Commercial and residential mortgage brokers in our industry understand the difficult position that brokers, borrowers and realtors are in right now. The lack of available viable programs today is devastating to  all. The knee-jerk reaction to the negative news in our market is like none  ever experienced in  our business. The fallout in ALT-a is at a swifter pace and has  a more  devastating impact than the decline of subprime earlier this year because in reality, it affects a larger segment of  borrowers.Once the market improves, we will see a resurgence of programs again. However, the 100% stated income loans are quite probably gone for the foreseeable future. There is a lot of talk that stated income  may disappear for wage earners and only be available for self -employed individuals; the ones for whom, the program was developed in the first place. The option ARM products will no doubt be severely restricted to only the most qualified borrowers. It is being widely reported that 19% of sub-prime loans are currently delinquent…that’s huge! But 7% or nearly 1 out of 14 ALT-a loans is also delinquent. Compare that to less than 2% of FNMA/FHLMC loans and you can see why Wall Street and other securiters of mortgages are so reluctant to put their necks on the line for risky loans like option arms & high LTV loans. Subprime loans are history, new homeowners will have to make a 10-20% down payment.   In most cases, we are still able to do miracles for borrowers that are in option ARM loans, or those who need to refinance now  in order to take out the available equity in their properties before the market drops another 5-10%.   Homeowners realize that the value of their properties might be greatly depreciating and that if you  thought you had a couple of thousand dollars in equity, that might very well be gone in a few months.   Bottom line is: Secure your Assets now.   Shop for good rates and lenders – lock in your rates now.