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This is true based upon what my cousin, who just got hired and laid off at Countrywide, has told me.

check out the 12k homes for sale that countrywide now owns:

http://countrywide-foreclosures.blogspot.com/2007/09/11797-homes-offered-for-sale-on.html

this is the very sad part of economic downturns.

many good people losing their jobs.

keep them in your hearts, minds, and prayers.

remember: almost nobody is completely immune to losing their jobs!

LIFO method

Many people will be laid off as a result of a nationwide slowdown in housing -- construction workeres, mortgage brokers, real estate agents, appraisers and everyone in between. To date, roughly 500,000 people nationwide have lost their jobs in this industry (not counting illegal immigrant workers of which there could be a few in the construction trades). Lucky for us, San Francisco's economy is not dependent on these industries at all (unlike, say, Orange County).

These developments won't have any impact on the local market at all. (If anything-- the last time there were huge job losses in the Bay Area, i.e. '00-'01, prices rocketed up so perhaps we're due for another surge now too?).

Prices continued to rise through the dot.com bust because external demand remained while what regional/city demand remained was boosted by lower interest rates.

Job losses did not cause prices to rise--prices rose in spite of job losses.

-marc

I hear that Paul Financial, in San Rafael, will be closing shop, seeing as we are talking rumors.

they shut down their san jose office about a month ago according to the guy i was working with on an offer at the time

that was a 2700 person layoff

To reach their goal of laying off at least 12,000, they will need to get rid of people hired alot farther back than June 11, 2007.

What about the builders? Lennar cut 35% of their workforce nationwide.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2007-09-25-existing-homes_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

My understanding was that Lennar's fundamentals were anemic prior to this credit crunch.

-marc