More bad news on the housing market
Posted by paul, Fri Aug 03 12:59:00 UTC 2007
NEW YORK (Reuters) - American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. plans to close most operations on Friday and said nearly 7,000 employees will lose their jobs as the lender becomes one of the biggest casualties of the U.S. housing downturn. Experts said it is likely the Melville, New York-based company will have to seek bankruptcy protection, and no later than Monday. In a statement, American Home on Thursday night confirmed earlier reports that it was ceasing most operations. The company said its employee base will be reduced to about 750 workers, down from the 7,409 it reported at the end of last year. The terminations are effective Friday.
While living in San Diego, I can't tell you how may people I spoke with whom thought the housing market was never going to go down. I still can't believe how many people were in denial, dispite crummy condo conversions selling for $650,000+. Now, with annual returns down 7% year over year in San Diego, the chickens are coming home to roost.
We are no where near the bottom here folk, and this is going to have painful impact on the broad market. Can you say "recession"... I knew that you could.
