There may be an acceleration of the number of these types of stories, with the slowing of RE sales and mortgage originations. Many of the title, escrow, and mortgage companies we are talking to are experiencing much lower volume. Sometimes not enough to cover their overhead. A few people are telling me that they are just going to try and see how long they can hold on with losses, in case the market recovers. One mortgage guy I talked to today laid off 5 of 8 loan officers in August, and he is still in the red.

We ran a help-wanted ad in the paper to hire a few people last month, and had 450 resumes faxed, in 8 days. Lot's of Realtors, loan officers, and insurance agents sent resumes too. Last year we got 50, from the same ad.



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