There is a saying that “men love with their eyes, women love with their ears”. So what is being heard out there about mortgages? All systems appear to be “go” with the July 1 date at Countrywide & Bank of America with the buy-out. An article yesterday in the WSJ by Bob Hagerty said that Senator Schumer sent letters to the FDIC and OTS asking them to monitor more closely the financial health of Indymac Bancorp. He is “concerned that Indymac’s financial deterioration poses significant risks to both taxpayers and borrowers and that the regulatory community may not be prepared to take measures that would help prevent the collapse of Indymac or minimize the damage should such a failure occur.” Indymac’s share price is near $1 per share, down from about $31 a year ago!

Waiting for that big inheritance? Don’t hold your breath. According to figures compiled by the Tiburon Strategic Advisors and the Wall Street Journal, and published in their Saturday June 14th edition, 25% of workers believe that they will need less than $250,000 for retirement (although 23% have a goal of having $500-$999k). The median value (half above, half below) of baby boomer’s inheritance to date is only $48k, due to our parents’ spending needs, longer life spans, and health care costs, and only 2% of baby boomers have received more than $100k in inheritance!

Effective, Tuesday, July 1, 2008 UBOC will no longer accept new applications or new locks for loan transactions using a Union Bank of California purchase money HELOC. They also reminded brokers that although the closed end program is available up