What We're Hearing

The main (economic) event of the week is this Friday – that’s when the Department of Labor releases its June unemployment report. Residential servicers and loan modification experts know full well the corollary between the unemployment rate and mortgage delinquencies. The jobless rate hit a 25-year high of 9.4% in May, jumping from 8.9% in April. Will the jobless rate cross the 10% threshold? Meanwhile, one mortgage vulture fund investor who’s based in California told us recently that the “bottom-end” of the housing marketing is “smoking” in the state. Specifically, he said homes that sell for $500,000 or less are moving quickly, especially near coastal areas. As for the job market in SoCal, he said that his firm recently advertised for a bi-lingual debt collector. Within three days he received 75 applications for the job...