B of A, the Biggest Story of the Year?

It's bit too early to declare one topic the "biggest mortgage story of the year" but the front runner is Bank of America's downsizing in residential finance. I don't mean to pick on the bank, but never before in the history of the business has a number one ranked company in both production and servicing fallen so hard, so fast. Of course, we all know why and its name is Countrywide Financial Corp. Barbara Desoer, B of A's choice to stabilize the bank's mortgage business, instead has become the dismantler-in-chief. Then again, who would've ever predicted that home values would fall by 50% or more in once key markets such as Arizona, Florida and Nevada? Real estate values have yet to recover and a real revival for housing likely won't come until 2013. The only wild card to this prediction is the jobs picture. If our elected leaders want to stabilize the twin markets of housing/mortgages they need to get as many people as possible back to work ASAP. State and local governments – once a safe haven for workers – are shedding thousands of jobs each month with no end in sight. Private employers have yet to pick up the slack. Meanwhile a White House-backed refi plan has yet to be released and is floundering because supposedly it will hurt the megabanks and MBS investors. (See the story on the NMN website.) But as one of our sources reminded us: You have to stop worrying about the investors and choose the greater good, which means you pull the lever for helping underwater mortgagors…