From the monthly archives:

December 2007

National City Shutters Wholesale Department

by Chris on December 31, 2007

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Well, I had a draft posted about National City dying this year.  It wasn’t crisp or sharp, but it would have made me a prophet.   A couple of hours ago, they announced that they would be shuttering their wholesale [...]

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2008: Predictions~ Resolutions

by Chris on December 31, 2007

I’ve talked before about how 2011 might not even be the end.  And with Bank Of America publicly predicting that increased awareness will lead to a further decline in prices, things should be interesting–especially the question: do we pray for ignorance?
I’ll start by saying that both Countrywide the brand, and Countrywide the business will close [...]

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The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter announced today the settlement of the lawsuit filed against them by the Loan Center of California.  This is great news for all bloggers who have sought to tell the truth while covering the mortgage industry implosion.  When the lawsuit was first announced many bloggers (including myself) wondered aloud about the stability [...]

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New Year’s Resolutions

by Tom on December 29, 2007

Yeah, I’ve got the typical New Year’s Resolutions – like eat less chocolate, exercise more etc., but I thought I’d share what I’m calling my “Mortgage Resolutions.”  
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a great time with family.   I think I could describe my Christmas as too noisy, too busy, and too fast, but [...]

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“The cold, hard truth is that foreclosures are serving only to hasten the painful process of shifting housing prices back to a level the market can sustain. Prices must and will fall. Everywhere. Probably 25% to 30% from their peak.”
In today’s (December 28, 2007) Los Angeles Times, Christopher Thornberg made the above statement.
Mr. Thornberg used [...]

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A Great Message for Us in the Business

by Morgan on December 28, 2007

Seth Godin is one of my favorite authors, unknowing mentor and personal hero.  He has a great post from a couple of years ago that he quoted for his last post of 2007.  His question is “Why not be great?“  To all of us that have tracked the implosion of this market, the epic shifts [...]

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Definition of Insanity….

by Tom on December 26, 2007

I think Benjamin Franklin was the one who said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.   As we wrap up 2007, a year that ended, I would dare say, significantly different than most people expected, and move into 2008, how does that saying [...]

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I was just catching up on some “in between holiday” mortgage reading and I happened to stumble on an article that lead to another, and low and behold, I discovered that Morgan won the Odysseus Medal for his brilliant expose’ on how the government is struggling in quicksand.    Congrats to Morgan!   If you haven’t read [...]

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National Association of Home Builders

by Tom on December 26, 2007

I just got this e-mailed to me. I wish I could be as confident as they are. What do you think?
Also, what do you think the “incorporating critical policy assumptions” means?

“NAHB’s housing forecast (incorporating critical policy assumptions) shows systematic improvements in home sales by the second quarter of 2008, improvement in [...]

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Bad Builder’s Bill

by Tom on December 26, 2007

I just got the following e-mailed to me from one of the local title companies…..
Governor Granholm Signs Bipartisan Professionalism Package
Without any fanfare, Governor Granholm has signed the bipartisan Professionalism package (also know as “the bad builders bills) into law. Senate bills 450, 451, 452, and 453 (now Public Acts 155, 156, 157 and 158 of [...]

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