The squeezing of the financing has only come about in the last 2 months; and prior to 2 weeks ago a substandard borrower still had a few options.

The average escrow does take a month, so the effects of the reduced demand for mortgage paper in the secondary market won’t really become apparent for another month or so. Even then, the comparison won’t be at the YOY level until a year from the start of this credit crunch has passed. Until then we’ll have to settle for comparing a month in 2007 with the same month in 2006.

Speaking of which, it looks like the volumes through the MLS for August 2007 are going to wind up being more than 20% less than August 2006.