Deals

After $50 Billion of Losses, No One Comes to Save the Mortgage Market

  • Many publicly traded U.S. REITs have lost most of their value
  • Starwood Capital, JPMorgan among those in hunt for bargains
Photographer: Johnny Milano/Bloomberg
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The market for mortgage-backed securities was in free fall, with fear running rampant and banks seizing collateral.

So Tom Barrack, the chairman of real estate investment trust Colony Capital Inc., published an 1,800-word plea for the Federal Reserve to buy bonds backed by homes, cars and other assets and for banks to halt margin calls.