Hurricane Sandy has been over for three days now but the aftermath is hitting many mortgage bankers and brokers hard in the greater New York metropolitan area which includes New Jersey and Connecticut.
Things are so bad right now the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals has formally asked the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Nationwide Mortgage Licensing & Registry to grant an extension on the filing of mortgage call reports for those in the FEMA disaster areas.
“They're working on making it happen,” said NAIHP president Mark Savitt, who runs a small brokerage shop in West Virginia.
Brian Benjamin, a broker who works the Northern New Jersey market, said he believes the storm will affect business for weeks on end and noted that because of the number of homes destroyed “I’m being told that rentals are through the roof.”
He added that he wonders whether real estate values “will go through the ceiling on the remaining houses.”
“For the most part brokers and lenders are at a stand still in the NY/NJ/CT metro area,” said Savitt.
He added that before “required re-inspections can take place, damage by the storm needs to be repaired. The amount of damage is so widespread, contractors are hard to find.”
Settlements scheduled before the storm might be delayed weeks, if not much longer, he predicted.
