Farewell Indy. Who's Next? (Part 1)

On Friday, IndyMac joined the long and growing list of bankrupt mortgage companies (Accredited Home Lenders, Novastar Financial, Fremont General and dozens of others) that have been taken down by what has already surpassed mortgage and bank losses of the Savings & Loan Crisis.

This was all predicted by me and in fact, I recommended investors to SHORT these stocks in 2007. Check here to download Chapter 12 of Cashing in on the Real Estate Bubble.

While Indy marks only the sixth bank failure since the official start of the banking-real estate avalanche in February 2007, you can bet this is only the beginning.

The last wave of bank failures in the U.S. occurred during the recession of ’90-’91, when 502 banks failed in a 3-year period. Prior to that, more than 1,600 banks insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) were closed or received FDIC financial assistance between 1980 and 1994 due mainly to the Savings & Loan crisis.

Now if you think the collapse of IndyMac doesn’t affect you, think again. The FDIC estimates the takeover will cost between $4 and $8 billion. Given what I know about government estimates, it’s likely to cost much more. Whatever the costs, it’s coming from taxpayers.

But there’s more to it. Indy’s insolvency signals that the banking crisis is not only live and well, but only just beginning. Before it’s over, I estimate a total of about $10 trillion in losses as a result of Greenspan’s real estate bubble - $1.5 to $2.0 trillion in direct losses by banks and mortgage companies (much more than Wall Streets ever increasing estimates that are now up to $500 billion), $7 trillion in paper losses due to real estate devaluations, and $1.0 trillion in lost incomes (and decreased consumer spending resulting in income losses for others) due to job losses and lay-offs in the real estate, mortgage, banking and construction industries, as well as non-real estate related job losses due declining economic conditions attributed to the real estate and banking crisis.

In total, I would roughly estimate a loss of around 6 million jobs from 2007 to 2011. Already, an estimated 250,000 jobs have been lost in the residential lending sector alone. And as the economy continues to stall, more jobs will be lost from other industries, causing more foreclosures which will only damage the real estate market further, or at best, cause it to lag for several years.

The paper losses will come back over time. But for others, a decline in home values can flip you upside down in no time. And if you need to refinance an ARM, you will be out of luck unless you can come up with the difference between the outstanding mortgage balance and the market value of your home - plus any amount required for down payment. This is how many have lost their homes.