Thanks for the reply to my post. Your question seems valid, on the surface. In the short run, paying off mortgages does not produce excess new business for the abstracting industry. But by looking at a longer time horizon, it's easy to see that serial refinancing of homes with ever increasing balances is not good for business either. This is obvious from the current condition of the real estate market.

Purchases and refinances were at sustainable level for decades before unrestricted mortgage lending appeared. Well-run real estate businesses were solid. Then the real estate industry enjoyed a few years of "good times." Some in the business truly benefitted long term, some did not. Overall it created a great deal of turmoil within the industry, and in the broader economy.

So people have been not paying off their mortgages recently. How is that working out for the industry right now?

An equally rhetorical and blunt question, which demonstrates the answer to yours: ("..and exactly how is paying off mortgages good for business?")

How good is business now after 5 years of people not paying down mortgages?