Diamond Bar Real Estate

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Thornburg Mortgage stops accepting interest-rate locks

Jumbo lender delays payment of dividend to investors

Jumbo lender Thornburg Mortgage Inc. says it won't make a 68-cents-per-share payment to shareholders today as scheduled because of a "sudden and unprecedented decline" in the market price of its mortgage securities.

The decline began on Aug. 9 and prompted an increase in margin calls by the Santa Fe-based lender's creditors, the company said in a press release explaining the decision.

Thornburg Mortgage said it has also experienced delays in its ability to fund loans, prompting the company to stop accepting new requests to lock in rates for four days.

"We regret having to take these steps, but present market conditions have placed unprecedented restrictions on our industry and on us that have forced this change in policy," the company said in a memo to lending partners that was posted on IndyMac Bank's company blog. "Due to the fact that very few lenders are currently accepting locks, Thornburg Mortgage is being inundated with lock requests."

Organized as a real estate investment trust (REIT), Thornburg Mortgage specializes in adjustable-rate jumbo mortgages. Loan originations totaled $1.7 billion in the second quarter -- a 21 percent increase from the same period last year, the company said in its most recent report to investors.

At the end of June, Thornburg Mortgage reported holding $48.7 billion of hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) assets, with the interest rates on $5.7 billion in loans set to reset in the next 18 months.

The ARM assets included "A quality" ARM loans that Thornburg Mortgage purchased or originated and securitized into ARM pass-through certificates or collateralized mortgage debt financings for the company's own portfolio. Thornburg Mortgage retains the risk of potential credit losses on all of the loans, and had set aside $15.7 million for loan losses as of June 30.

Thornburg Mortgage said it was also a counterparty to hybrid ARM hedging instruments consisting of $44.3 billion in swap agreements. The company also had $24.7 billion of reverse repurchase agreements outstanding at the end of June.

Reverse repurchase agreements involve a simultaneous sale of pledged securities to a creditor, which Thornburg has agreed to repurchase at a future date at a higher price, with the difference representing the cost of borrowing.

Thornburg Mortgage warned investors that the company's borrowing ability under such agreements "could be limited, and lenders could initiate margin calls in the event of interest-rate changes or if the value of our ARM assets declines for other reasons."

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Diamond Bar City

Diamond Bar City History

Diamond Bar as with many Southern California communities, Diamond Bar's recorded history began with a Mexican land grant. On March 30, 1840, Governor Juan Alvarado deeded 4,340 acres, which included Brea Canyon and the eastern Walnut Valley, to Jose de la Luz Linares, who founded Rancho Los Nogales, or Ranch of the Walnut Trees. Linares died in 1847, and his widow sold a choice portion of the ranch to Ricardo Vejar for $100 in merchandise, 100 calves, and the assumption of her late husband's debts. Vejar already owned the Rancho San Jose to the east (now Pomona), and by acquiring the rest of Rancho Los Nogales over the next ten years, became the fifth wealthiest landowner in Los Angeles County, with over 10,000 acres.

A community icon...The Windmill can still be seen at the Diamond Bar Towne Center)

Unfortunately, Vejar's luck did not last. When the United States government took over California and resurveyed the old land grants, he ended up with only 464 acres. Then the great drought of the 1860's forced most of the area ranchers to borrow money to feed their cattle. Vejar had been trading with two Los Angeles merchants, Isaac Schlesinger and Hyman Tischler, and they loaned him $600 for supplies at an interest rate of eight percent per month. When the note, with compounded interest, was finally called in for over $28,000, Vejar couldn't pay, and his property passed to Schlesinger and Tischler in 1864.

The Rancho Los Nogales did not prosper under its new owners, and they were surrounded by hostile neighbors who remained loyal to Vejar. In 1866, they sold the ranch to Louis Phillips for $30,000, bringing his holdings to over 12,000 acres. Phillips sold a portion of the ranch to WiIliam Rubettom, who opened up a tavern and overland stage station for the Butterfield route near where the Orange Freeway (57) now crosses Pomona Boulevard. He called the community "Spadra," after his hometown in Arkansas, and this became the first named settlement in the Diamond Bar area.

In 1873, the Rancho Los Nogales was sold again, this time to Wilson Beach and George Butler. After that, the property became quite fragmented as parcels were sold off to many different owners. But in 1918, Frederich E. Lewis bought up most of the original Rancho Los Nogales again, and he registered the Brand of Diamond Bar with the California Department of Agriculture. Lewis sold the Diamond Bar Ranch to the Bartholome family in 1943, and they continued to raise cattle on it for the next thirteen years.

An aerial view of Diamond Bar in the 1970's ...

