A smile a Country-wide

If case you haven’t noticed, we enjoy irony as much as anyone. Probably more. A lot more.

So, when I saw this Google ad last night I just knew that you’d be delighted to hear that Countrywide (CFC:NYSE) — the #1 home lender in the USA — is still trying to recruit those less-than-stellar borrowers. I’m not kidding. This is the exact ad they were running just a few hours ago.

Countrywide® Home Loans
Fast home refi, good credit or not.
Countrywide®. 4 out of 5 approved.
www.countrywide.com

So, despite what you saw in The Murdoch Street Journal earlier today:

Lenders Broaden Clampdown on Risky Mortgages
Tightening Standards Could Worsen Slump In the Housing Market
By JAMES R. HAGERTY and RUTH SIMON

Jittery home-mortgage lenders are cutting off credit or raising interest rates for a growing portion of Americans, extending well beyond the market for subprime loans for people with the weakest credit records.

This worsening credit crunch threatens to put further pressure on the housing market, where prices are flat to declining in much of the country.

Lenders say they are being forced to raise interest rates and stop offering certain loans because mortgage-bond investors have lost their appetite for a broad range of mortgages considered risky. That includes those dubbed Alt-A, a category between prime and subprime that often involves borrowers who don’t fully document their income or assets, or those buying investment properties.

Countrywide recently said that 4.6% of its prime home-equity loans were past due, up from 1.8% a year earlier. Nevermind, they say. Saddle up! ‘Cause Countrywide is still very much lookin’ for biznas.

MRM