Countrywide Financial: It Was A Technical Glitch

The other day Countrywide Financial posted over 195,000 properties for sale on their REO/Foreclosure website. It was a complete shocker to many of us - as we didn't know what to make of this.

Thanks to Peter Villes from the L.A. Times who contacted Countrywide's PR and received the following email response:

"There was a technical glitch. I'm trying to get you the accurate number but it probably won't happen until tomorrow."

A reader from the L.A. Times Blog asked:

‘MattJ wrote, " I'm sure it is a technical glitch, too, but the real question is what is that list of 190,000 houses a list of? Some speculation at Calculated Risk include that it is a list of homes in the foreclosure process but not yet REOs, or that it is a list of all REO houses that Countrywide services. Whatever it is, it sure would be nice to learn what that larger list contains and how it ended up in their list of Countrywide REOs."’

The question from MattJ's post was forwarded by email to Countrywide by Peter and the response from Countrywide was as follows:

"There was an omission in the logic that didn't filter out any properties so it was including all historical REO properties in the database. This has been rectified and new logic has been added."

From Peter Villes:

"To answer gman's question ("Is it possible that Countrywide has 196,000 of these and they've just been holding back?"), we think that is highly unlikely, and we take Countrywide at its word on this one: a technical glitch."

I believe this explains a lot, and we should take Countrywide at its word on this one as well.


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Breaking News: Countrywide Financial REO's Off The Charts!

Update: See Below
Source: http://www.countrywide.com/purchase/f_reo.asp

89,030 REO's have "NO BROKER ASSIGNED" as contact name.
More data soon to come. No Asking Prices listed on CFC site for all these homes.

Click on State below for detailed listings.
(Note: These properties are no longer posted on Countrywide's website .)

State	Count
AK	245
AL	2799
AR	985
AZ	3544
CA	28136
CO	8322
CT	1201
DC	323
DE	183
FL	8728
GA	10227
HI	811
IA	975
ID	1319
IL	5793
IN	7327
KS	1897
KY	2939
LA	1637
MA	2405
MD	2010
ME	204
MI	17319
MN	3559
MO	6069
MS	1414
MT	325
NC	7294
ND	93
NE	561
NH	613
NJ	1895
NM	1132
NV	3488
NY	3298
OH	10269
OK	3043
OR	1837
PA	5224
RI	353
SC	2798
SD	156
TN	5292
TX	15138
UT	2462
VA	3369
WA	3342
WI	2446
WV	453
WY	181
Total	195,433

Update:

There were 195,433 properties published for sale (click on state links above to see the properties) by Countrywide Financial all through last night and this morning (probably up until noon time I'm guessing). Countrywide no longer has all these properties on their site as being offered for sale and the number of REO's currently listed are back to the 13k range. This huge number of listed properties is just too huge to figure out what is going on. I truly thought those numbers were going to stay published on their site. I cannot say what Countrywide's intentions were for publishing 195,433 properties. Perhaps it was a mistake? I have no clue. The current properties offered for sale can be found here. All data on this blog is AS IS.

19,618 Homes Offered For Sale on Countrywide Financial's Website

Total REO Asking Price: $3,308,329,521
(As of October 17, 2008)


Source: http://www.countrywide.com/purchase/f_reo.asp

Click on state below for detailed listings.

State	Count	Total Asking Price($)	Average Asking Price($)
AK	25	6,720,500	268,820
AL	207	26,304,996	127,077
AR	85	7,393,400	86,981
AZ	796	131,416,250	165,096
CA	5,334	1,280,894,200	240,138
CO	293	56,856,297	194,049
CT	158	28,129,187	178,033
DC	26	6,726,397	258,708
DE	26	3,803,399	146,285
FL	2,067	310,620,129	150,276
GA	995	114,184,224	114,758
HI	45	16,195,900	359,909
IA	68	5,498,199	80,856
ID	78	19,325,850	247,767
IL	763	106,199,721	139,187
IN	365	22,572,244	61,842
KS	82	7,340,052	89,513
KY	131	10,699,745	81,677
LA	63	7,240,300	114,925
MA	248	41,947,253	169,142
MD	287	75,088,285	261,632
ME	44	4,090,201	92,959
MI	1,228	79,788,489	64,974
MN	470	65,877,036	140,164
MO	320	29,765,675	93,018
MS	101	11,085,497	109,757
MT	16	3,517,300	219,831
NC	386	57,997,051	150,251
ND	01	32,900	32,900
NE	30	2,565,000	85,500
NH	113	19,786,874	175,105
NJ	222	48,041,990	216,405
NM	35	5,779,500	165,129
NV	908	170,383,405	187,647
NY	219	44,943,769	205,223
OH	492	29,316,412	59,586
OK	92	7,315,799	79,520
OR	118	26,621,001	225,602
PA	187	18,736,100	100,193
RI	99	16,598,195	167,659
SC	160	20,256,900	126,606
SD	09	1,027,200	114,133
TN	369	36,042,995	97,677
TX	801	101,284,242	126,447
UT	52	20,151,600	387,531
VA	581	127,079,755	218,726
VT	03	469,700	156,567
WA	219	54,086,700	246,971
WI	154	14,689,309	95,385
WV	38	4,339,198	114,189
WY	09	1,503,200	167,022
Total	19,618	3,308,329,521	156,066

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Comptroller Dugan Urges Improved Underwriting Standards on Third Party Loans

News Release from the Comptroller of the Currency: Comptroller of the Currency John C. Dugan said today that banks need to strengthen their underwriting standards, particularly on loans sold to third party investors.

“I am here to say that bank underwriting standards for these products, in many cases, moved too far away from what they would have been if the bank had held those loans on its own books,” Mr. Dugan said in a speech to the American Bankers Association’s Annual Convention.

