Countrywide announced today that its shareholders approved the merger with Bank of America, set to close on July 1 upon satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
The troubled mortgage lender said the holders of more than 69 percent of outstanding shares of Countrywide stock voted to approve the transaction.
Meanwhile, California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced that he was suing Countrywide, CEO Angelo Mozilo, and President David Sambol for deceptive lending practices.
The suit alleges that Countrywide engaged in deceptive advertising and unfair competition, mass-producing risky loans and quickly dumping them on the secondary mortgage market.
“Countrywide exploited the American dream of homeownership and then sold its mortgages for huge profits on the secondary market,” Attorney General Brown said. “The company sold ever-increasing numbers of complex and risky home loans, as quickly as possible.
“Countrywide was, in essence, a mass-production loan factory, producing ever-increasing streams of debt without regard for borrowers. Today’s lawsuit seeks relief for Californians who were ripped off by Countrywide’s deceptive scheme.”
The Calabasas, CA-based mortgage lender has also been accused of encouraging borrowers to refinance into negative amortization loans without properly disclosing the risks involved, hiding prepayment penalties, rushing loan doc signings, and easing underwriting standards to facilitate a larger number of approved loans.
“Despite receiving numerous complaints from borrowers claiming that they did not understand their loan terms, Countrywide ignored loan officer’s deceptive practices and loose underwriting standards,” the statement said.
“Countrywide also pushed its borrowers to serially refinance, repeatedly urging borrowers to obtain home loans to pay off their current debt.”
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced a similar lawsuit against Countrywide today, alleging that the company sold risky loans despite borrowers’ inability to repay them.
Unfortunately, most of this will likely be swept under the rug after Bank of America completes the merger next week.
Shares of Countrywide were up 10 cents, or 2.15%, to $4.76 in early afternoon trading on Wall Street.
During the fourth quarter of 2012, newcomer PennyMac cracked the top 10 mortgage lender list, according to stats compiled by MortgageStats.
The Calabasas, California-based startup managed $10 billion in residential mortgage loan volume during the final quarter of the year, which accounted for roughly 2% of total market share.
While it’s not Countrywide quite yet, PennyMac is displaying its ability to grow quickly in the now white-hot mortgage market.
In case you didn’t already know, former Countrywide COO and CFO Stanford L. Kurland, who was known as the #2 guy behind Angelo Mozilo, helms PennyMac.
He’s not the only Countrywide alum on staff – David A. Spector is president and COO of PennyMac, and Anne D. McCallion is their CFO. There are others too.
Essentially a decent sized group of ex-Countrywide employees created PennyMac, which makes the story interesting to begin with.
The company started out buying distressed mortgages for pennies on the dollar (hence the name) about five years ago, and later moved on to the loan origination game.
The original unit that buys mortgages is known as PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust, and is currently publicly traded and doing quite well (NYSE:PMT).
It was also recently announced that PennyMac will IPO its PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. division, which is the lending and servicing arm of the company.
A quick gander on their website reveals that they originate all types of home loans, from FHA Streamline loans to HARP loans and jumbo loans.
This explains their ability to become a top 10 mortgage lender, though all volume came via the correspondent lending channel.
When looking at just FHA/VA volume, PennyMac ranked third, behind only Wells Fargo and Chase.
Wells Fargo Still the Boss
While PennyMac is making inroads fairly quickly, Wells Fargo is still the undisputed heavyweight champion of mortgage lending.
During the quarter, the bank originated $125.7 billion in home loans, snagging a near-25% share of the total market.
While solid, their share dropped significantly from the 33.9% enjoyed in the first quarter of 2012.
But they still claimed more market share than Chase, Quicken, U.S. Bank, and Bank of America combined, which held spots 2-5. And their volume was still 4% higher than it was in the fourth quarter of 2011.
The biggest year-over-year winner was Quicken Loans, which saw volume rise 132% to $24.9 billion. That helped the company snag nearly 5% market share.
It narrowly edged out U.S. Bank, which originated $23.2 billion, a 26% rise from its year-ago numbers.
PennyMac and Ally Bank/ResCap (GMAC) rounded out the top 10, and essentially replaced Provident Funding and BB&T.
The big question is will PennyMac will keep ascending? History tells us they will, if their ex-Countrywide staff is any indication.
Does that mean we’ll see PennyMac retail mortgage shops in strip malls across America in the next decade? I wouldn’t be surprised…
Leaders in Other Lending Categories
Wondering who led for a particular niche in the residential mortgage market?
Wells Fargo was also the king of jumbo during the fourth quarter, barely besting PHH Mortgage and Bank of America.
It also led in FHA/VA volume, and topped the retail and correspondent channels.
Provident Funding led in the wholesale channel (mortgage brokers), beating out Flagstar and NYCB Mortgage/AmTrust Bank.
Quicken Loans ruled the online mortgage world, with second place Provident and third place BB&T nowhere even close.
Flagstar barely edged out PHH Mortgage when it came to interest-only mortgages, with Union Bank third.
Prospect Mortgage dominated the Alt-A lending channel, with a 99.3% market share, followed by PHH and Astoria Federal Savings & Loan.
