According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are now ten cities that have a population of greater than 1 million with California and Texas each home to three of these cities. San Jose, CA has now been added to the top 10 most populous cities, which also includes Los Angeles and San Diego. New York is still the most populated city and gained 52,700 people, whereas half of the 10 cities with the largest population gains in 2013 to 2014 were in Texas: Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Dallas and Fort Worth. For the top 15 fastest growing cities, 8 were located in the West and 4 were in California. New Orleans returned to the list of the 50 most populous cities for the first time since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

According to a survey conducted by the American Land Title Association (ALTA), 92 percent of title professionals will be prepared for the upcoming TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures (TRID) by the August 1st deadline. Survey respondents cited the biggest concern when preparing for TRID is collaborating with lenders and real estate agents and 87 percent of title professionals believe the new disclosures will delay real estate closings for consumers or result in closings taking longer to complete. The main reasons cited as to why closing delays may occur were changes at the closing table, walk-through issues, small lender/credit collaboration issues and lender/realtor collaboration issues. More than 65 percent of respondents believe the TILA-RESPA forms will not help the CFPB meet its objective of helping consumers understand and be more prepared for the home buying process and the costs associated with it. The top reasons for this include inaccurate disclosure of title insurance premiums, new forms highlight the costs but do not explain costs to homebuyers, new rules could cause potential closing delays, too many details for homebuyers to grasp and the cost of compliance passed along to the consumer.

How 'bout some schoolin' and conferencin' for everyone? In no particular order...

Pinnacle Capital is offering four upcoming TRID & FHA Update Breakfast seminars the second week of June. Contact Terri Buckman for a registration link. San Ramon June 9th, San Jose June 10th, Irvine June 11th, and San Diego June 12th.

The CFA Society of Los Angeles (CFALA) is running another Mortgage and MBS Boot camp in Thursday and Friday, 6/4 and 6/5.  It's an intensive 2-day seminar on mortgages and MBS with emphasis on securities creation, trading, modeling and structuring.  It's a great opportunity for people who work in the sector (or want to enter the industry) to get advanced training.

The boot camp will be held in the CFALA headquarters in downtown Los Angeles.  Here is a link to the event on the CFALA web site-we'd appreciate it if you could give it a mention or two in your email messages.  http://www.cfala.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=4350

AllRegs has a course for you this summer. Choose from UW, Servicing, QC, and Tax Return Analysis, or sign up for all its courses. Click the link for dates and registration, AllRegs Summer Training Topics and Options.

The IMBA has scheduled a TRID Symposium for June 11. It is being held at BMO Harris Bank in Naperville, IL.  The presentations include legal implications, lender panel perspectives, and reviews of both the Loan Estimate and Loan Closing forms. Registrations for the symposium have been very strong, so anyone interested in attending should do so soon because capacity is limited and the location is a secure facility.  You can register online at www.IMBA.org or call Barbara Zajicek at 312-236-6208.

Arch MI has a variety of live webinars available throughout the month of June. Topics include processing, aspects of loan files, analyzing appraisals, seizing market share, personal tax returns, self-employed and business a returns. Click here for details and registration on Arch MI June webinars. Audio streams through your device, no telephone connection required.

California MBA Member Alert: on July 21st in Cyprus California, FHA is conducting "A Live and In-Person Dialogue: The Single Family Housing Policy Handbook In-Depth." The forum is designed for interaction with other mortgage professionals and FHA staff, with the goal of a mutual exchange of information, questions and answers about the SF Handbook. Space is limited, Register for either morning or afternoon FHA forum in Cyprus CA.

Registration opens June 1st for Collingwood Group's FHA Handbook training helping to prepare FHA requirement changes coming September 14th. Collingwood is now offering fee-based online and on-site training. Its curriculum will address how to originate, underwrite, close and QC your FHA loans so you are ready to go in September 14th.

TRID implementation is coming up quickly, are you ready for the changes? MBA of Metro Washington is offering an event in 2 locations. Managing the TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosures program is being offered on June 9 in Herndon, VA and June 10 in Bethesda, MD. Information and registration for NMA 2-location event is here.

On June 3rd, Nebraska Mortgage Association is hosting a free event to discuss collaboration and communication during these changing times, Registration for NMA TRID-Ready panelist discussion is available now.

The OC Chapter of CAMP has an upcoming golf tournament. It's June 15th at Strawberry Farm in Irvine and will bring together mortgage, real estate and other related professionals for a day of smacking a golf ball around to relive tension and have some laughs.

Sun West Mortgage Company is taking you online for its FHA guideline training. Focusing on the HUD 4155.1 Handbook and the usability of Sun West's online tools, click the link for Sun West FHA Guideline Training Video.

The Lenders Compliance Group answered the question, "Do services - and the fees for such services - that are not required by a lender need to be disclosed on the Loan Estimate once the TILA-RESPA Integration Rule becomes effective on August 1, 2015?" Yes, the CFPB has made it clear that fees paid by the borrower, even if not required by the lender or part of the loan transaction must be disclosed on the Loan Estimate. This would include the commissions of real estate brokers or agents, additional payments to the seller to purchase personal property pursuant to the property contract, homeowner's association and condominium charges associated with the transfer of ownership, engineer inspection fees and personal attorney fees. Specifically, a creditor is required...

