In the lending world, folks are talking about the change in FHA loan levels. Economists and investors have their eye on debt. Have a balance on your credit card? Or a mortgage, or car loan? You're not alone. Federal, corporate and household debt worldwide stands at an unprecedented $250 trillion, nearly three times the volume of economic output. (To keep things in perspective, if you paid $1 million a year to reduce that, it would take 250 million years, not including accrued interest.) Does anyone care? Some economists say borrowing should increase and debt is not a problem as long as it remains sustainable, while others say the effectiveness of monetary policy will be curtailed if a crisis occurs. Fortunately in MBS land, US mortgage delinquencies have fallen to near 25-year lows. Hopefully home buyers don't want to go through "that" again. More below on borrowers making payments.

Mortgagors are making their payments.  Attribute it to a healthy US jobs market helped by the longest economic expansion on record, or improved underwriting guidelines, or an appreciating property market, late payments on mortgages are at their lowest levels in nearly 25 years, the Mortgage Bankers Association said recently. The delinquency rate for home loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.97% of all loans outstanding at the end of the third quarter of 2019, the lowest since early 1995. The stats are program specific. The delinquency rate on mortgages guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) decreased 100bp to 8.22%, and the delinquency rate on home loans backed by the Veterans Administration declined by 31bp to 3.93%.

Why should originators care? A couple reasons jump to mind. The secondary market drives rates in the primary market (e.g., rate sheets), and when investors in MBS are more confident about assets, they tend to pay a higher price, driving down the rate. In addition, any borrower making their payments is a refi candidate: No messy 30- or 60-day delinquencies to explain to underwriters.


Lender products, services, and webinars

This holiday season, TMS is putting the CARE in CAREspondent Lending. For every new lender that partners with TMS before the end of the year, TMS will donate $250 to Family Reach- a national non-profit dedicated to alleviating the financial burden of cancer. You can sign up here today!

"As the holidays approach, many lenders are putting the finishing touches on their planning for another high-volume year in 2020. We at LodeStar Software Solutions are hearing from our friends across the industry that this will not be the year for big ticket tech investment. Instead, lenders (and their partners) will be making sure all of their production and origination solutions work seamlessly together. That's always been LodeStar's focus in delivering an affordable TRID-compliant loan estimator, tax quote and reporting solutions. We're also integrated with the most-widely used loan origination and settlement platforms. Simplify your process, cut your time and cost expenditures and do it compliantly in 2020. Start now by having a look at what we can do for you here."

Carrington Mortgage Services, LLC (CMS), one of the nation's largest privately held non-bank lenders, announces the launch of Carrington Prime Advantage. The Prime Advantage loan is another game-changing addition to CMS's full slate of non-agency products offered through the CMS loan origination channels, which include Wholesale and Correspondent lending, designed for higher-credit-quality non-agency borrowers who may have "just missed" qualifying for conventional or jumbo loans. The Prime Advantage product allows for the use of Alternative Income Documentation while delivering competitive pricing and is a perfect fit for borrowers who find themselves in between qualifying for the Carrington Flexible Advantage PlusSM program and conventional or jumbo products. "Our primary objective has always been to lead non-agency lending back into the marketplace," said Greg Austin, EVP of CMS. "We know how important it is to ensure our product offerings are sharp and industry leading, and Prime Advantage is an example of that commitment." CMS's diverse product offerings meet the needs of today's non-delegated originators, and include conventional Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac products, FHA and VA products and Carrington's proprietary Flexible Advantage products. For more information on CMS products and services, please visit CarringtonAlly.com.

I've indicated in several posts Conquering Shifts is a must read. Make it a part of your 2020 business plan. The authors Cindy Douglas and Kathleen Heck have interviewed 12 of the mortgage industries most prolific originators. The book chronicles how each of these individuals got started, how they built successful practices and reminds us that none of us are born with a massive pipeline. Anyone who is committed to building and nurturing relationships, brings value to the table, and delivers on their promises has the ability to realize success. "Conquering Shifts is truly unique in that instead of simply teaching success principles or techniques, the reader sees exactly how they were implemented." Marty Preston, Benchmark Mortgage. For loan officers and senior management looking to boost production take advantage of the discount offered by the authors, before it ends December 12, 2019.

Floify is determined to help the mortgage industry become more profitable in the New Year. The company has big plans to introduce powerful new features and integrations designed specifically to improve lending workflows as well as the overall mortgage borrowing experience. Whether it's building a connected tech stack through integrations with CRMs, credit providers, cloud storage, and various other productivity solutions, or crafting an elegant loan application process with their brand-new, highly-anticipated 1003, Floify provides everything a mortgage lender needs to create the streamlined workflow and digital experience they need to drive higher margins and growth. Make 2020 the year you move to a digitally-powered loan workflow and start maximizing your profitability - request a live demo of Floify to learn how.


Company webinars

NEXA Mortgage is a mortgage broker with 343 Loan Officers and that is up from 313 just a month ago. NEXA was recently featured in HousingWire and GrowJo.com as the fastest growing mortgage broker in the country. Want to know why NEXA is growing so fast? Join its weekly webinar today, "Why NEXA with Mike Kortas". The CEO dives into a deep conversation of what drives this growing channel. This webinar is today at 10am PST/1pm EST at www.NEXAmortgage.com/support. Just click on the link and join. Let them know you heard about it on Chrisman.