Lastly, Wells originated the lion’s share of second mortgages, followed closely by Bank of America, and less closely by TD Bank.
So if you’re wondering where to get a particular type of mortgage, you now know who the leaders are, not that it necessarily makes them the best choice.
Former lending giant Countrywide Financial has agreed to refund $11.5 million in cash to overcharged borrowers as part of a settlement with the North Carolina Office of the Commissioner of Banks.
An investigation launched in 2007 found that a total of 3,800 borrowers were illegally overcharged on first mortgages, and another 1,000 on second mortgages.
Those affected by the settlement will receive checks for any illegal charges identified in the investigation within the next 60 days.
Additionally, Countrywide has agreed to provide $2 million in grants to North Carolina nonprofit housing counseling agencies active in foreclosure prevention, and another $900,000 to the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System.
If you think you may be due a refund, you can contact the banking commissioner’s consumer hotline at 888-384-3811.
The Calabasas, California-based mortgage lender has faced a number of lawsuits in recent months, with the latest coming from investors in Countrywide mortgages who claim proposed loan modifications leave them footing the bill.
The company has also been sued by six state Attorney Generals for alleged deceptive lending practices, including those in California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, and West Virginia
In late July, the city of San Diego accused Countrywide of consumer lending fraud, which it claimed pushed a sizable number of city residents to the brink of foreclosure.
As part of the settlement, San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre called for a foreclosure moratorium for all owner-occupied properties involving a Countrywide-issued subprime loan.
I think we’ll be hearing from this company for years to come…
A landslide struck Laguna Beach’s Bluebird Canyon in 1978 — smashing cars, buckling streets and destroying 24 homes. An adjacent swath of earth broke loose in 2005, wiping out 12 more homes.
That wasn’t enough to keep Scott Tenney away. In 2010, Tenney and his wife, Mariella Simon, bought a 15-acre hillside ranch near the disaster area despite the listing warning that the property was on the site of an ancient landslide.
“We knew we’d have to do a bit of terracing and retaining, but California is what it is,” Tenney said. “It’s a dynamic place not just culturally, but geologically.”
Advertisement
From an outside perspective, his might seem a confounding decision. But in Southern California it’s an extremely common one, because that geological diversity, as Tenney calls it, is not just the danger. It’s the allure.
Elevation has long been aspirational here — an escape from the urban flats.
Since settlers first started pouring in from the relative flatness of the East Coast and Midwest, they were captivated by California’s vertiginous landscape. Plein air painters flocked to capture the light of the arroyos. Health seekers sought the clean air of the San Gabriel foothills. Folk rockers found inspiration in Laurel and Topanga canyons. And the moneyed elite started building their houses higher and higher above the basin, forever seeking the trophy perch with the show-off view.
But that perch has always come at the risk of catastrophe. Homes slide into a gulch in Palos Verdes. Fires roar over the Malibu hills. A debris flow kills 23 people and destroys 130 homes in Montecito. Heavy snow traps thousands in the San Bernardino Mountains. And winter storms pull fragile bluffs into a rising sea.
These natural disasters so often occur where the tectonic plates collided and folded into beautiful vistas.
Advertisement
While other regions may face only one main disaster threat — tornadoes in the Midwest, hurricanes on the Gulf and East coasts — California’s extreme topography brings siege from all sides: the ocean, the trees and brush, the sky above and the ground below. And oftentimes, the most attractive areas are some of the most dangerous.
A land of disasters
More and more people are crowding into the Wildland Urban Interface — the zone of transition between unoccupied land and human development. It’s where properties mingle with undeveloped (and often steep) land, and it’s uniquely susceptible to natural disasters.
According to the U.S. Fire Administration, this area grows by 2 million acres a year as people fan out to the edges of wilderness in search of affordable houses, more space or simply a break from life in the city. And California holds more homes in this dangerous zone than any other state in the country.
And prices keep soaring. It doesn’t matter if a house sits on stilts on the side of a cliff, if it’s a landslide complex slowly sliding toward the sea, or if it’s predicted to be knee-deep in water in a couple of generations — there will always be a buyer.
As Californians flock to risky areas, disasters take a greater toll. Over the last decade, the state has experienced 20 disasters that each cost at least $1 billion in damage from flooding, wildfire and extreme heat. Those 20 alone combined for 783 deaths, according to National Centers for Environmental Information.
According to the real estate listing database Redfin, the trend is nationwide. Last year, the country’s most flood-prone, heat-prone and fire-prone counties all saw more people move in than out. Redfin researcher Sheharyar Bokhari blames one primary factor: the housing affordability crisis.
“L.A. and most other coastal cities are expensive. With remote work becoming more of an option, people are finding they can have more space and finally afford a home if they move to riskier areas,” he said.
Bokhari said another L.A.-specific factor is development — mainly that there’s not as much being built in the city compared to the more rural areas surrounding it.
He points to the Inland Empire, which is typically more affordable than L.A. County. In Riverside County, roughly 600,000 homes face a high risk of wildfire, the most of any of the 306 high-fire-risk counties in the country. Despite that, the county’s population grew by 40,000 over the last two years.
