That was the headline in the business section of Tucson’s Arizona Daily Star. A bar chart shows the MLS data. It supports the headline.
The National Association of Realtors sees pending sales as a leading indicator of housing market activity. Christie Smythe (not a REALTOR®) quotes an NAR spokesperson, Walter Molony, as saying […]

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Like a lava flow advancing on a home in Hawaii, the mortgage meltdown that erupted in August has advanced and slowed, only to advance again, each time a little farther.  Fortunately, the Hawaiian home is insured.  Fortunately for whom?
The mortgage meltdown is reflected in the stock behavior of the world’s largest insurers.  AIG, according to Forbes […]

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A skydiver from up the road in Gilbert, AZ lost his life last week while practicing for a world record diamond formation jump in Florida. He was experienced, with more than 5,000 jumps to his credit. He hadn’t experienced the one thing that would cost him his life–getting tangled up in something beyond […]

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Bloggers and the mainstream press get a lot of mileage out of the increase in foreclosures during a real estate downturn. Originators need to be prepared to deal with fact, not emotion, in order to help clients in difficulty.
“Banks Steal Black Children’s Futures,” rails Glen Ford on BlackAgendaReport.com. “The institutional banking practice of […]

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Los Angeles Craigslist has a post today. Here’s the headline: Mortgage Brokers, Loan Officers who want to make $400K+
“If you’re interested in making a high six figure income…” Okay. that’s 100% of the human race. “untapped sector of the market…” They must know something I don’t. “We can teach […]

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Discouraged about the dearth of subprime products or the availability of jumbos? Wilbur Ross may be your next wholesale lender.
While the Federal Reserve was conducting secret meetings with 30 top banks two weeks into September, Wilbur Ross was preparing to bid for the mortgage servicing assets of Michael Strauss’s bankrupt American Home Mortgage Investment […]

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I make my living as a lender in Tucson, Arizona.
Tucson’s First Magnus Financial Corporation went from boom to bust in three weeks, and 800 Tucsonans, many of them loan officers, lost their jobs.
Some of my friends tell me they feel like the two-headed turtle up there by my headline.
According to some estimates, there are 70,000 […]

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