By Diana McCabe COSTA MESA If you think the local housing market is about to cool off, just talk with the loan experts at GMAC Mortgage Corp., owners of the high-profile lender DiTech.com. They think California is such a hot market that today they are launching a new lending division just for the Golden State. Called CalDirect, the program is patterned after DiTech.com, the Costa Mesa-based lender -- open 24/7 to consumers via the Internet and phone -- with its prominent freeway billboards and frequent TV ads promising low rates and fast service. CalDirect will offer the same menu of loan products as DiTech, a national lender, but CalDirect borrowers will receive guarantees that DiTech doesn't offer. For example, CalDirect promises to close loans all loans within 25 days or else give borrowers in Southern California a $250 credit on fees and closing costs. If CalDirect can't beat a competitor's fees by $50, it will pay the consumer $500. ''The California market is huge,'' said Michael McCarthy, the senior vice president at GMAC who heads up CalDirect operations. CalDirect, based in Costa Mesa (in the same building as DiTech) and employing about 75, is focusing just on the state, the No. 1 market in the country, he says. California residents make more home purchases and refinance mortgages more frequently than people anywhere else in the country, with 64 percent being repeat homebuyers, GMAC says. Home values also keep rising, making the equity loan business very attractive. (In Orange County, for example, the median sales price for March hit $394,000, up 19 percent from a year earlier.) Even if interest rates rise and refinances slow, CalDirect expects equity loans and home purchases to make up a good chunk of its future business. Industry experts agree with that outlook. ''The market won't fall apart anytime soon,'' said Mark Boud of Real Estate Economics in Laguna Niguel. While supply has been tight for housing, demand is still great, he and others say. And the potential for lenders who let homeowners tap into a home's equity will remain strong because consumers have elected to invest in real estate instead of the stock market, he says. Others have noticed, too. Earlier this week, the Charles Schwab stock brokerage said it was getting into the mortgage business. It is also promising guarantees on its mortgage services. GMAC's emphasis on California is a smart marketing move, experts say. ''Getting California in the name and having it locally based will appeal to consumers and makes them more visible,'' said Raphael Bostic, associate professor at USC's Lusk Center for Real Estate. Ads for CalDirect start today on TV. Drivers will also see ads on billboards along the San Diego (I-405) and Riverside (91) freeways in Orange County -- taking the place of some familiar DiTech ads. But DiTech isn't going away. And neither is its corporate parent, GMAC Mortgage Corp., a General Motors subsidiary. "Just as GM makes different trucks for different consumers, GMAC offers different loan products," McCarthy said.
May 1, 2003