As the slowdown in the housing market, combined with the ongoing credit crunch, continues to squeeze the economy, individuals who work in industries affiliated with housing are being forced to make adjustments to keep their businesses afloat.
Meanwhile, the trickle-down effect from the housing slowdown is affecting seemingly unrelated industry sectors such as automobile sales, which are feeling the pinch as consumers keep a tighter grip on their wallets.
Here’s how some of those businesses are dealing with the changes.
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For most of his career, Stu Cruden conducted appraisals exclusively in Boulder County.
But the meltdown of the housing and credit markets has forced him to expand his territory to maintain his level of business. Cruden, who’s been an appraiser for 18 years, now covers an area stretching from Larimer County to Arapahoe County.
“I’ve been fairly busy, but I have to travel farther than I normally do,” said Cruden, who began accepting jobs outside Boulder County about a year ago.
The mortgage meltdown has affected nearly all professionals working in the housing industry, including lenders, real estate agents and appraisers. The volume of home sales as well as home prices were already declining before widening concerns about defaults in the subprime mortgage market led to a widening credit crunch.
All that has meant big changes for people like Creighton Angst.
Four years ago, when she first got into the appraisal business, Angst evaluated two houses a day on average. Today, it’s down to three to five a week.
That has the 28-year-old newlywed looking at other career options.
“It’s more competitive,” she said. “People want you to do things quick, and you have to make sure nobody’s stealing your clients away.”
Both Angst and Cruder said the number of appraisals they do for refinancings has dropped dramatically.
“It used to be 90 percent refinance,” Cruder said. “Now it’s half refinance and half purchase.”
Since the credit market melted down, Liana Pomeroy has had to rethink home loans for several of her clients.
Pomeroy, a certified mortgage-planning specialist with Cherry Creek Mortgage Co., recently had a client who didn’t want to put any money down and planned to purchase a new home with an 80 percent first mortgage and 20 percent second mortgage.
But a few days before closing, Pomeroy learned the second mortgage would not be approved.
“In the end, I had to have her put 5 percent down, and put her in a 95 percent loan with lender-paid mortgage insurance,” Pomeroy said. “Fortunately, she has money and could do it.”
Another of Pomeroy’s clients wanted to refinance a fourplex he owned. But as he and Pomeroy were reviewing his options, the credit markets went haywire, and he was no longer able to get a good rate.
“What was possible and what made sense financially a couple of weeks ago may not be right now if it’s anything but your primary home and a 30-year fixed,” Pomeroy said.
Even though the housing market is in the doldrums, real estate agents such as Kelly Spencer of Keller Williams Realty say they’re still busy.
“It’s just the face of it has sort of changed,” she said. “The buyers you get in the door you have to make sure they’re qualified. Lenders’ programs are changing, and the face of the sellers has changed a little bit. I’m doing a lot more short sales,” she said, referring to a type of sale in which a property is sold for less than the amount owed on the mortgage.
Staff writer Margaret Jackson can be reached at 303-954-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com.
