There are multiple levels of problems that contribute to a strange state of affairs in our economy.  The banks are not accepting the fact that they are now landlords.  While there is dispute about the existance of a "shadow inventory" of "non-performing" assets (actually, large liabilities called "houses") that they've foreclosed on, the speculation that large foreign investment firms are swooping in and picking up homes as REO's with pennies on the dollar is not supported in my neck of the woods, as there are not that many REO deeds recording as compared to the number of trustee sale deeds going back to the banks. 

The bank scandal appears to go far deeper than many news agencies are reporting:  I witness, almost daily, contractors for recording firms printing up and signing Notice of Default and Notice of Trustee Sale documents, then recording them.  This is so far outside the issue of some bank's attorney or bank employee signing these without authorization, that it's incomprehensible as to how the rest of the media can be so blind and out of the loop on this issue.  Really, really,  really, this is so far removed from a bank staffer doing this, that it's ridiculous.

The ongoing offshoring of title searches with $5 chains of title from India, is hard to compete with, even using on-shore resources like Title Point, SiteX, DocEdge or HomeInfoMax.  From an industry perspective of 27 years, the abstractors out on the Left Coast were "in the money" because the title industry started moving their work to outsource solutions like third party contractors while laying off their house staff.  This move from local contractors to overseas companies is a natural progression of an industry looking to maximize profit at all cost.  Remember, the cost of claims on the back-end is a cost that can be written off as a cost of doing business, while front-end employees are a non-write-offable liability.  Cut employees, then lower costs on the front end and pay the claims on the back....sounds like an oil company, eh?

All in all, the state of the industry and of our economy is in flux and will remain so for at least another 5 years.  Take the soutd advice of the ages:  diversify, expand, offer higher quality, serve faster, and lower costs yourself.