New Century Financial Corporation

The subprime lending industry was starting to buckle under the weight of bad loans in November 2006, when executives at Irvine-based New Century Financial Corp. held a conference call to release their latest earnings. Loan volume was down and defaults...

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has leased 200,000 square feet of space in Irvine for a temporary office that will manage receiverships and liquidate assets from failed financial institutions in the western United States. The FDIC, which insures...

As the cost of Wall Street's credit crisis has mounted, the hunt for villains has intensified and the accusations of fault have widened. At first the focus was on greedy profiteers among lenders and investment bankers, who were an easy (and deserving)...

By David Streitfeld, Times Staff Writer Oscar De Leon was washing his car a few weeks ago when he noticed a piece of paper stuck to the front door of the house across the street. He strolled over to check it out. "You are in default," the paper...

WILMINGTON, Del. -- Taking the stand in U.S. Bankruptcy Court Tuesday, American Home Mortgage founder and chief executive Michael Strauss faced the public for the first time since his company experienced a spectacularly rapid collapse over the last...

The mortgage meltdown is taking a rising toll on the broader economy, increasing pressure on the Federal Reserve to slash interest rates for a third time next month in hopes of averting a recession. Homeowners will see their property values sink by $1....

Heads continue to roll at mortgage companies in town, with the number of Chicago-area employees getting pink slips over the past six months surpassing 1,200. Greenpoint Mortgage Funding Inc. , a unit of Capital One Financial Corp., has alerted the...

THE ONCE-buoyant housing market is clearly in trouble. Last year, housing prices around the country fell for the first year since the Depression. In Southern California, one of the epicenters of the housing and housing-credit bubble, the pain has been...

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke offered fresh assurances on Thursday that regulators are taking steps to better protect would-be homeowners from abusive mortgage practices. Bernanke appeared before the Senate Banking Committee in his second...

Is a blowout taking shape in the impaired-credit mortgage market? Could lax underwriting standards--no verification of incomes or assets, low or no down payments and big mortgages to people saddled with debt--be coming home to roost? The omens are...

With a second child on the way, Chris Shields and his wife, Michelle, wanted to move from their two-bedroom apartment in Southern California to a house with more space. But because their timing coincided with a shakeout in the mortgage market earlier...

In the latest sign that the nationwide credit crunch is worsening, lenders are saying no to borrowers who want no-money-down mortgages. The popular financing option, which require no down payment and finance 100 percent of a home loan, is being...