American Home Mortgage Closes Its Doors

ARM specialist's efforts can't hold off fallout from worsening crisis
By Heather McPherson,  Newser User
Posted Aug 3, 2007 9:25 AM CDT
American Home Mortgage Closes Its Doors
A home for sale shows the owner has lowered the asking price, Tuesday, July 31, 2007, in Cincinnati. With the housing and mortgage industries plunging deeper into distress, investors around the world are losing their stomach for risk. This means it will cost more to borrow, which could harm the stock...   (Associated Press)

The battered mortgage-lending industry will suffer another blow today as American Home Mortgage shuts down, making it the latest company to go under as home loans go bad across the country. AHM's troubles were common knowledge, the Times reports, but the speed of its downfall was unexpected. “We have no realistic alternative,” says the CEO.

The lender reported record earnings—and appeared to be on track to rebound—at the beginning of the year, but things went sour quickly. AHM was one of the largest and fastest-growing mortgage companies in the country, but its focus on less qualified borrowers and ARMs combined with industry turmoil and the housing downturn to create an unsolvable problem. (More American Home Mortgage stories.)

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