Housing Doom Housing Bubble Blog

On April 27, Doom reported on "credit repair" companies.  According to BrokerCA of Broker Outpost:

Companies claim to raise FICO credit scores by 50 to 250 points by adding low-scoring borrowers as "authorized users" on the credit card accounts of people with FICO scores well in excess of 700. The positive payment information from such cardholders then flows into the files of the persons with subpar credit.

Doom asked at the time, How can subprime be contained when you don’t know who’s a subprime borrower?

Well they are perhaps a day late and a declining U.S. dollar short, but Fair Isaac announced yesterday that they are clamping down on this practice:  [Hat tip to John- I "borrowed" this one before he had a chance to put it on the sidebar.]
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Many years ago Bud Abbott of Abbott and Costello fame confused Lou Costello when explaining the name of his baseball team’s basemen:

Who’s on first, What’s on second, I Don’t Know’s on third.

Increasingly defunct mortgage lenders are leaving homeowners looking at  the same starting line up for their mortgages.  Take for example the Grams:

Just months after refinancing their home of 20 years, Tempe homeowner Kathy Gram and her husband found themselves in a state of confusion when they stopped receiving mortgage payment coupons from their out-of-state lender.

They started to worry.

The Grams’ local mortgage broker told the couple that the Illinois-based mortgage company had abruptly closed its doors — leaving the couple wondering where to send payments on the more-than-$300,000 loan.

“It’s been a hassle,” she said. “I mean, I want to give them my money.”

Industry observers say the rising number of mortgage companies shutting down is likely to leave some borrowers disconcerted and unaware of who now services their loans.

While the Grams may be perplexed,  other homeowners have benefitted from the confusion:
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