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Byline: Laura Smitherman
Aug. 7--A major mortgage lender filed for bankruptcy-law protection yesterday and other financial companies curtailed lending or laid off employees as the end to easy credit on Wall Street continues to trickle down, leaving consumers with fewer choices for home loans.
American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. filed for bankruptcy-law protection after laying off several hundred employees in Maryland and thousands across the country in recent days. Also, First NLC Financial Services closed an office in Greenbelt and subprime lender Fieldstone Investment Corp. of Columbia stopped accepting new loan applications last week.
Cleveland-based National City Corp.'s home equity unit suspended additional loans or lines of credit yesterday, and Houston-based subprime lender Aegis Mortgage Corp. said it would not accept any more applications.
Mortgage brokers who remain in business say they are no longer able to offer many of the loans that became the rage during the housing-market boom but led to a spike in defaults and foreclosures. Many of those loans require little or no money down, or…