Speaking of CFPB-related changes, the Mortgage Bankers Association told the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that its controversial proposed Consumer Complaint Database would be counterproductive and misleading.

In housing news, it is hard to argue that we are having an entirely different discussion than we were just a few years ago. Just yesterday we learned that Pending Home Sales rose 3.4% in April, and reached their highest level in 9 years, according to the NAR. Good news for originators focused on the purchase business. NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun noted the strong demand, but in a statement to the obvious said there are "inventory shortages in many metro areas...as a result, home prices are up and accelerating in many markets."

According to a recent survey of economists and real estate experts, it will have taken more than ten years for U.S. home values to gain back all the losses sustained during the meltdown. The experts reported that home values should be up 4.2 percent YoY by the end of 2015 and value appreciation will level off beginning in 2016 through 2019. This would result in home prices rising above the April 2007 peak of $196,400 in October 2017 and exceed $200,000 in April 2018. When asked about mortgage credit access, 47 percent of survey respondents said credit is too restrictive, 46 said it's where it should be and 7 percent said they feel that mortgage credit access is too lax.

Over the next year, 60 percent of respondents said they expect to see looser credit standards but remain at "sustainable and sensible" levels and 4 percent said they think credit will ease too much, becoming too laidback. The experts were asked if growth in renter households will continue to increase and growth in owner households will continue to flatten, with 44 percent of respondents stating that the current trend will continue with renter-occupancy increasing at a faster rate than owner-occupancy. Whereas, 42 percent of respondents said they thought owner-occupancy would rebound and renter occupancy would slow and 11 percent believed both owner and renter occupancy would increase at significant rates. By the end of 2015, Zillow predicts that annual gains in rents will outpace gains in home values.

Remember that it wasn't long ago that CoreLogic released its Equity report. Highlights from the report show which top 5 states account for 31.7 percent of negative equity. The aggregate value of homes in negative equity for the fourth quarter of 2014 was $349 billion. Over 10 percent of mortgaged homes were reported to be in negative equity in Q4 2014.

Zillow Real Estate Research has reported that April home values have increased from a month prior to a Zillow Home Value Index of $178,400, a 3 percent gain from the same month a year earlier. Annual appreciation in home values peaked at 8.8 percent in April 2014 but the rate of appreciation has declined since even though home values in 34 of the 35 largest metros grew on annual basis. The Zillow Rent Index grew 4 percent YoY to $1,364 and annual rents in April grew at a faster pace than home values in 20 of the 35 largest U.S. housing markets. Rent prices have risen over the past 11 months nationwide and annual rental appreciation in 17 of the 35 largest metros exceeded 5 percent in April. As rent prices have skyrocketed, many individuals may look into homeownership options, as the average renter typically spends about 30 percent of their income on rent, whereas homeowners should expect to pay 15 percent of their income on a mortgage. The low interest rates and looser credit standards should make purchasing a home easier and more desirable to potential home buyers. Zillow is predicting that home values will increase an additional 2 percent through April 2016.

Everyone knows that past performance does not guarantee future results. But that doesn't keep some learned folks from using history to try to figure out what will happen if and when rates move higher. (Thank you to Candace G. at Peoples Bank - KS - for sending this along.)

Interest rates aren't doing much - which is fine for capital markets staffs around the nation. On the supply side things have slid slightly, but on the demand side of things the Fed and others are still buying the stuff. This morning GDP came out -.7%, weaker than the original +.2 for the 1st quarter and weaker than expected.

How is it that we're on the last business day of May already? We closed the 10-yr at 2.13% Thursday afternoon and this morning after the GDP we're down to 2.12% with agency MBS prices a shade better.

But GDP isn't the only number we'll be ruminating on today. Also slated are Personal Consumption, Core PCE QoQ, ISM Milwaukee, the Chicago Purchasing Managers' Survey, and the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment figures. Stay tuned...


Jobs and Announcements

In job news DAS Acquisition Company d/b/a USA Mortgage (DAS) is searching for a Chief Compliance Officer to continue the development of, administer, and oversee the Company's compliance program with all applicable federal and state mortgage banking laws and regulations. The successful candidate will report to the Company's COO and CEO and will be responsible for working with the lines of business and support areas to ensure oversight of a sound compliance management system. DAS is a mortgage bank that is licensed in 13 States and headquartered in beautiful St. Louis, Missouri, the nation's 19th largest MSA "where the cost of living is normal, the culture amazing, the traffic minimal, the springtime stunning, the fall gorgeous and the other two seasons prevalent as well. Closing over $1 billion for 6 straight years, the Company is a dominant residential lender in the State of Missouri and in particular the St. Louis and Springfield metropolitan areas." The Company is a sales centric, retail lender which sells its loans to investors in conjunction with the protocols set forth by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, VA, USDA, and various State bond programs." Send your confidential cover letter and resume to the Company's CEO Doug Schukar.

October Research, LLC is asking lenders to provide communications intended for settlement services agents regarding TRID implementation plans. The settlement services industry is looking for additional direction regarding implementation of the new forms, who will deliver what and process changes necessary for compliance. Dodd Frank Update and The Title Report will help lenders communicate with the title insurance and settlement services industries on The Road to Aug. 1. Email your announcements and updates to Pam O'Grady.