And Realtors wept

American Home Mortgage, one of the largest and most well-known mortgage lenders in the United States of America, just announced the layoffs of 7,000 of it's 7,750 employees. AHM has also stopped accepting mortgage loan applications following a cease and desist order from the states of New York and Connecticut as an investigation into violations of mortgage banking laws at the company goes into overdrive. More will be known as to AHM's business future following hearings August 24th to determine whether the cease and desist order will be permanent and whether AHM can even keep it's lending license going forward.

AHM CEO Michael Stauss:

"It is with great sadness that American Home has had to take this action which involves so many dedicated employees. Unfortunately, the market conditions in both the secondary mortgage market as well as the national real estate market have deteriorated to the point that we have no realistic alternative."

More evidence that the real estate market is slowly, but surely unraveling.

Let's hope the guy behind the curtain comes out with a mattress to ensure that soft landing repeatedly promised by the NAR, that group of oh so in-the-know, trusted advisors.