Bad Credit Mortgage Refinance ®
		Home Page News You Can Use As home sales boom, mortgage company makes more layoffs Sarah Lacy and Sharon Simonson Home-mortgage lenders and businesses in the residential real estate industry continue to cut jobs in the region to adjust their employee count to match the fall off in refinancings. But according to new numbers, they might be moving a bit fast, at least in the South Bay, where the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors reports a red-hot home sales market with the most desirable homes sometimes drawing more than a dozen offers and selling for at or above list price. In the week ended Feb. 16, 432 homes went into escrow, an all-time record in Santa Clara County, Janet Houde said Wednesday. Ms. Houde is the president of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors. Escrow agents are third-party, objective recipients of money and documents who help buyers and sellers execute property sales. For-sale inventory also is falling fast, though it remains about the same as it has been on average for this time of year, Ms. Houde said. Meanwhile, Ms. Houde predicts that the county's median sales price will reach $600,000 in the next couple of months as these 400-plus sales run through the system. Median sales price in Santa Clara County is now just short of $570,000. At the same time, Washington Mutual, the nationwide consumer and commercial banking company, continues to shed workers, laying off another 50 in Northern California. The reduction comes on top of 353 job cuts the company made in Northern California several weeks ago, including 178 jobs lost with the closing of a Campbell mortgage-loan processing center. About 25 of the 50 more recent job cuts were in Santa Rosa. The remainder are sprinkled in various other regional cities including San Jose, Pleasanton and San Mateo, says Adrian Rodriguez, a Washington Mutual spokesperson. The bulk of the jobs getting cut are related to the company's attempts to tailor its business to fit the current, lower demand for new mortgages related to the fall off in re-financings, Mr. Rodriguez says. The newer cuts are mostly in the company's appraisal division, he said. "We aren't getting out of the business of in-house appraisals. We're re-sizing the business to fit demand," he said. The deflating of the refinance boom is also causing cutbacks at local title companies. In 10 Bay Area counties, there were 44,000 real estate transactions handled by title companies in November of last year, down from 102,000 in July 2003, the peak of activity, says Mark Sachau, Bay Area regional vice president for First American Title Co. Volume has recovered somewhat of late, but could fall again if rates were to increase. "I'm sure there's not an industry related to real estate that hasn't had to make some adjustments," Mr. Sachau says. "We are very careful to monitor our order counts and try to be staffed appropriately." He says his company has done some "judicious [job] cutting," but wouldn't disclose numbers. Back to Original Article: News You Can Use   Continue with: US SWAPS-Spreads shrink on mortgage hedging anxiety Index of Leading Indicators Rose 0.5% in January Jobless claims fall sharply Global Econ Recovery Broadening - Australian Treasury LDP Kamei Says Japan Economy Still Severe - Kyodo Democrats Can't Get Firm Grip on Jobs Issue Democrats Can't Get Firm Grip on Jobs Issue Part Two Japan and Iran Sign Major Oil Deal Bush Economic Team Under Fire Over Jobs Bush Economic Team Under Fire Over Jobs Part twoD 3 European Leaders Agree on Economic Plan Jobless Claims Drop, But Labor Still Soft Jobless Claims Drop, But Labor Still Soft Part Two Stocks Set to Climb After Solid Earnings Euro Attempts Small Rebound on Dollar Euro Attempts Small Rebound on Dollar Part two Jobless Claims in U.S. Decline to 344,000, More Than Economists' Forecasts One step closer to hydrogen economy? The escaping price of natural gas Stock funds swell by $60 billion
		Bad Credit Mortgage Refinance