Mr. Dugan noted the many positive aspects of the “originate-to distribute” model, but said there can be negative effects on underwriting standards, including relaxing significantly the incentives to use caution and prudence in underwriting loans sold to third parties.

“When a bank makes a loan that it plans to hold, the fundamental standard it uses to underwrite the loan is that most basic of credit standards that I’ve already talked about: the underwriting must be strong enough to create a reasonable expectation that the loan will be repaid,” the Comptroller said. “But when a bank makes a loan that it plans to sell, then the credit evaluation shifts in an important way: the underwriting must be strong enough to create a reasonable expectation that the loan can be sold—or put another way, the bank will underwrite to whatever standard the market will bear.”

Comptroller Dugan outlined what needs to be done. “I am here to say that banks need to strengthen their underwriting standards so that they move back towards the fundamental principle of maintaining a reasonable expectation that loans will be repaid, even if the loans are to be sold to third parties – and that goes for mortgage loans, leveraged loans, or any other syndicated credit,” Mr. Dugan said. read more >>

17,211 Homes Offered For Sale on Countrywide Financial's Website

Total REO Asking Price: $3,308,329,521
(As of October 17, 2008)


Source: http://www.countrywide.com/purchase/f_reo.asp

Click on state below for detailed listings.

State	Count	Total Asking Price($)	Average Asking Price($)
AK	25	6,720,500	268,820
AL	207	26,304,996	127,077
AR	85	7,393,400	86,981
AZ	796	131,416,250	165,096
CA	5,334	1,280,894,200	240,138
CO	293	56,856,297	194,049
CT	158	28,129,187	178,033
DC	26	6,726,397	258,708
DE	26	3,803,399	146,285
FL	2,067	310,620,129	150,276
GA	995	114,184,224	114,758
HI	45	16,195,900	359,909
IA	68	5,498,199	80,856
ID	78	19,325,850	247,767
IL	763	106,199,721	139,187
IN	365	22,572,244	61,842
KS	82	7,340,052	89,513
KY	131	10,699,745	81,677
LA	63	7,240,300	114,925
MA	248	41,947,253	169,142
MD	287	75,088,285	261,632
ME	44	4,090,201	92,959
MI	1,228	79,788,489	64,974
MN	470	65,877,036	140,164
MO	320	29,765,675	93,018
MS	101	11,085,497	109,757
MT	16	3,517,300	219,831
NC	386	57,997,051	150,251
ND	01	32,900	32,900
NE	30	2,565,000	85,500
NH	113	19,786,874	175,105
NJ	222	48,041,990	216,405
NM	35	5,779,500	165,129
NV	908	170,383,405	187,647
NY	219	44,943,769	205,223
OH	492	29,316,412	59,586
OK	92	7,315,799	79,520
OR	118	26,621,001	225,602
PA	187	18,736,100	100,193
RI	99	16,598,195	167,659
SC	160	20,256,900	126,606
SD	09	1,027,200	114,133
TN	369	36,042,995	97,677
TX	801	101,284,242	126,447
UT	52	20,151,600	387,531
VA	581	127,079,755	218,726
VT	03	469,700	156,567
WA	219	54,086,700	246,971
WI	154	14,689,309	95,385
WV	38	4,339,198	114,189
WY	09	1,503,200	167,022
Total	19,618	3,308,329,521	156,066

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15,551 Homes Offered For Sale on Countrywide Financial's Website

Total REO Asking Price: $2,771,220,382
(As of September 1, 2008)


Source: http://www.countrywide.com/purchase/f_reo.asp

Click on state below for detailed listings.

State	Count	Total Asking Price($)	Average Asking Price($)
AK	12	3,204,400	267,033
AL	141	17,901,500	126,961
AR	38	3,737,000	98,342
AZ	614	109,740,100	178,730
CA	4,185	1,014,611,985	242,440
CO	215	40,813,508	189,830
CT	151	23,939,547	158,540
DC	28	7,607,299	271,689
DE	25	3,888,599	155,544
FL	1,939	325,750,967	167,999
GA	749	90,600,150	120,961
HI	40	15,349,900	383,748
IA	35	3,533,600	100,960
ID	51	15,931,100	312,375
IL	686	99,058,318	144,400
IN	269	17,208,583	63,972
KS	55	5,748,700	104,522
KY	72	5,966,820	82,873
LA	39	5,132,100	131,592
MA	250	42,441,765	169,767
MD	299	78,777,999	263,472
ME	23	2,393,900	104,083
MI	1,109	82,623,890	74,503
MN	438	64,974,859	148,344
MO	207	19,790,310	95,605
MS	79	9,538,100	120,735
MT	10	1,888,000	188,800
NC	194	37,504,773	193,324
ND	01	59,900	59,900
NE	11	1,534,900	139,536
NH	87	15,963,100	183,484
NJ	198	43,066,572	217,508
NM	25	3,367,500	134,700
NV	593	115,635,760	195,001
NY	178	41,875,148	235,254
OH	348	22,597,839	64,936
OK	55	6,391,700	116,213
OR	75	18,819,100	250,921
PA	133	16,585,182	124,701
RI	94	15,433,849	164,190
SC	112	14,388,400	128,468
SD	06	844,500	140,750
TN	240	25,703,992	107,100
TX	514	71,925,013	139,932
UT	41	15,312,038	373,464
VA	615	142,258,917	231,315
VT	01	112,900	112,900
WA	131	34,364,053	262,321
WI	109	10,774,714	98,851
WV	28	4,117,833	147,065
WY	03	429,700	143,233
Total	15,551	2,771,220,382	165,351

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