Another (large) nail in the coffin - Wachovia closes wholesale

Almost 9 months to the day I penned the most-visited, most-commented article in Blown Mortgage's (brief) history; Dead Man Walking - Wholesale Lending is Marching Towards Extinction. With Wachovia's announcement today that they are exiting the wholesale market I have to say that unfortunately I was probably right. Since that time we've lost countless lenders who were big players in the wholesale arena and dozens more who continue to exist yet have shuttered their wholesale divisions. I'm on the road so I'll have more to write; but this was a very big nail in the coffin. Brokers will go back to being the hard money conduit and small bank/niche lending conduits they have been historically and the bulk of all mortgage origination will be done by walking in through the front door of the big