Even if experts — and common sense — say to stay away from certain areas, Bokhari said that won’t likely happen because local governments aren’t incentivized to push people out.
“These disaster-prone cities need revenue and people paying taxes,” he said. “They just claim that they’ll be more resilient and take more safety measures going forward,” he said.
Where else would I go?
Since moving onto the ancient landslide zone, Tenney and his wife founded Bluebird Canyon Farms, which offers workshops and grows food for local markets. His time is split between that and taming the erosion-prone land beneath the farm.
To combat sliding land, Tenney installed a gravity wall, 200 feet long and 9 feet tall, to retain the hillside. In addition to grading the terrain to make the slopes gentler, he added powerful drainage systems and timber-and-concrete cribbing to keep structures in place.
The work never stops, and Tenney keeps a monthly schedule to keep up with tasks. Clear brush in spring. Clean storm drains in September. Inspect terracing every few months.
Newsletter
Subscriber Exclusive Alert
If you’re an L.A. Times subscriber, you can sign up to get alerts about early or entirely exclusive content.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
“You can run but you can’t hide,” he said, adding that urban centers such as L.A. have their own laundry lists of things to worry about: crime, homelessness, etc. “You won’t experience a wildfire in downtown L.A., but there are plenty of other things to be concerned with.”
Cribbing systems used by Tenney have become commonplace in Portuguese Bend, a small coastal community on the Palos Verdes Peninsula situated on a slow-moving landslide complex. Land moves up to 8 feet a year, and at that rate residents would rather ride the sliding earth toward the sea than sell and move somewhere else.
“I’ll be here until I can’t be here anymore. I’ll slide away with the land,” Claudia Gutierrez told The Times in July after a nearby landslide in Rolling Hills Estates sent a handful of homes careening down a canyon.
You’d think the real estate market in disaster-prone areas would eventually slow down, but there are no deals to be found for house hunters. Longtime residents often stay put post-disaster, and incoming residents consistently pay a premium to live in a scenic, though potentially dangerous, area.
In cities tucked among the foothills of the Verdugo and San Gabriel mountains such as Altadena and La Cañada Flintridge, buying in a high-fire-risk zone might be ever-so-slightly cheaper than buying in a safer place. And buyers pounce.
“My clients try to choose low-fire-risk zones, but if the house in the fire zone is the right price, that is more important,” said Brent Chang of Compass.
When Lisa and Michael McKean got home to Malibu Park from their honeymoon on Nov. 8, 2018, they were so exhausted that they went straight to sleep. The newlyweds didn’t even bother unpacking their suitcases of swimsuits still wet with Caribbean saltwater.
When they woke up, Lisa looked out her back window and saw a 10,000-foot cloud of billowing black smoke.
The Woolsey fire was ravaging the Malibu hills.
The pair grabbed their still-packed suitcases and fled to the Zuma Beach parking lot, where they spent the day surrounded by horses, dogs, cats and neighbors all wondering if their homes would survive.
Theirs, built a year earlier, did not.
“The entire neighborhood burned,” Lisa said. “Everything was black, scorched earth.”
Devastated, the pair spent six months crunching numbers on the cost of rebuilding versus moving. The home that was destroyed had taken four years to approve and three years to build. Their next one could take even longer.
Despite the damage, and despite the ceaseless, inescapable risk of a future fire, they ultimately decided to stay and rebuild.
Cheryl Calvert has lived in Malibu since 1985 and has adapted to a life of fire. To her, the flames are nearly routine.
“Once you make it through your first one, you realize it’s manageable. But you have to plan ahead,” Calvert said.
She keeps two bags packed at all times: one full of goggles and N95 masks and one with dog supplies.
Calvert has experienced plenty of fires during her time in the coastal community, but the worst was the Corral fire in 2007. She was in the driveway as the flames arrived, and she sprayed the corner of her wooden home with a hose as it ignited. Her guesthouse and garage burned down, but the house was saved.
She never considered leaving. Instead, she became more prepared, installing an extra water tank and leaving a pair of shoes by the front door at all times for quick escapes.
“We have to do crazy things, but it’s only crazy for an hour or two every five or 10 years,” she said.
She ran down the usual list of reasons why people move to Malibu: the beautiful landscape, the ocean breeze, the sweeping views. But she said the main reason her and so many of her neighbors stay is because of the community.
“We’re all living near like-minded people who are willing to risk themselves for each other,” she said. “It’s a bunch of hippies. Rich hippies.”
The psychology of staying
A life among the trees, coasts and cliffs is often what lures Californians to disaster-prone communities, but according to experts, the factors that make them stay after a disaster strikes are much more complicated.
Age, race and class can all indicate whether someone is more or less likely to move after experiencing a disaster. For example, Zhen Cong, professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, found that in the wake of tornados, the middle class might be the most inclined to move since the upper class has the resources to stay and rebuild, while the lower class is often trapped and has no other choice but to stay.
Other relocation factors include the level of damage to the home and whether the person owns the place or rents. But often the most important factor is one that can’t be easily quantified: “People who have a strong sense of place and a strong sense of community are less likely to move,” Cong said.
