Experienced loan officers know that much of their success is a number’s game: W number of cold calls result in X number of potential leads, X number of potential leads result in Y applications, and Y applications turn into Z closings and commissions. Hedging a pipeline is a numbers game as well. As a loan progresses through the pipeline, its odds of funding increase. One data cruncher looked at over 42 million applications to see if he could determine a mathematical formula, given loan purpose, rate, property type, occupancy, etc., to calculate the outcome. Worth a skim for anyone involved in analyzing processing costs or hedging.

Not good news

Out of Fort Mill, South Carolina comes news that Wells Fargo Home Mortgage (not Wells Fargo Funding - the correspondent arm) is laying off 100 employees.  And on Friday Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc.'s stock price dropped almost 5% on unusually high volume - it is now less than $10 per share.

CRA

Bank lenders, there are just a few days left to take the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and Low to Moderate Income (LMI) Survey STRATMOR Group is conducting. This survey gathers information on how banks are addressing CRA and LMI lending goals and responsibilities, in particular goal setting, products, corporate governance and sales force structure and compensation. Please take this survey. It takes about 10 minutes to complete and STRATMOR will aggregate the responses and share the results in an upcoming issue of its monthly Insights report.

Jumbo news

Jumbo lending is doing fine, and many banks are happy to add the loans to their portfolios rather the go through the time and cost to securitize them. In fact, some 30-year jumbo rates continue to be lower than conventional conforming rates.

CALCAP Lending, LLC, a private money direct lender based out of southern California, recently provided financing in the amount of $7,200,000 for a fifty-one unit nonprofit affordable multifamily project in Los Angeles, California. CALCAP Lending offers financing for investment property purchases, refinances, fix and flip transactions, ground up construction and multi-family. "For mainstream mortgage bankers seeking ways to offset declining production volumes, we extend an invitation to contact us to discuss how our offer can add production and profitability to your business. Simply run your scenario by via phone (855) 372-0960 or email us at scenarios@calcapfinancial.com.  We look forward to hearing from you!"

Wells Fargo Funding enhanced its Metropolitan Statistical Area Median Home Price (MSA MHP) List, available in AllRegs on May 15^th. WFF added two columns, LTV > 80% Max. loan amount and Market Class, to help determine the maximum loan amount for a Non-Conforming Loan greater than 80% LTV. 

Plaza has 2 new programs: Elite Jumbo Non-QM and Elite Plus Jumbo Non-QM. Click here to learn more.

AmeriHome previously announced the expansion and simplification of its Core Jumbo program, including wider guidelines for second home and investment property DTIs, soft markets, rate and term refinances of previously listed properties and the sale of subject property within 90-180 days. Some stricter, or more defined guidelines also were also implemented including new second appraisal and minimum borrower contribution guidelines. Those guideline changes were effective for Core Jumbo loans with new commitments dated on and after June 1.

PennyMac Correspondent Group posted a new announcement on Conventional and Jumbo LLPAs.

One appraisal, one Super Jumbo...contact American Lending for details.

Capital markets

Rates were amazingly non-volatile last week - a nice thing for anyone in capital markets. The 10-year closed Friday unchanged (2.90%) as the biggest economic news of note was OPEC agreeing to raise daily output by 600,000-800,000 barrels, slightly below expectations for a one-million-barrel increase. No rate-moving scheduled economic news today: the Chicago Fed National Activity (-.15), and ahead is the May New Home Sales number.

Tomorrow, action picks up slightly with the April S&P Case-Shiller 20-city Index and June Consumer Confidence. In addition to the weekly MBA Mortgage Index on Wednesday, we also receive May Durable Orders, May International Trade in Goods, May Wholesale Inventories, and May Pending Home Sales. Thursday has the third estimate of Q1 GDP, jobless claims, May Personal Income, Personal Spending, PCE Prices, June Chicago PMI, and Final June Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index (prior 99.3) on Friday. We start the week with the 10-year at 2.88% and agency MBS prices a mixed bag but basically little changed versus Friday's close.

Training and events

The Impacts of a Rising Interest Rate Environment is a prevalent topic for everyone in the mortgage industry. Register for the Phoenix Trading-Mortgage Services-Analytics June 26^th webinar to learn about recent interest rate trends and the impact on mortgage activity, potential future impacts to origination, servicing and MSR hedging if interest rates remain elevated, an MSR market update and more.

Freddie Mac is offering a webinar on June 26th on the updated Uniform Residential Loan Application (URLA) and the corresponding standardized dataset - the Uniform Loan Application Dataset (ULAD). Learn about the what, why and how of the URLA and the role the ULAD plays in promoting data standards. Learn how to prepare to implement the redesigned URLA by July 1, 2019.

And Freddie Mac has a free webinar on June 27^th that will review ways you can sell your servicing for cash through our Cash-Released XChange execution that enables you to sell any number of loans for cash and concurrently transfer the servicing in the same transaction.

On June 27^th, MBA is offering a free webinar titled: Single Security Initiative - What Lenders Need to Know. MBA and leading industry experts will discuss how this Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae joint initiative to develop a common mortgage-backed security (MBS) will impact every mortgage lender and those that work in real estate finance. This webinar is complimentary to MBA members. Use promo code WEBINAR at check out.

Join Mountain View Financial for a webinar on critical insights for your valuation analyses and strategic decisions. Re-Performing Residential Whole Loan Valuations is scheduled for June 28^th at 10:00 PDT.

Plaza Home Mortgage's July training calendar in now available for viewing and registration. If you can't make a webinar, register anyway and Plaza will email you the recording. For those that do attend, there will be time at the end of each webinar to ask questions of the presenters.

MGIC has posted its July webinar and training offerings.

Enhance your understanding of the current lending environment with Arch MI's complimentary webinars on loan processing, appraisals, analyzing tax returns and more. Registration is currently open for all of its July sessions. You can also view recorded versions of webinars with Arch MI's On Demand Videos.

Join MBA Education for an ongoing webinar series focused on Diversity and Inclusion. This series will bring together industry leaders for in-depth and actionable discussions on organizational and market outreach diversity and inclusion initiatives. Register for the first webinar in the D&I series: Top 5 Strategies to Reach the Latino Mega Market I beginning July 16^th. This webinar is complimentary to MBA Members, please use the promo code WEBINAR upon checkout to receive this discount.

The California Association of Mortgage Professionals invites you and your team to participate in Summer CAMP 2018, July 30-31: Navigate for Success in a special way. Exhibitor/sponsorship registration is now open. Ensure you get the best room rate with the Coronado Island Marriott by reserving your room from here. The room block closes on July 9 and the hotel will sell out.

On Monday, July 30, MCPAOA will hold its second annual workshop in Boston. This will be the day before the AARMR conference. Industry experts including Felicia Bowers, Melissa Richards, and Tammy Butler will address compliance topics such as TRID, HMDA and other hot topics.

FHA is offering two free on-site trainings, July 18^th in New York. See an overview of FHA underwriting procedures and addresses industry-related frequently asked questions. The free afternoon session will provide an overview of FHA appraisal requirements.