For those thinking that people here are too pessimistic, or that things won’t be as bad this time around …..
H&R Block CEO: Mortgage Market May Be Worst Since ’30s
Published: August 30, 2007
NEW YORK (Reuters) – H&R Block Inc Chief Executive Mark Ernst on Thursday said the U.S. mortgage lending market may be facing its greatest crunch since the 1930s, when the country was in the Great Depression.
Earlier Thursday, H&R Block said it is renegotiating the sale of its subprime lending unit Option One Mortgage Corp. to Cerberus Capital Management LP.
The unit has suffered mounting losses and reduced staffing by more than half this year, and now has about 400 staff handling loan originations, Ernst said on a conference call.
Option One has also tightened its lending criteria because investors won’t buy many kinds of loans, amid “fear of anything that’s subprime,” he said.
“The mortgage origination market is in the midst of the most severe dislocation that it has seen in years, maybe the most severe since the 1930s,” Ernst said.
He is right. That’s the messed up thing. Can’t wait until I can’t afford or home or to rent. It’s going to suck. Good thing REI is having a sale on tents. I’ll start a squatters colony on Cowles Mountain. anyone want to come and wait it out with me?
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