Some experts believe that, as a typical consumer, my financial well-being can be measured by 5 basic indicators: job creation, changes in real wages, changes in home prices, changes in equity prices, and access to credit. Let’s see… mortgage bankers (and others in many other industries) are seeing “negative” job creation, my real wages are down because I am spending more on food and gasoline, my home has probably gone down in value (but I am too afraid to look!) so I have less equity, and not only do I pay 18% on my credit card but my HELOC is frozen. Wake me up when this is over… Calgon, take me away…

Do you think that anyone’s last day at a mortgage company is like Bill Gates’ last day at work? This is classic, worth watching: http://video.techrepublic.com.com/2422-13792_11-207865.html?tag=nl.e101

As Indymac sinks, any brokers still doing business with them are feeling “pinched”, to put it politely. Not only are most of the reps gone, and e-mail systems down, but Indy is requesting that locks be converted to mandatory delivery and requiring 1% fee upfront on the entire pipeline and brokers have exactly three days to pay or the best efforts commitments are dead. “In order to protect your rate locks, we will require a 1% cash deposit to convert these loans to mandatory delivery. All fees must be received by the end of business on Thursday, July 10th, or your rate locks are subject to cancellation. These fees are fully refundable in the event IMB declines the loan. This fee requirement is all inclusive. You must protect the entire pipeline as part of this process. If you do not submit the required fee for any individual loan as part of this process, all of your rate locks will be subject to cancellation.” One savvy agent said, “I would not give any money to a company on the verge of failing financially.  They could be in US bankruptcy court tomorrow and the fees would be gone…I would never sell them another piece of paper ever in any climate after this and I think others will feel the same.  These are the true colors shining through.  I understand their need to exit but did management need to destroy the accumulated value of their wholesale brand forever?”

Prospect Mortgage will acquire the majority of the retail branches of IndyMac. This transaction includes approximately 750 employees and over 60 branch locations. The IndyMac branches will adopt the Prospect brand. Prospect Mortgage, owned by Sterling Capital Partners, recently acquired Opteum Financial Services, Fidelity & Trust Mortgage and Metrocities Mortgage in Southern California. Sterling Capital Partners is an affiliate of Sterling Partners, a private equity fund group with over $2.2 billion of capital under management. Metrocities became part of Prospect Mortgage Company last year and operates under the Metrocities name.

Monday I wrote a paragraph on production that began with, “Who were the top 3 originators in the first half of 2008?” I needed to add that the numbers I noted were for 2007, and although the rankings will probably be very similar to 2007, the first half of 2008 has not been tabulated quite yet.

Back to the economy. Yesterday’s pending home sales index were -4.7% (-14.6% year over year) in May, suggesting that the surge in April seems off-track. The West slipped 1.3%, the Northeast index declined 2.9%, the Midwest index fell 6.0%, and in the South, the index dropped 7.1%. There is no economic news today, and the 10-yr is currently at 3.92% and mortgage prices are roughly unchanged. The Fed has been in the news lately, aside from the usual guessing about their next move (which will probably be no move) but instead regarding their temporary program for emergency lending to nonbanks. Generally, as long as they are doing that, raising rates while at the same time removing securities dealers' access to direct loans from the central bank would also be a double hit to markets that officials probably want to avoid. The Fed is only supposed to lend to nonbanks under emergency circumstances when no other credit is available, the recent example being the Bear Stearns/JPMorgan deal. Smarter minds than mind seem to be agreeing that the Fed is doing what they can to help the stability of the economy, one of their primary goals. Speaking of goals…

A girl asks her boyfriend to come over Friday night to meet, and have dinner with her parents. Since this is such a big event, the boy is hoping to “get lucky” for the first time, although unlikely. The boy is very hopeful, but he has never done that before, so he takes a trip to the pharmacist to get some “protection” just in case.
He tells the pharmacist it's his first time and the pharmacist helps the boy for about an hour. He tells the boy everything there is to know about “the big event” and using protection.
At the register, the pharmacist asks the boy how many he'd like to buy, a 3-pack, 10-pack, or family pack. The boy insists on the family pack because he thinks he will be rather busy, it being his first time and all.
That night, the boy shows up at the girl's parents’ house and meets his girlfriend at the door.
"Oh, I'm so excited for you to meet my parents, come on in!"
The boy goes inside and is taken to the dinner table where the girl's parents are seated. The boy quickly offers to say grace and bows his head. 

A minute passes, and the boy is still deep in prayer, with his head down. 10 minutes pass, and still no movement from the boy. Finally, after 20 minutes with his head down, the girlfriend leans over and whispers to the boyfriend, "I had no idea you were this religious.”

The boy turns, and whispers back, "I had no idea your father was a pharmacist.”

Rob