It’s the first day of spring and the weather is unusually gloomy outside in Orange County, CA, as is the business climate for subprime mortgage lenders. The casualties of overaggressive mortgage lending are stacking up on a daily basis here.

Here in Irvine, you can look across the street from the corporate offices of RealtyTrac and see the offices of subprime lender People’s Choice Financial Corp. In what may have been an omen, the building was framed by a dark sky and clouds looming overhead, with a stiff breeze blowing. “The Flexible Lender,” as they advertise themselves, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday, according to a story in the Orange County Business Journal. It’s kind of an eerie feeling actually.

This latest episode comes less than one week after the lender decided to withdraw its scheduled plans for a $193 million initial public offering. However, People’s Choice is just the latest victim of the subprime fiasco that has been drawing the attention of every major media outlet nationwide for the past week now.

The OCBJ is also reporting that New Century Financial Corp., also based in Irvine, has been notified by Fannie Mae that it will no longer sell the lender’s mortgages on the secondary mortgage market. New Century has not filed for bankruptcy protection yet, although industry analysts deem such a filing inevitable.

Another Orange County-based subprime lender, Fremont Investment & Loan of Brea has notified its employees currently on leave from the company that they will be officially unemployed as of May 18. Many of Fremont’s workers who were sent home on leave will receive pay and benefits for two more months, says Tuesday’s edition of the Orange County Register.

Even major players in the industry who are not based in Orange County, but had divisions working the subprime business — such as Countrywide Financial Corp, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo — have laid off employees working in those divisions recently, reports the Los Angeles Times.

As the total collapse of this segment of the mortgage industry continues, look to RealtyTrac and ForeclosurePulse for the up to date information you need to help you invest in bargain properties around the country.