"JMAC Lending will be hosting a webinar on our Laguna Jumbo program to 'Compete with Banks!' on December 11 at 10AM PST. Learn the tips and tricks of our Laguna product so your borrower can get bank rate quality Jumbo pricing. This webinar will provide in-depth review of guideline requirements and which borrower is best suited for it. Al Gruzdis, our Southwest Regional Sales Manager, with over 28 years of experience will be hosting this event. Click here to register."


Vendor updates

Insellerate's new engagement platform that launched in the second quarter has helped the company grow by over 100% this year and has furthered its commitment to helping its lenders close more loans. Insellerate now serves both retail and consumer direct loan officers by helping lenders engage better with their borrowers and build customers for life. Insellerate will also be offering its engagement platform to wholesale lenders who are wanting to build better relationships with their brokers and provide them more value.

First American Title Insurance Company, the largest subsidiary of First American Financial Corporation (FAF), announced that in less than a year more than $1 billion of real estate transactions have successfully funded and closed using FlexCloseTM, a warehouse financing and closing service from FirstFunding®, a wholly owned subsidiary of First American Financial Corporation. FlexClose gives lenders and real estate agents the ability to control the exact time funds arrive for a residential real estate transaction closing, even after the daily Fedwire cutoff. 

Responding to new laws enacted in New York and California that require lenders to more aggressively manage cyber risk, and recognizing that other states are expected to follow with similar rules, Secure Insight has begun supplementing its vetting process, and subsequent risk profile reports, to display cyber liability coverage carried by settlement agents. The company has always verified internal controls, but has now updated its control verification process to inquire about the nature and extent of internal cyber risk education and technology protections employed in the offices of settlement professionals. This data is now available as a part of the SI Risk Report for the company's lender clients. SI now manages profiles for more than 75,000 settlement professionals in all 50 states in a shared database available 24/7.

CoreLogic® announced the integration of its Instant MergeTM consumer credit report within the Blend digital lending platform allowing Blend customers to automatically access credit report data during pre-qualification and mortgage origination, helping to expedite the decision-making process. "Integrating Instant Merge credit reports into Blend's technology provides another opportunity to remove friction from the lending process," said Brian Martin, head of business development at Blend. Blend serves as the digital layer on top of back-end lender systems so they can be more efficient and reduce the time and cost associated with loan origination.

The Mortgage List and the Mortgage Action Alliance (MAA) continue to collaborate to help increase awareness and support for MAA's initiatives and fundamental industry issues. The Mortgage List is working with MAA to create banners and categories to be displayed on all Mortgage List Vendor listings, identifying vendors as MAA supporters. The Mortgage List Vendor listings will identify MAA supporters on their individual profiles and will be easily searchable via categories.


Capital markets

It has been a volatile week for Treasuries, which reversed Tuesday's rally to pull back yesterday, exhibiting similar movement to Monday on the back of renewed trade optimism. After rattling markets by saying a trade deal with China might not be finalized until after the 2020 election on Tuesday, President Trump announced yesterday that the U.S. and China may be moving closer to an agreement on the amount of tariffs that would be rolled back as part of any partial trade deal. Again (for now), negotiations seem to be moving toward a deal despite the escalation in rhetoric in recent days and tensions over Congressional support for democracy protesters in Hong Kong. As has been the case lately, the report was light on details, and it was attributed to "people familiar with the talks," but markets responded positively nonetheless. Less important to market movement were underwhelming ADP and ISM non-manufacturing PMI readings.

Today's economic calendar is already underway with November job cuts from Challenger (45k), Initial Jobless Claims for the week ending 11/30 (203k, a 7-month low), and the October trade deficit ($47.2 billion, China imports way down). The only other release scheduled for today, October Factory Orders, will be out later this morning. Markets will receive some Fed speak from Fed Governor Quarles. And the Treasury will announce the details of the mini-Refunding consisting of 3-year notes and reopened 10-year and 30-year notes. We begin the day with the 10-year yielding 1.80 percent after closing yesterday +7 bps to 1.78 percent and Agency MBS prices worse .125 on the strong jobless claims number.

My kids asked for a cat for Christmas. My wife normally serves turkey, but if it'll make 'em happy...


Jobs

American National Bank of Texas, a $3 billion community bank in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, is expanding its mortgage department and is looking for a seasoned, dynamic Vice President of Mortgage Operations Manager. "This position will lead our mortgage operations team of processors, closers and underwriters, ensure regulatory compliance and partner with our production team to grow and expand the mortgage business. All interested, qualified candidates can review the job posting here and complete an online application. You can also email resumes to Rusty Beard. ANBTX is an equal opportunity employer. 

"Congratulations to Tim Elkins, Chief Production Officer for PrimeLending, on receiving a prestigious Vanguard Award from HousingWire. The Vanguard is reserved for true industry trailblazers who are raising the bar with their outstanding accomplishments. This certainly defines Tim, who's been leading the charge on modernizing PrimeLending's digital mortgage experience since joining the company more than 10 years ago. With a forward-thinking mindset, Tim knows how to identify opportunities and deliver solutions that make enterprise-wide impacts. Backed by best-in-class Sales, Marketing and Technology departments, Tim and the PrimeLending team are collaborating to evolve the retail sales model by introducing better tools and more innovative solutions. An inspiring champion for the company's award-winning culture, Tim epitomizes the high standards of the Vanguard Award. Interested in working for a company that's focused on the future? The first step is a confidential conversation with one of our expert recruiters. Call 855-921-0112 to get started."