Not by much at all, but not many companies in North America can say that they actually grew in 2007.  We did!  Our profits were fine and our fundings grew.  But most importantly we grew significant market share nationally.  While other companies closed their doors, merged or just struggled to stay open, it is now official....We grew in a year that we weren't supposed to. 

Of course, the sub-prime matter doesn't make it easy for us or for a myriad of other lenders nationally.  There is a lot of fallout because of that.  The demise of a lot of top wholesalers and bankers have made the mortgage market difficult.  American Home...a mainstay for mortgage lending went to the wayside.  Countrywide is, at best, on life support, until they sell themselves to B of A or look for a government bailout (you & I end up paying for that).  Let's hope they get sold....It'd be great for my company, all the consumers and invariably for all of the employees at CW.  They're a great company that's experiencing great problems.

For us, we intend to grow.  We intend to grow in a purposed fashion.  We have signed on a number of new offices and a lot of great loan originators with high integrity. 

So here's to 2008.  While we're not paying hefty signing bonuses to loan originators who will ultimately leave anyway, we are solid.  We are about integrity and we're all about serving our loan officers and our customers in 2008.  Let's see what records we can set this year.