Regarding home financing, I live in N. California and the foreclosure market has been CRAZY! I have several on my block. I purchsed my home for $500,000 in October 2005, I refinanced December 2007 because my house went up to $630,000. My house is now worth $430,000. Yes, there are many foreclosures, but homebuilders in the area have completely stopped building. I have a new development near me with only 4 homes and the rest are empty lots.
This is good news for companies like EXPT because I talked to a realtor yesterday and they told me that each month 5,000 new people move into our county each month, because of a growing/popular area. He told me that there is more of a shortage of homes now, than there was 3-6 months ago. He said prices are still low, but the supply is slowly decreasing because of the lack of new homes. Also, there are many Investors snatching up foreclosures and renting them out until house prices increase which also decrease supply even more. My County is Contra Costa County if anyone doubts my stats.
With all this said, Home Loans are doing just fine now. At least in our area, we seem to be coming out of the slump in the housing market. I believe EXPT is in a great position now with the market starting to shift.
EXPT has said in recent PR"S that they have been hiring many new employees lately to help with the growing demand for loans.
The chart here reminds me of the housing market. The stock has been down for quite some time, and we are now seeing a reversal. The company is hiring, buying back shares, aquiring other companies, working with new partners nationwide and more. I couldnt be happier than here with EXPT and will be adding another 1 mil. shares on Monday.
