American Home Goes Bust

American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., Melville, N.Y., will close its doors on Friday and file for bankruptcy protection, MortgageWire has learned.Company chief executive Michael Strauss sent an e-mail message to employees Thursday afternoon saying "the market conditions in both the secondary mortgage market as well as the national real estate market have deteriorated to the point that our business is no longer viable. What this means for most of our employees is that Friday, August 2, 2007 will be your last day of employment." AHM is the nation's 10th-largest residential funder, according to the Quarterly Data Report. It was hurt by margin calls amid a horrific liquidity crisis in the nonprime sector. Sources said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now exploring their options in regard to AHM, which is a conventional and alternative-A funder/servicer. (The government-sponsored enterprises, as a policy, do not comment on financial arrangements they have with their seller/servicers.)