Ironically, some disasters can even encourage people who otherwise would have left to stay.
In studying post-tornado relocation decisions across the country, Cong found that after a disaster, people increase their disaster preparedness. Part of that includes gathering supplies, but it also includes social engagement: talking to neighbors, sharing information on social media and attending meetings. That engagement, which might not happen if a tornado doesn’t strike, brings a greater sense of community, leading people to stay in that community.
Anamaria Bukvic, an assistant professor at Virginia Tech who studies coastal hazards and population displacement, found that after Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast in 2012, non-geophysical factors mattered the most in deciding whether to stay or leave. For example, confidence in adapting to future disasters was a more relevant indicator if someone would stay than how close they lived to the ocean.
“The experience of flooding can be emotionally disturbing and traumatic,” Bukvic said. “When facing problems, some people try to avoid them. Others try to resolve them.”
She added that confidence in government plays a major role as well. If a person believes the government responded well to the disaster and will keep them safe during the next disaster, they’re more likely to stay.
That’s something that Malibu Mayor Bruce Silverstein thinks about when overseeing the city’s disaster response plan. Although L.A. County is responsible for physically fighting the fires that plague the area, Malibu has instituted a free service in which residents can request a fire-hardening expert to inspect their property to better prepare them for the next blaze.
The city also outlaws certain types of vegetation susceptible to fire and tries to prevent excessive population growth in order to make evacuation from hills and canyons easier during emergencies. It’s the main reason accessory dwelling units (ADUs) are harder to build in Malibu than L.A.
“Unlike L.A., we don’t have standards that encourage growth,” Silverstein said. “We maintain the status quo and try to keep space between properties so if one catches on fire, it doesn’t extend to the neighbors.”
Michael Dyer, a former Santa Barbara County fire chief who now serves as public safety director for Calabasas, said safety became a top priority for the city after Woolsey, energizing the community into forming multiple volunteer commissions that plan for disaster preparedness.
“We have to provide that service as a government,” Dyer said while monitoring a brush fire in Topanga from his front porch. “No one has forgotten Woolsey yet. And as long as I’m here, we won’t.”
No simple fix
As the climate crisis worsens and the Wildland Urban Interface grows in size, experts are eyeing ways to mitigate the effects of natural disasters to save both the environment and human lives.
L.A. is currently considering an ordinance that would limit development in the Santa Monica Mountains. Using recent wildfires and the Rolling Hills Estates landslide as examples, supporters said the measure would make it harder to build mansions and large hillside homes as a way to limit damage caused by disasters, as well as protect open space and wildlife.
In addition, national insurers such as State Farm and Allstate are no longer selling insurance policies in wildfire-prone areas after a series of catastrophic fires raised premiums. Without insurance, people might be disincentivized from buying and building homes in risky areas.
Redfin is also tinkering with a way to warn people of a home’s potential dangers. The company conducted an experiment in which it showed a listing’s flood risk score to certain users but not others and found that those who were shown the scores were less likely to bid on the home.
The scores have since expanded to show risk for fire, heat, drought and storms.
In the meantime, Californians continue to build, and rebuild, in disaster-prone areas. Lisa and Michael McKean, whose home burned down in 2018, moved back into Malibu Park in 2021.
As neighbors slowly filter back into the neighborhood, they walk around to measure progress and congratulate those who have returned.
“We used to hate cement trucks and jackhammers, but now we celebrate them,” Michael said. “The cheery sound of construction.”
Louis Tomlinson, former member of British boy-band One Direction, is on the hunt for the right tenant for his Calabasas, California home.
If that sounds like a dream come true for you, wait until you see the house.
The California Misssion style home, built in 1991, is 9,659 square feet with 5 bedrooms and 8 full bathrooms, and is the perfect combination of old-world charm and modern sensibility thanks to its beamed ceilings, 2 story library, home theater, and game room.
It sits on almost 5 acres of outdoor space complete with mature oaks and sycamores, a resort style pool and spa, a koi pond, an outdoor kitchen, a meditation tea house, and 2 guest houses.
Oh, and it will cost you $40,000 a month.
Of course, you can always still dream. Take a peek below at the inside.
From the age of 21, interior designer Veronica Valencia has worked behind the scenes on more than 500 home makeover shows. But at long last, she’s in the spotlight of her own HGTV series, “Revealed.”
On her show, she renovates homes to highlight the homeowner’s heritage, heirlooms, and family history, setting the stage for some extremely emotional makeovers.
To learn more about how she got her own show and what viewers can learn from it, we spoke with Valencia about some of her fondest memories, what it was like raising her kids on a TV set, as well as her top tips for making any home feel more like, well, home!
You’ve been involved with a lot of renovation shows, but this is your first as the star! How did this series come about?
I’ve been in the design makeover world for 15 years, I started on “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” when I was 21. And basically, I am a trained interior designer, but the majority of my career has been doing behind-the-scenes design work for television.
So this has kind of been my upbringing. I feel at home on a television set doing makeovers. I love the fast pace. My team on “Revealed” is the same team that I met when I was 21. I’m 37 now. I met them on the road, and we just all fell in love with each other.
