The O.C. Mortgage Bust - "Young office clerks were all driving Mercedes and BMWs"

[kurth]

The O.C. Mortgage Bust
Jobs Dry Up In Subprime Heartland
By Dina ElBoghdady
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 13, 2007; Page D01

IRVINE, Calif. -- After more than two decades in the mortgage business, Tony Ventimiglio got his big break in 2001 when he accepted a managerial job with a lender here in the heart of Orange County for $225,000 a year -- more than double what he had made in each of the previous four years.

Ventimiglio nearly doubled his salary again two years later, this time at the now-defunct Homefield Financial, where he supervised 100 workers, including salespeople who routinely made $25,000 a month in commission.

"When I started working there in 2003, I was embarrassed because I was driving a Cadillac and the young office clerks were all driving Mercedes and BMWs," said Ventimiglio, 49. "There were a lot of people who knew nothing about mortgages. They were simply in the right place at the right time."

The good times are over for the get-rich-quick industry that grew up in Orange County and thrived in the first half of the decade, when interest rates hit record lows and home prices surged. Four of the six largest and boldest lenders of risky mortgages were based in this Southern California county back then, and all cashed in on what seemed an insatiable appetite for home loans...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/12/AR2007101202261.html?hpid=topnews

[WinkyDink]

1. Que lastima.

[fortyfeetunder]

2. One thing was clear in this picture

There were way too many people living beyond their means. Making good money, thought they could live beyond their means, not realizing how volatile that industry was.

So much for the "instant gratification"....