Just yesterday, we covered an article titled, “Can Ya Spare A Job Brother?” which covered the job losses on a national level, but today, AZFamily is bringing it down to a more local level here in the Valley of the Sun.

Foreclosures, financial troubles and even layoffs; the housing bubble has begun to burst and now mortgage companies are feeling all the pain.

Usually when we see an industry grow really fast, whether it’s the stock market or the housing market experts tell us around the corner there’s an adjustment to that, a crash or a leveling out.

It’s the ebb and flow of business, but it has hit many in the Valley hard.

Amy Eagen should know because after two and half years with The Mortgage Investor Group in Scottsdale she’s out of a job.

“It hurt a little bit, because they were there two weeks ago and they said we will stay open, we will make it through this hard time,” she said.

Just yesterday, her company closed the Scottsdale branch, the California and Oregon branch leaving this seven month pregnant woman wondering about heath insurance for a baby on the way.

She’s not alone, this week First National Bank of Arizona laid off 350 mortgage related staff positions and last week Tucson based mortgage lender First Magnus gave the pink slips to five thousand people.

“This is one of the biggest problems we’ve seen in a decade or two, whether it’ll be a long or short, don’t really know,” Creg Ostler said.

Managing partner Ostler said the problem is widespread, pointing to the fact that Countrywide Financial, the nation’s number one mortgage lender had to tap an $11 billion line of credit and is toughening underwriting standards on home loans.

He said we’re going back to the way, home loans were created decades ago.

He adds that right now the debt markets aren’t functioning really well, the federal reserve is having to pump money in, and lower interest rates.

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In the meantime that leaves folks like Amy, having to make other arrangements to afford her baby on board.

Amy spent her first day without a job applying for health insurance.

She said she plans to go back to work, eventually, but not in the same field.

Experts say the thing to remember is these things are temporary, however bad it may seem right now.

Tags: arizona, real estate, housing bubble, layoffs, countrywide, first magnus, valley of the sun