In 1956, the Diamond Bar Ranch looked much as it did in 1840, with its golden hills peppered by green stands of oak and walnut trees, and grazed by large herds of cattle. The changes of the previous century were nothing, however, compared to the plans that the Transamerica Corporation had for Diamond Bar. In that year, they paid $10,000,000 for 8,000 acres of Brea Canyon, and they master-planned a community that would eventually become home to some 50,000 people. The first model homes were built at the north end of town in 1960, and a development "boom" had begun that continues today.

Today's Diamond Bar is a young, upscale residential community of about 60,000, situated among the meandering hills and valleys of Brea Canyon. Located at the junction of the Orange (57) and Pomona (60) freeways, Diamond Bar is central to all of the Los Angeles basin. A twenty-five mile radius encompasses Pasadena, downtown Los Angeles, Long Beach, Irvine and Riverside. Inside that radius, can be found such attractions as Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm, Anaheim and Dodger Stadiums, the theaters of Los Angeles' Civic Center, the Rose Bowl and the Coliseum, the Santa Anita and Los Alamitos race tracks, the Mt. Baldy ski slopes and all of the Orange County beaches. The Ontario International Airport is only twenty-five minutes away, giving Diamond Bar residents an attractive alternative to Los Angeles International Airport. A two-hour drive lands you beside the waters of Lake Arrowhead, or in the snowy mountains of Big Bear. Whether you prefer the hills and canyons in the city, the nearby mountains, the sun on the surf, or the desert, Diamond Bar places you at the center of the active Southern California life-style.

All desired services can be conveniently found in Diamond Bar's shopping and business centers. The Diamond Bar Golf Course has 18 beautiful and challenging holes, and the Los Angeles Royal Vista Golf Course is just down the road. Diamond Bar's parks offer residents more than 80 acres of recreational facilities. Mt. San Antonio College and California Polytechnic University, Pomona are located at the north edge of town, while California State University, Fullerton is just ten minutes to the south.

Diamond Bar, CA

Top 100 rank: N/A^C
Population: 59,700

Financial
	City stats	Best places avg.
Median family income (per year)	$84,173	$90,316
Family purchasing power (annual, cost-of-living adjusted)	$69,051	$82,867
Sales tax	8.30%	6.74%
State income tax rate (highest bracket)	9.30%^I	6.38%
State income tax rate (lowest bracket)	1.00%^I	2.74%
Auto insurance premiums (Average for the state)	$2,076	$2,121
Job growth % (2000-2006)	9.57%	13.41%
Housing
	City stats	Best places average
Median home price	$583,825	$359,352
Average property taxes (2006)	$3,730	$3,585


Education
	City stats	Best places average
Colleges, universities and professional schools (within 30 miles)	49	29
Junior colleges and technical institutes (within 30 miles)	55	18
Test scores reading (% above/below state average)	66.7%	20.1%
Test scores math (% above/below average)	52.0%	24.8%
% students attending public/private schools (located within town limits)	97.0/3.0	91.1/8.9
Quality of life
	City stats	Best places average
Air quality index* (% of days AQI ranked as good)	32.1%	77.3%
Personal crime incidents (per 1,000)	2	13
Property crime incidents (per 1,000)	15	206
Median commute time (in minutes)	30.7	23.1
% population with commute 45 mins. or longer	31.9%	15.6%
% population walk or bike to work	0.8%	2.7%

Health*
	City stats	Best places average
Has health plan (% of residents)	83.2%	90.5%
Body mass index (avg. for residents)	27	27
Diabetes rates (% of residents diagnosed)	7.3%	9.3%
Hypertension rates (% of residents diagnosed)	28.4%	30.6%
Elder-care facilities^**	263	107
Meet the neighbors
	City stats	Best places average
Median age	37.0	36.8
Completed at least some college (% of residents)	72.9%	72.4%
Married	58.6%	60.8%
Divorced	6.7%	8.0%
Racial diversity index (100 is national average; higher numbers indicate greater diversity)	428.6	59.2
Amount spent on vacations (domestic and foreign, household avg. per year)	$9,056	$8,250

*County data
**Elder-care services refer to skilled nursing and assisted living facilities. Data from Total Living Choices.
(C) Cities with populations greater than 50,000 were not eligible for this year's Best Places to Live list.

(I) Income tax notes:
17 states have statutory provision for automatic adjustment of tax brackets, personal exemption or standard deductions to the rate of inflation. Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska and Ohio indexes the personal exemption amounts only.
For joint returns, the taxes are twice the tax imposed on half the income.
Tax credits.
An additional 1% tax is imposed on taxable income over $1 million

Estimated median household income in 2005: $78,800 (it was $68,871 in 2000)

Diamond Bar	$78,800
California:	$53,629

Estimated median house/condo value in 2005: $564,100 (it was $245,800 in 2000)

Diamond Bar	$564,100
California:	$477,700

Diamond Bar Real Estate

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Thornburg Mortgage stops accepting interest-rate locks

Jumbo lender delays payment of dividend to investors

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Diamond Bar City

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