Mortgage Industry Keeps on Pitching

Rutland Herald (VT) (02/19/08); Story, Louise
Consumers are seeing upbeat advertisements from companies and organizations such as Countrywide Financial, Wachovia, Bank of America and the National Association of Realtors--even though foreclosures, defaults, lawsuits and investigations are all on the rise. Mortgage outfits spent almost $409 million on ads in the third quarter of last year, the most recent available data shows, which is higher than ad spending during the peak of the housing boom, reports TNS Media Intelligence. Consumers will be bombarded with ads in the spring as struggling companies try to get more people in the door. The Mortgage Bankers Association says the delinquency and foreclosure rate for all mortgages is 7.3 percent--the highest level since it started tracking the data in 1979--and it expects total mortgage production value to decline 16 percent from last year.