[F16 1UB]

Here's a twist - Not naming the bank but just want to provide you with this info. A prominent individual, within my community, was just approached, in person may I add, about trying to get him to refinance his loans with them stating they will save him money. 3 weeks ago I talked to an acquaintance that works for a different bank and asked "Are you folks making home loans?" The answer was "By all means, yes! In fact, we don't even have any foreclosures". Small town America? Yes!!! But this gives you an idea outside the realm of big city overpriced home economic foreclosures that money is available. The aforementioned individual had not sought to refinance.

F16

[Sidney Lanier]

We deal with a small, local bank with a 'mere' ten branches in upstate NY. The bank president/CEO is a friend of mine, a down-to-earth fellow who's also a FL snowbird (not TV, though; there are other places in FL...) who had been after me for years to take a tour of their new corporate headquarters. I finally had a chance to get there, and what a glorious building! This bank is obviously doing well, and they too have no foreclosures as they lend based on the same guidelines as our parents had to follow way back when. Yes, there certainly is some good health in the banking business, but it's the huge banks, international and interconnected, the ones that the news of poor business practices and corruption and so forth is focused on, that comprise the most huge percentage of banking in this country....

[billethkid]

They are getting a chunk of the bail out funding and are under the scrutiny of the federal government. So they are running a tighter ship for now. On the other hand, the smaller community banks, that are healthy are in fact out making cold calls to drum up business. For that very reason I am dumping Wachovia and switching to one of the local banks who still put the customer first. The top 10 are ONLY putting their bank first!!!

BTK

[Boomer]

Those hometown, bricks and mortar banks did not do such things as stated assets loans where people could just say, "Yeah, I make whatever."

And those solid banks did not do drive-by appraisals which meant that somebody just drove by the property to see if there was actually a house standing on it and called that an appraisal and even charged a hefty fee for doing nothing.

And those solid banks did not take loans in the front door and sell them out the back door at warp speed.

Those solid banks shelve most, if not all, of their own loans. They service those loans in-house. They have an investment in those loans so they are careful when they make them.

And many of those solid banks do not have stockholders to appease.

I like bricks and mortar, sturdy, little, solid banks.

But there is something that sticks in the back of my mind a bit.

Those excellent banks that have used decent, tried and true, lending practices are not immune to rampant unemployment among those who owe them money.

We are in this thing together, no matter how well we have tried to cover our own -- assets.

Boomer