I went to an amazing meeting yesterday of the Oregon chapter of the National Speaker's Association. Great stuff and very good contacts. One of the guys I met gave me some really good information on prospecting in a down market. His name is Anthony and his website is www.steppingstonesolutions.com
He was pointing out that we lost something like 65% of the loan officers in the business over the last year. That is a 65% drop in competition without a 65% loss in business. Thus, we have better opportunity now than we did just last year.  I went into my research bag this morning and found that it is even better than that... According to DataQuick, the home sales in the Portland Metro area are down between 27% and 39%. So, without even counting refi volume we are only down roughly 30% in colume of business being funded while being down thousands and thousands of originators in Oregon. I am starting to love "Glass is half full" thinking.
Check out Anthony's website. Good info!