..."It's really the very last thing the housing market needs right now -- unemployment going up and we're heading into a recession," said Richard K. Green, director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate.
Job losses in construction and lending in the hard-hit Inland Empire are spreading to manufacturing. "And that causes a spillover effect," Green said. "If manufacturers are laying off people this month, retailers are likely to be laying off people next month."...
...Such figures have spooked lenders and investors in loans, driving rates higher for even the best California borrowers. Mortgage broker rate sheets show Californians are paying half a percentage point more than borrowers in Washington and Oregon for all prime loans except those eligible for purchase by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored loan buyers, Green said...