The show started because I just got really ballsy when I was pregnant. I asked the network executives to give me a shot at my own show.
I said, “I know I can do it. I do all your shows behind the scenes; you know what I can do.” And so now we’re here.
The show is all about family background. What got you interested in designing with heritage in mind?
I come from a very big Mexican family, and we were proud of who we were. But I grew up in Woodland Hills and went to school in Calabasas in a predominantly white neighborhood. And I sometimes felt different.
I wasn’t ashamed of my background, but I wasn’t shouting from the rooftops that I’m Mexican. But I think it wasn’t until I became a mom that I realized how important it is to be proud of your roots. I want to instill that pride in my kids.
How do you honor your heritage in your own home?
My husband and I are bicoastal. In our New York home, we have a lot of African masks. My husband is Black and Irish. And a lot of these masks are from his travels to Ghana. So that’s something that’s really important to us.
We also have his grandmother’s Irish china. I’m all about using and living with your heirlooms. Like, that china doesn’t get brought out just on holidays—we use that every day. We use that to have a slice of pizza. I don’t just want to bring it out on special occasions. And I like being surrounded by my husband’s background. I know when he’s eating soup out of a bowl or having pizza on the china, he’s thinking of his grandma. And having these masks displayed, even if it’s just on a small wall, seeing those and being surrounded by those and our children growing up and seeing those, I think that is super important.
And here in Los Angeles, I have my grandmother’s tortilla maker. It’s in our kitchen. And I only make tortillas a couple of times a year with my grandma, but that’s something that’s really important.
It’s all about the little things: something that’s special that reminds you of where you come from and gives you a sense of belonging.
What was your favorite part of filming ‘Revealed’?
Behind the scenes, we had so much fun. I mean, these are my real-life best friends. So this was crazy. I feel like we had so many pinch-me moments. We would just turn around and look at each other, like, “This is wild. Like, what is happening right now?” And my husband works behind the scenes, so viewers will see him and my family in a couple of scenes every episode.
My son, Hunter, literally grew up on the set of “Extreme Makeover.” That boy feels so comfortable with camera guys, directors, he would help paint. So he’s in the show. I don’t know what scenes ended up in the final edit, but he is such a ham.
Did you have a favorite project of the season?
I redid my best friend’s house, which was so incredible. Lauren has been my neighbor since we were babies. She was the one who enrolled me in interior design school after high school. I was a softball player and I hurt my arm, so I didn’t know what I was going to do after high school. Meanwhile, Lauren was going to design school and wanted to carpool so she secretly enrolled me. And I was like, “What do you mean? What is that?” And then the first week, I was obsessed and loved it.
And then Lauren actually joined the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” team as Paige Hemmis‘ assistant and she sent in my resume. So she’s the one who got me into design, got me into television. So then it all came full circle. She needed to redo her home, and I got to make over my best friend’s home. So that was very emotional.
Do you have any tips for homeowners who want to renovate their house?
I just hope the viewers are inspired to just make their home beautiful. It doesn’t have to be Pinterest-perfect. Just focus on making a beautiful moment and on creating a memory of your home. And that could start with the family conversation. Hopefully, I can inspire people to incorporate more family into their homes.
What do you do for clients who don’t know, or don’t connect, to their heritage?
There are a lot of families like that! We had an Indian family on the show, and it turns out, records of ancestors and where you come from in India are hard to find. It was impossible to track down their ancestors.
So in that instance, I really focused on who they were in their upbringing: what makes them think about family, what home means to them.
I had one client who was Jewish, and Shabbat dinners and cooking were so important to their family. And so I just focused on that. So it really wasn’t as much about their ethnicity or where their ancestors came from. But it was really about what made them feel at home. Challah bread, that could literally inspire an entire kitchen design.
So I think that it’s about incorporating your heritage and culture into your home, but also about incorporating that individual family’s values and really diving deep into that.
Angelo Mozilo, Whose Mortgage Giant Fell in Housing Bust, Dies at 84
He built Countrywide Financial into the country’s largest mortgage lender, but its increasingly risky loans helped precipitate the 2008 financial crisis.
July 18, 2023
Angelo Mozilo, a founder of Countrywide Financial who presided over that lending giant’s rapid ascent and then its collapse during the financial crisis of 2008, died on Sunday. He was 84.
His death, in the Santa Barbara, Calif., area, was announced in a statement by the Mozilo Family Foundation, the family’s philanthropic organization. It did not specify a cause.
Countrywide was a major player in the run-up to the housing crisis, when looser financial regulations enabled lenders to aggressively sell risky mortgage products to prospective homeowners, contributing to a bubble in housing prices. That burst, in 2008, when home values came crashing down, led the U.S. economy into a prolonged recession.
Mr. Mozilo, who was the son of a Bronx butcher and worked his way through Fordham University, became one of the most recognized executives associated with the crisis. Motivated by his modest beginnings, he had built Countrywide into one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders by the early 2000s. But he still wasn’t satisfied: He wanted the company to attain 30 to 40 percent market share, far more than any single lender had achieved.
sales culture propelled the company’s growth and profits but ultimately led to its downfall. As the housing market crashed and borrower defaults soared, Countrywide’s lending practices came under the scrutiny of legislators, regulators and consumer advocates.
