Mortgage Foreclosure & Refinance Resource

The nation’s housing and mortgage-lending slump keeps growing with industry write-downs topping $46 billion.

Today, Wachovia Corp doubled its estimate of loan loss provisions to about $1 billion for the fourth quarter while the chief executive of rival Bank of America Corp. said he expects current credit market turbulence to extend into 2008. In November, Bank of America said it would take a $3.3 billion debt-related write-down in the fourth quarter and warned its losses could grow.

Late Monday, Washington Mutual said it would absorb a $1.6 billion in losses in the fourth quarter.Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. analyst Paul Miller questions if that will be enough to help cover mounting losses in the bank’s lending portfolios.

Washington Mutual, like many other banks, has been hit by the weakening housing market and rising delinquencies and defaults among mortgages, especially subprime mortgages and home equity products. Subprime mortgages are loans typically given to customers with poor credit history.

A third major bank, PNC Financial Services Group Inc., said its adjusted credit loss provision for the last three months of the year will be more than twice as large as in the third quarter.