$45,000 per month for 490,000 home loan files

This tidbit($) appeared in the Wall Street Journal today. It's probably not the last time that the subject of hard copies for home loans will come up in bankruptcy proceedings - so many loan docs and so few warehouses.

Mortgage Firm Offers Files To Sworn Owners of Loans
A WALL STREET JOURNAL NEWS ROUNDUP
February 11, 2008; Page C7

American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. is offering to hand over hard copies of 490,000 home-loan files to Wall Street investors who are prepared to provide a sworn declaration they own the mortgages.

The Melville, N.Y., mortgage lender, which is liquidating its assets in bankruptcy proceeding, made the offer to counter opposition from former backers who said American Home's plan to destroy the files endangered their rights to enforce the loans.

American Home says it wants to get rid of the loan files because it costs $45,000 a month to warehouse them. If a judge approves the company's proposal, requesters would have to pay a fee per file.

The mortgages at issue may have been bought and sold many times since they were first issued by American Home sometime after September 2005. American Home isn't sure who owns the loans recorded in the files it is storing.

How much room can a half million home loan files take up anyway?