Foreclosure Surges as Does Website Traffic

Foreclosure surges leads to increasing traffic on new website. The pain of foreclosures is being directly related to increase in numbers to Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter. It is not only borrowers but lenders too in trouble are being counted. On 7th July the number was 265 – but that was just the beginning of increasing numbers.

Implode-O-Meter has made a hit in the sub-prime world. In a recently held conference of Mortgage Bankers Association the most discussed topic was how to keep the name of the offending mortgage company off from the website. Jim Reichbach of Deloitte Banking and Security quipped that none is keen to be “number 266!” He added, “This is a death toll that is equivalent to the casualty ticker of the Vietnam War.”

The brain behind the website is 28 year old Aaron Krowne of Emory University, Atlanta. By calling he is a computer scientist and mathematician. He kicked off the Implode-O-Meter in 2007 knowing that the situation in the housing market and the related mortgage world was sure to worsen. Krowne could not have been more close to the truth. The website recorded 100,000 regular clickers as soon as it took off. Dollars from advertising rolled in. Krowne had to quit his daytime job and hire a staff of ten to run his firm Implode-Explode Heavy Industries. About the foreclosure crisis Krowne commented that it comes in surging waves and “just keeps coming.”

Foreclosures are telling on the economy gobbling up not only borrowers but also well-established financial firms. More are finding themselves on the guillotine list. Implode-O-Meter recorded the transactions when the residential mortgage sector of Bears Stearns was purchased by private investors dealing with equity. Once listed on this website it became difficult for E*Trade Financial to make alterations. Anonymous employees are the first ones to give the tips. This has led many critics to opine that the website is more about gossip than facts. But the website backs up the news with recordings of phone calls and e-mail that come from famous places. Merrill Lynch is one such famous firm that in March showed the door to all those employed in First Franklin Financial. Merrill Lynch had purchased this business in 2006.

There are many other sites akin to Implode-O-Meter that are coming up thanks to the foreclosure frenzy. Obscene names are being used by some to attract traffic. Devious are the ways foreclosure is telling on the lives and luck of people.