When I was employed in the mortgage banking field, the typical compensation to a loan officer was ½ point per loan. On a $500,000 loan I was paid $2500. (obviously there were taxes to pay at the end of the year); my expenses were low and when you closed several loans a month, you earned a great living. 

Countrywide has just made the determination to limit mortgage broker compensation to 4 points.  On a $500,000 loan the broker could still “earn” as much as $20,000.  This type of OVERpay is highway robbery, but the fact that they are capping the compensation is a step in the right direction.  The problem with the "pay scale" is that unscrupulous mortgage brokers only overcharge the uniformed or inexperienced, they prey on the weakest and most pitiful members of our society – kind of like a bully – who does he pick on? Those weaker than him!

High End has been slow to feel the depth of the mortgage crisis and aftermath.  Escalating gasoline and other prices obviously don’t weigh heavily on millionaire’s minds. 

Sales fell 34 percent from a year earlier and inventory rose 4.6 percent to 6,194 units, New York-based real estate appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and broker Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate said in a report today. The median price of a Manhattan co-operative apartment or condominium increased 13.2 percent to a record $945,000. 

Housing Slowdown hits the Hamptons