I spoke to one of my attorneys this morning as he drove from one closing to another. He is what you would call a road warrior in my business, driving from closing to closing no matter what time or how far.  It is the only way to stay alive now.

 

“My business is down 70% from last year”, he cried (not really) to me. He then went on to explain as to how it is going to pick up in 6 months and he will not be able to handle the work load.  Then he changed it to May, then July….no September.  Nobody really knows, so they guess.

 

The mortgage industry and the real estate industry have been a driving force in the economy as well as the employment sector in the past few years.  Losing hundreds of thousands of jobs and counting is not good for the economy as a whole.  Different opinions show different outcomes and timeframes.  Consensus shows that there will continue to be banks losing money and jobs over the next few quarters.  Washington Mutual just closed out the wholesale division and laid off over 3,000 people in an afternoon.  That is big and we do not really know who will be next.

 

Real estate inventories are growing and prices are moving downward slowly.  That is why we see vacancy rates going up. People just cant sell and nobody is looking.  The real estate market has spooked everybody into non-action.

 

Eventually it will turn around like it always does, but  when we do not know. 

 

Dale Siegel