It appears that American Home Mortgage will shut down Today. It’s lenders have made margin calls, and it has no money left.

This is not a subprime lender. This is an Alt-A lender.

American Home specializes in Alt-A mortgages, an alternative for A-rated borrowers who can’t satisfy all the terms for a regular “prime” mortgage. Founded in 1988 by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael Strauss, the company became the 20th- largest Alt-A lender by 2006, according to trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance. IndyMac Bancorp Inc. ranked first.

This is not the first lender to go under, you can see the accellerating rate of mortgage lender failures at the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter.