More Thoughts on the Great Mortgage Strike of 2012

When I suggested yesterday that mortgage lenders might contemplate an origination ‘strike’ as a bargaining tool to kill overly zealous regulations the idea was to have banks and nonbanks alike participate in such an action of civil disobedience. (Call it ‘Occupy Mortgage.’) Without the banks, such a move might be for naught. One New Jersey-based broker wrote to me about the idea saying, “Oh my lord. I had this conversation with about 10 Brokers just the other day. Thirty-days of no loans could halt the RE economy. Many Realtors will not use banks. There is a huge level of contempt for the Big 5 among Realtors.”  Interesting. Maybe nonbank firms could pull it off, but realistically residential finance has always been a business where “you make hay while the sun shines” because sometimes it can rain for weeks on end.