Businessweek: Cuando los pobres con casa propia son un problema

BUSINESSWEEK

NOVEMBER 1, 2004 

ECONOMICS/Commentary

When Home Buying By The Poor Backfires

By: Peter Coy

For many families, a house can be a bad investment

Mildred Wilkins calls it "falling out the back door." It's what happens when low-income families who have bought their first houses are forced out because they can't keep up the mortgage payments. Says Wilkins, an Indianapolis consumer advocate who once worked for Fannie Mae (FNM ) selling foreclosed properties: "I don't care if you put five families in the front door if three families fall out the back door. It breaks my heart to see it. It absolutely breaks my heart

In Washington, making it easier for the poor to buy homes is as uncontroversial as Mom's apple pie. Measures to increase the rate of low-income homeownership have historically been strongly supported by both Democrats and Republicans, as well as homebuilders and banks. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (FRE ), the giant mortgage-finance institutions, have justified their existence by their promotion of homeownership among the poor. More recently, boosting low-income home buying has been an important part of what President George W. Bush calls the "ownership society."

Unlike many government initiatives, the homeownership campaign is succeeding: The nation's homeownership rate reached a record 69.2% in the second quarter, up from 67.2% four years earlier. Among families in the bottom half of incomes, the rate rose to 53.1% from 50.8% over the same stretch. Advocates say ownership builds wealth while promoting responsibility.

Forbes: posiciona a Countrywide entre las 25 grandes compañias de USA de mayor crecimiento en el 2004

Fastest-Growing Big Companies
 
Countrywide Branches Out Beyond Mortgages 

Ari Weinberg, 04.16.04, 3:00 PM ET 

NEW YORK - The company is no longer known as Countrywide Credit Industries but the mortgage company founded in 1969 by Angelo Mozilo and the late David Loeb has been pumping out home loans with factory-like efficiency over the past few years.


On the back of historically low interest rates, the company now known as Countrywide Financial churned out $434 billion in new loans in 2003, compared with $252 billion in 2002, making it the largest independent mortgage lender, slightly ahead of $384 billion in home lending for Washington Mutual and just behind the $470 billion of production by Wells Fargo. 

But Calabasas, Calif.-based Countrywide earned its place on our list of America's 25 Fastest-Growing Big Companies for its 33% annual revenue growth over the last five years as the fastest-growing company among U.S. financial services firms on the Global 2000. Countrywide's earnings per share--at $8.31 per share in 2003 versus $3.25 per share in 2002--and stock price, up nearly 180% since the end of 2001 to just under $56, have shown that the company has been able to translate that revenue surge into earnings. 

At an investor meeting in late March, Chairman and Chief Executive Mozilo rolled out a five-year strategic plan for Countrywide to augment its position in the mortgage banking sector and reduce its sensitivity to interest rate changes. The company plans to grow out capital markets, banking and insurance such that those divisions contribute 50% of earnings by 2008. Additionally, the company is aiming for a more sustainable 15% cumulative annual earnings growth over that period in what it calls a "normal" market.