Mortgages - "Lenders Raise the Bar"

Mortgages - "Lenders Raise the Bar," see http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/realestate/18mort.html.

Part of the article:

"IF you have a mortgage, consider yourself lucky.

That is the upshot of the most recent survey of mortgage lenders by the Federal Reserve Board, which found that banks’ lending standards were significantly tighter in April than they had been in January, when credit was already tight.

Some prospective borrowers who just a few months ago were considered easy bets for mortgages are being turned away with the slightest credit blemishes — or even with stellar credit scores.

“Standards are getting a lot tighter,” said Bob Moulton, president of Americana Mortgage Group, a brokerage firm based in Manhasset, N.Y. “For every 20 calls I get, I might close four or five loans. Two years ago, it’d be 18.”"

Deflationary tight money pressures continue to increase, and, show just how out of touch (or corrupt) most gold writers are with an obviously very deflationary environment now.

Gold's probably heading for $450-500 in the 18 month+ Wave 2 Cyclical Bear Market that probably began on 3-17-08. Read the previous post about the very low consumer confidence, see http://tradethecycles.blogspot.com/2008/05/housing-data-mixed-consumer-confidence.html, which is also obviously very deflationary.

Here's another article about "Collateral Foreclosure Damage for Condo Owners," http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/business/15condo.html.

"Now nearly one in six residents in the 43-story building is battling foreclosure and their contributions to the building association are shrinking. Each of the remaining owners has had to chip in an extra $1,000 assessment and $50 more a month for cable and Internet. That is on top of Ms. Sanz’s $450 monthly maintenance fee.

Even though she pays more, her building has broken washers and dryers and unusable exercise equipment, and her hallway is spotted with mold.

“It’s not fair,” said Ms. Sanz, a 32-year-old event planner. “The first two years, I enjoyed all of the benefits of living in a condo. I’m disappointed now. I hate the way the building looks.”"

.......http://www.JoeFROCKS.com/ .

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