Archives

March 2007

Another Reason to List with Me

Posted at 7:23 PM, Mar. 5, 2007

Keller Williams Realty offers an awesome KWLS system, similar to the local MLS systems. When you list with a KW agent your listing will be entered into this system.   All the listings in the KWLS are marketed  on thousands of Websites — including several popular real estate search engines such as Trulia and Google Base, kw.com, and of course, every market center and eAgentC Website in the Keller Williams Realty system. 

Call or e-mail me today and lets get your home listed and marketed to all of the world via the awesome tool!

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All information is deemed to be correct but not guaranteed

Look Who's Closing Their Doors

Posted at 10:20 PM, Mar. 3, 2007

I received this email and I wanted to share it with everyone!

• E-Loan announced it will close their sub prime wholesale division
• ResMAE listed for sale Wachovia Corp's consolidation of its recently acquired wholesale lenders American Mortgage Network
• WorldSavings operations will result in layoffs
• Fieldstone announced that it's closing 5 west coast branches including its Arizona operations. Fieldstone Mortgage also has closed their Las Vegas branch.
• Mortgage Lender Network (MLN) "stopped funding residential loans" on 12/29 (they didn't actually say they were closing) but they have closed.
• HMIC closed its doors on Dec 20. As part of a $100 million cost reduction strategy, Sovereign Bancorp its owner exited the wholesale mortgage market.
• Own it Mortgage - closed its doors
• Sebring Mortgage closed its doors
• Axis Mortgage closed its doors
• Oak Street Mortgage closed its doors
• Right Away Mortgage closed its doors
• Secured Funding closed its doors
• Loans 123 - Not taking any more business
• Aegis Funding (sub-prime) closed its doors (Aegis Wholesale (Conforming and Alt-A) and Home Equity are still open) for now.
• Option One (Owned by H&R Block, Owned By HSBC) - Is Up for Sale selling off it's portfolio
• Meritage Sold to Lime Financial
• Mandalay - Closed it Doors
• Southstar - AE's leaving (a good source stating company cannot meet payroll obligations)
• Accredited - OC Regional office production at its lowest levels, rumors they may close by 1st quarter.
• Saxon - Layoffs possible closure.
• RFC - Layoffs
• Decision One closed 6 regional centers. Division of Option One.
• Bank of America Mortgage laid off 225 locally.
• Countrywide Mortgage - Multiple layoffs. In talks with Bank of America about possible merger (CNN). Countrywide has also filed suit against 15 parties alleging that the company may have been tricked into lending as much as $40 million dollars (figures elsewhere say $80 million.) The defendants include eight individuals an appraiser, a property management company, and several mortgage and lending companies. According to The Wall Street Journal, another large lender, Argent Mortgage Company may also have been caught up in the scam. Some of the bad loans also appear to have been acquired by Fannie Mae.
• Argent consolidated and let 1,000 people go. Currently for Sale Ameriquest laid off 3,800 and shut 229 retail branches after announcing a $325 million settlement with state's attorneys general for overcharging borrowers. THEY MAY NOT LAST TILL SPRING.
• Washington Mutual - Continued layoffs. Wholesale reps offer 1 point to REALTORS® for referral of loans. (Cutting the throats of their Broker base! Not good for biz!)
• Encore Credit - closed its doors
• Then there's Silver State Mortgage whose doors were closed just a couple weeks ago.

Last Week in the News

Posted at 11:18 PM, Mar. 1, 2007

Last Week in the News

The Consumer Price Index rose by 0.2% in January, as falling energy prices only partially offset big increases in the cost of medical care and airline tickets, the Labor Department reported February 21. Although smaller than December's 0.4% rise, consumer prices were higher than the 0.1% increase Wall Street had forecast. Core inflation, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, also was up more than analysts had expected, rising by 0.3%. It was the largest one-month gain in seven months.

Kirk Alexander, American Home Mortgage

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However, in minutes released on February 21 from its late-January policy meeting, the Federal Reserve said the outlook for core inflation had improved. It stated that a confluence of "better-than-expected news" on the economy and inflation suggested there were smaller risks to growth and improved prospects for inflation.

The Conference Board's Index of Leading Economic Indicators -- designed to forecast economic activity over the next three to six months -- rose by 0.1% in January. Although not the 0.2% rise analysts had anticipated, the reading suggested continued modest growth for the U.S. economy.

The number of people filing new claims for unemployment insurance fell by 27,000 for the week ended February 17, the Labor Department said February 23. Although not as large a drop as economists had expected, it was a sharp improvement over the prior week when claims jumped by 46,000.

For the week ended February 22, interest rates on 30-year and 15-year mortgages fell, Freddie Mac said. With the latest decline, mortgage rates are slightly lower than they were at this time a year ago.

This week look for updates on existing home sales on February 26.