Good Afternoon.

Well, the government may be temporarily shut down - but the Durango Real Estate market is not. We have experieneced healthy showing activity heading into the fall selling season. Our comprehensive web marketing is also still working hard 24/7. Below is a snapshot of the web activity for www.DurangoRealProperty.com over the past 30 days that we culled using Google Analytics. As you can see, we haven't shut down at all.

We also wanted to pass along an article that tackles the possible ramifications of the federal government shutdown on the mortgage industry.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact our office.

What the Government Shutdown Means for the Mortgage Market

By Nick Timirao, The Wall Street Journal

A prolonged government shutdown could make it harder for some home buyers to close on their mortgages, though any shutdown that lasts for a week or two isn’t likely to have much impact, industry officials said Wednesday.
The vast majority of mortgages made are backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federally supported finance companies, or by the Federal Housing Administration, a government agency.
Fannie and Freddie aren’t affected by the shutdown. While the FHA is still processing loans, it’s operating with a vastly reduced staff, which could lead to delays. The FHA is part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Housing, which has just 64 of 2,972 employees reporting to work right now.
The biggest issue facing the mortgage market is that the Internal Revenue Service isn’t issuing Form 4506-T, which is what most lenders currently use to verify borrowers’ incomes. For loans ready to close now, most lenders probably ordered those forms weeks ago, said Bob Walters, chief economist at Quicken Loans.
Still, the shutdown could cause headaches if it lasts for longer than one or two weeks, because new closings might be delayed for lenders that are unwilling or unable to process loans without the IRS form. “Lenders will have to decide whether they’re willing to close without it or not,” said Mr. Walters.
A spokeswoman for Wells Fargo & Co. said the bank doesn’t anticipate delays in processing applications for now because loans that are far enough along to require the IRS form have likely already received it. But the bank is still requiring borrowers on any new applications to sign 4506-T forms to approve and close loans, which can’t happen during the shutdown. “We expect that the IRS will quickly resume processing requests once the government shutdown has ended,” said Vickee Adams, the bank spokeswoman.
Banks have grown more dependent on the IRS transcripts, which verify a borrower’s reported income, to ensure that they won’t be forced to repurchase a mortgage should it later default and should the investor, such as Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, discover the borrower had misrepresented his or her income.
If a shutdown lasts longer than two weeks, the mortgage market could face other hardships. The FHA, for example, could run out of funding authority, making lenders more cautious about approving FHA-backed loans. Government workers that have been furloughed could run into trouble making mortgage payments.
But by then, the housing market would have a lot more to worry about anyway, because Congress will need to vote to finance the nation’s debt; failing to raise the debt ceiling would likely have far reaching consequences for the housing market and the economy, which would likely dwarf the inconvenience of any form-processing delays.

Don Ricedorff, Broker Associate, GRI, CRS, CCIM, ABR, RSPS, CDPE

E-Mail: don@durangorealproperty.com

Direct: 970-375-7014

Fax: 970-259-5007

Web: www.DurangoRealProperty.com