So Ownit sold their loans to Merrill Lynch, Countrywide, and others? Am I understanding this correctly? Why would Countrywide, a loan originator, buy other companies’ loans?

Do you know why the lenders are so slow to reduce the listings prices of their REOs? A Poway house on Twin Peaks Road has been bank-owned, according to the sign on the lawn and foreclosure.com, since August 2006. Why doesn’t the lender just lower the price enough to sell the house? When the house finally sells at a loss, who writes it off on the books – the lender or the MBS purchaser, and/or the pension fund/fixed income fund which owns it?

On a related note, how many people on this forum are sure that their pension funds and parents’ fixed income funds are safe from the demise of the MBS market?