Financial pressures began to mount, and the company, based in Calabasas, Calif., west of Los Angeles, was acquired by Bank of America in 2008 at the fire sale price of $4 billion. But the purchase ended up costing Bank of America billions more in legal and other costs it had inherited.
At the time, nearly 150 mortgage lenders had failed, many of which were taken over by healthier institutions.
Mr. Mozilo, recognizable by his crisp suits and deep tan, continued to defend his company throughout the ordeal. “Countrywide was one of the greatest companies in the history of this country,” he told congressional examiners in September 2010, more than two years after Bank of America bought the company.
his member profile in the Horatio Alger Association.
By the time he was 14 he had his first job in the financial industry, working as a messenger boy for a Manhattan mortgage company.
He was married to Phyllis (Ardese) Mozilo for more than 50 years. She died in 2017. He is survived by their five children, Christy Mozilo Larsen and David, Elizabeth, Eric and Mark Mozilo; and 11 grandchildren.
post on Tuesday.
“He was an excellent father and a legend in the mortgage industry,” he added during a phone call.
Mr. Mozilo and a partner, David Loeb, who died in 2003, started Countrywide in 1969 with $500,000. Within a few decades, the company had grown from a conservative home lender, originally based in New York, to the largest mortgage lender in the United States. As of 2007, it had 900 offices and $200 billion in assets and made $500 billion in loans that year.
In the early 1990s, after government data revealed that lenders were disproportionately rejecting minority borrowers for home loans, Countrywide saw an untapped market and began offering more loans in low-income and minority communities.
“When I first brought the loans into the office, they said: ‘You’re nuts, you’re crazy, don’t do this. There’s a reason why we’re rejecting these people,’” Mr. Mozilo later told the congressional commission investigating the crisis. The loan officers, he said, “had very static, inflexible guidelines.”
a 2019 CNBC report. “It affected my reputation, it affected my family, it had a profound impact on my entire life. So I cared. Then a lot of years went by, and my wife passed away, and I turned 80 years old, and now I don’t care. There’s other things more important in life.”
Ben Protess contributed reporting.
Tara Siegel Bernard covers personal finance. Before joining The Times in 2008, she was deputy managing editor at FiLife, a personal finance website, and an editor at CNBC. She also worked at Dow Jones and contributed regularly to The Wall Street Journal. More about Tara Siegel Bernard
A version of this article appears in print on , Section B, Page 11 of the New York edition with the headline: Angelo Mozilo, Leader of Lender In 2008 Housing Bust, Dies at 84. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
If you often find yourself daydreaming about the rolling hills of Tuscany, we have something special for you today.
A Tuscan-inspired home has recently hit the market in Santa Monica, offering oodles of charm, unique architectural details, and carefully picked finishes that almost make you forget you’re in California.
Priced at $9,650,000, the Tuscan-style masterpiece offers an escape into the wine countryside with its gorgeous tile details and earthy atmosphere. Tara Rodgers-Culbertson with Compass holds the listing.
With its reclaimed roof tiles from Burgundy, terracotta flooring, an antique horse trough, and iron and glass doors, the exterior of the house fits in seamlessly with the landscaping that surrounds it.
The earthy feeling of the house’s exterior is reflected in its interior, which features plaster walls, smoked French white oak floors, and reclaimed beams on the ceilings.
“The unique architectural design offers a natural and timeless European approach to building with a level of modern craftsmanship that we rarely have the privilege of seeing today,” says listing agent Tara Rodgers-Culbertson with Compass.
SEE ALSO: $18M Tuscan villa in Calabasas bakes in a luxury trip to Italy in its asking price
Offering 4,200 square feet of living space, the two-level Santa Monica house has 3 bedrooms, 3 full baths, and 1 half bath, with each and every one of its spaces being more inviting than the next.
The kitchen is every chef’s dream (and would likely appeal even to the cooking adverse) with its warm atmosphere and beautiful finishes. Among them, we find a Roman brick wall, a copper-and-white La Cornue range and hood with electric and gas ovens, and an indoor pizza oven that leads directly to the outdoor dining area (which comes with its own Kalamazoo grill, terra-cotta tiles that match the living room, and a heated floor).
A curved staircase leads to the second floor of the house, which features a fully-equipped media room with a movie theater, HomeWorks and Savant systems, and a pull-out desk for office work.
Opening up to a picturesque balcony overlooking the pool and patio area, the primary bedroom is bright and light-filled and features a spacious walk-in closet.
The spa-like master bathroom doesn’t leave much to be desired either, featuring both a full-size tub and a shower, as well as exterior stairs leading to the jacuzzi and pool area below. A guest bedroom, also on the second floor, has an adjoining guest bath with black and white tile and Greek print.
RELATED: ‘ER’ star Anthony Edwards lists gorgeous Spanish-style vacation house
While this Santa Monica house has plenty of unique attributes, one of its most distinctive features is the underground wine cellar, visible through a window in the floor of the library that sits right above it.
