Central Florida Real Estate Blog

On this date in history...

Great fire of London occurred in 1666.

1st US lighthouse was built in Boston in 1716.

Women's Right's Convention met in NYC in 1853.

Carnation processed its 1st can of evaporated milk in 1899.

William McKinley, the 25th US President was shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the New York Buffalo Pan-American Exposition in New York in 1901. He died 8 days later on September 14th.

The Harlem Globetrotters were organized 1927.

All Jews over the age of 6 in German territories ordered to wear a star in 1941.

WINS NYC began playing rock n roll with Alan Freed Show in 1954.


Mortgages & Closings

The Federal Reserve issued its economic update yesterday. It reported that credit problems in the U.S. have impacted housing, but haven't hurt the general economy. I don't see how this can be so. Now, granted, the only reason that I can see for them to report this is because they are not wishing to reduce the rate again at the Sept. 18th meeting as many have anticipated.

Additionally, look at all the layoffs in the mortgage industry. Just yesterday & today, there were over 3000 layoffs announced and this doesn't include all of the previous ones mentioned, including the firms that have either closed or been disbanned. Add on top of that all of the mortgage brokers out there that are either being laid off and can't even procur a loan for a client.

A mortgage broker that I deal with has said to me that loan programs are being eliminated daily. Additionally, it was noted in an AP news story that a third of home loans failed to close in August. According to the article it was noted that three years ago only 4% of loans failed to close.

By the way, this information was obtained from a survey of 1700 mortgage brokers. "The survey also found that nearly half of borrowers with adjustable rate mortgages were not able to refinance their loans." It was also noted that 2.5 million ARM mortgages are set to adjust to higher rates this year and a great deal of these loans will most likely be foreclosed on.

On another note, even though the house & senate want to try to ease the present crisis, there does not appear to be any agreeement on how to do this. You may have also read about banking regulators and The Fed urging loan service companies to work with defaulting borrowers, but these are only suggestions and nothing is mandatory.

So, yes, they say that the mortgage and housing debacle are not making an impact on the general economy. Maybe this is so from the current statistics that they are utilizing, but wait until the next ones are recorded. This has stretched way beyond just the industry itself. It is affecting people across the board.

There was an article in yesterday's USA Today about the majority of calls to company helplines are about finances and foreclosure. Also, it was stated that how this will definitely affect productivity, etc. So, let's get realistic. This is a widespread epidemic of sorts.

Til next time...Marc It Sold!