What We're Hearing

Who says residential lenders don't advertise their products in newspapers anymore? A local San Diego credit union is running an ad in the Union-Tribune boasting a 5% rate (no FICO scores or down payments are mentioned in the advertisement) for 15-year, 30-year and 40-year mortgages. (In California 15.2% of all mortgages are 90-days or more late, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. In two weeks National Mortgage News releases its delinquency figures, including individual servicer figures.) Fifteen miles south of San Diego the economic news is anything but good: The Mexican economy shrank by 10.3% in the second quarter and the days of Americans seeking beach homes south of the border are over. (A select group of U.S. lenders once extended credit there but no more.) And one last note: The Federal Reserve's annual retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is just getting under way. Here's a prediction: President Obama will reappoint Ben Bernanke to another term...