When it comes to outdoor areas, the home’s doors open up to a beautiful deck and a pottery-lined pool. Deep-blue glass tiles line the rectangular pool rimmed with Moroccan lanterns and topiaries in circular Uzes pots, creating a mesmerizing effect.
Adding to the outdoor area’s charm is a jacuzzi tucked on the house’s back porch, adorned with hand-painted tiles and plates sourced from San Diego and inspired by Lisbon’s blue-and-white azulejos.
More stories you might like
Former Rams champ Jalen Ramsey lists stunning L.A. home following Dolphins trade
The Blanco Bungalow, an Instagram darling with a sizable following, sells for over $1 million
Brad Pitt’s home in Carmel, the historic D.L. James house
In 2022, Grammy Award-nominated rapper Nicki Minaj paid a whopping $19.5 million for a big modern farmhouse in the Hidden Hills neighborhood, a guard-gated city in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.
After years of renting mansions across the greater Los Angeles area from Beverly Hills to Malibu, the award-winning rapper has finally purchased her own home to settle in with her two-year-old son and husband Kenny Petty.
The big purchase came just a few weeks after Minaj turned 40, making it the perfect birthday present for the Anaconda hitmaker.
In fact, the house was listed for sale on December 7, 2022, the day before Nicki’s birthday, which is on December 8. A little over a week later, the deal had already closed, with public records showing that the transaction went through on December 16. This means the rapper got herself a phenomenal $19.5 million birthday present for her 40th!
Nicki Minaj’s new house, according to Dirt.com, is located in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains, an area known for its secluded, rural atmosphere despite being only a short drive from Los Angeles.
Hidden Hills was initially a quiet, Kentucky-esque community filled with horse ranches, but recently the neighborhood’s Ferraris and Lamborghinis probably surpasses its horses.
That’s because it has recently become a favorite among professional athletes, musicians, and celebrities who desire residential serenity. The San Fernando Valley area is popular with celebrities such as Madonna, Sylvester Stallone, Jessica Simpson, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, Lori Loughlin, Ben Simmons, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, and most of the L.A. Rams’ current roster.
Lil Wayne, who helped discover the pop star and signed her to his Young Money imprint during the late 2000s, also moved to Hidden Hills back in 2021, when he put down $15 million on a mansion of his own.
Nicki Minaj’s house, a 12,000-square-foot modern farmhouse
The sprawling modern farmhouse, which was built in recent years by a local developer, was sold before openly listing on the MLS, according to the realtor’s remarks.
This makes photos and details of Nicki Minaj’s house hard to come across, but tax records show that the nearly 12,000-square-foot residence has eight bedrooms, nine full bathrooms, and two powder rooms.
Related: 12 most expensive rapper houses: Drake, Jay-Z, and Kanye in the lead
The main house has pocketing glass doors that make the space feel larger and maximizes the light flowing into the rooms. These doors lead to various patios and terraces. The upstairs master suite has its own private balcony with views of the spectacular backyard.
In the backyard of the new home, there is a separate guesthouse for hosting friends and family. You’ll also find a spa and poolside cabana providing the perfect place for the celebrity to seek shade while hanging by her saltwater pool.
The Baja shelf ideal for sunbathing, relaxing, or playing with the celebrity and her young family, friends, and loved ones completes the gorgeous and luxurious pool.
The flat lot which encompasses a full acre of land includes a three-car garage, grassy lawns, and significant landscaping which create a truly spectacular architectural feature for privacy.
Nicki has always enjoyed staying in big houses
The Trinidadian-born rapper is a fan of huge homes. When she was dating Meek Mill, she paid for the couple to live in a $35,000/month Beverly Hills mansion. It was a 10,340-square-foot, eight-bedroom, and 10-bathroom estate in an exclusive gated community.
See also: Cardi B’s House in Atlanta is Pure Old-World Luxury
While we expect them to move to their new place soon, the pop star and her husband, Kenneth Petty currently live in a rental mansion in the City of Calabasas, which you can take a closer look at in the video below:
[embedded content]
The Mediterranean-inspired structure built in the 1990s has six bedrooms and nine bathrooms, and the interiors are covered in luxurious, stylish, and elegant marble floors.
New home, new music, and exciting new projects on the way too
In addition to purchasing her first home, the singer who released her debut studio album Pink Friday in 2010 announced that she is working on her fifth album.
She says it will take fans back to where it all began — gritty bars and underground MC-type vibes that her Barbz fans have grown to know and love. “I feel like whenever I’m happy, I deliver the best music,” Nicki said recently. “And to deliver the best music for my upcoming album, I need to reconnect with the essence of Hip Hop.”
The rapper has also teased other exciting projects that include an upcoming nail art company and getting back into the TV and film industry. Looks like the generous singer-songwriter is going to be quite busy soon and we’re looking forward to it all.
More stories you might like
The Promise Land: Rapper Rick Ross’ house is a 109-room beast of a mansionLizzo’s house in Los Angeles, a $15M luxe ‘treehouse’ with a celebrity pastCardi B’s House in Atlanta is Pure Old-World Luxury See Inside Rapper Polo G’s House, a Stately Mansion Worth $5 Million
In 2022, Southern California real estate once again lived up to its reputation as one of the weirdest, wildest, most dramatic markets in the country.
