 billion to cover loans it won't be able to collect.
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During the housing boom, many mortgage banks devised crafty loans allowing people to borrow money with no down payment and pay low interest rates for the first few years on adjustable mortgages. Now, as interest rates reset higher, more borrowers are missing payments and many lenders are going out of business or putting themselves up for sale.
Subprime loans were once very attractive to some banks due to their higher interest rates.
But HSBC said the weak housing market exacerbates credit problems in the subprime mortgage space. Until a little more than a year ago, stretched borrowers who needed to raise cash could take out a second mortgage on their houses and use that money to pay off loans. With housing prices stagnant -- and in some markets falling -- consumers' best source of financing has shriveled.
The problem for these types of lenders may not go away quickly.
"We expect poor subprime credit trends to continue at least through 2007 and into 2008," Merrill Lynch analyst Kenneth Bruce wrote in a research report.
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When lenders sell loans, the deals normally include clauses allowing investors to force a lender to buy back a loan if the borrower misses an early payment. Roth Capital Partners analyst Richard Eckert said
missed payments on subprime loans have become "epidemic," and investors are sending loans back to lenders with unusual frequency.
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