While the lower end of the market cooled as interest rates forced buyers and sellers to rethink their strategies, the luxury market raged on with significantly more blockbuster sales than last year.
Celebrities, tech moguls and CEOs spent fortunes on their dream homes. Battles were waged over the profits of mega-mansions. Here are the top sales of the year.
Advertisement
$58 million
Sylvester Stallone kicked things off by selling his 21,000-square-foot mega-mansion in Beverly Park for $58 million — a blockbuster deal, but not quite a knockout for the “Rocky” star, who originally wanted $110 million for the trophy home.
The high-profile sale included a high-profile buyer: pop star Adele. She joins a bevy of stars in the affluent enclave including Denzel Washington, Magic Johnson and Mark Wahlberg.
$70 million
Michael Rubin, the chief executive of sports e-commerce company Fanatics, set an all-time record in Hollywood Hills when he shelled out $70 million for a property once owned by Ronald Reagan.
The sale redefined what a home could fetch in Hollywood Hills, which has historically seen sales top out in the $30-million range. The staggering price was due to the estate’s rare size and scale. Newly rebuilt, it sits on three-quarters of an acre above the Sunset Strip with unobstructed views of the city.
Records show the seller was Francesco Aquilini, a Canadian businessman best known as the chairman of the Vancouver Canucks hockey team. A regular in real estate headlines, he set the neighborhood’s previous price record when he sold a spec mansion for $42.5 million in 2020.
$70.4 million
Kim Kardashian got in on the action as well, buying yet another home in Southern California. The reality TV star has owned properties in Hidden Hills and Calabasas but picked up one in Malibu this time, spending $70.4 million on a bluff-top mansion once owned by Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber.
Set on more than 3 acres overlooking the ocean, the coastal estate centers on a 7,450-square-foot villa surrounded by a swimming pool, tennis court and meditation deck.
It was sold by hedge-fund manager Adam Weiss and “Yellowstone” actress Barret Swatek, who originally asked $99.5 million for the place.
$75 million
For months, rumors swirled on where Drake — perhaps the world’s biggest hip-hop star — would buy a home. The rapper toured the finest estates of Southern California but eventually settled for something off-market, quietly paying $75 million for a Beverly Crest mansion owned by fellow music star Robbie Williams.
Drake’s new place is comically large, clocking in at more than 20,000 square feet on more than 20 acres — a rarity for the area. Across those 20,000 square feet, it manages to squeeze in 10 bedrooms and a staggering 22 bathrooms, as well as an elevator, wine cellar, gym, game room and 11-car garage.
$91 million
Malibu’s massive year continued thanks to video game designer Jon Burton, who sold his 6.6-acre spread in Paradise Cove for $91 million — a nice improvement on the $36.5 million he paid for it in 2012, but a bit less than the $125 million he originally wanted.
The price jump is mainly thanks to a face-lift Burton gave the place during his decade-long stay. Listing photos show he remodeled the living spaces with rich woods and large windows, as well as amenities such as a movie theater, tennis court, swimming pool and mini golf course.
The biggest highlight comes out back, where the 17,000-square-foot mansion descends to 340 feet of beach frontage.
$100 million
Only three sales surpassed the $100-million threshold this year, and one of them belonged to Tamara Gustavson, daughter of late Public Storage founder B. Wayne Hughes. She wanted $127.5 million for her sprawling compound on a Malibu bluff and sold it for $100 million.
The buyer, records show, is Byron Allen, the billionaire media mogul who founded Entertainment Studios.
The stunning spread has the usual laundry list of amenities but adds a few custom spaces such as a wood-and-glass guesthouse outfitted with a gym and yoga studio.
The profits are a drop in the bucket for Gustavson, who has a net worth of $7.59 billion, according to Bloomberg.
$120 million
Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel finally closed his deal in Holmby Hills, spending $120 million on a property across the street from the Playboy Mansion. The sale process started last year, but he couldn’t close until the summer because the house wasn’t yet finished.
With the move, Spiegel joins one of the ritziest pockets in the country. The Playboy Mansion is the neighborhood’s most famous estate, but the area also holds iconic homes such as Owlwood and the Manor, which set the L.A. County price record at the time when it traded hands for $119.75 million in 2019.
$141 million
What more can be said of “The One”? When the country’s largest modern home was auctioned off for $141 million to the founder of Fashion Nova, it brought an end to a years-long saga of ambition and greed, a battle that’s been documented over and over again but remains hard to believe.
Once touted as a $500-million home, then listed as a $295-million home, then sold at a foreclosure auction as a $141-million home, the still-unfinished mega-mansion comes in as both a crowning achievement and utter disappointment. It ranks as the top sale of the year, and one of the priciest home sales ever in California, but couldn’t fetch anywhere near its original price, and leaves the buyer with millions more to spend to finish up the place.
In many ways, The One is the perfect encapsulation of Southern California’s luxury market, where developers chase bigger and bigger price tags for bigger and bigger homes until, oftentimes, it all blows up in a dramatic display for all to see.