So you say that you never learn anything by reading this Commentary? How about Wile E. Coyote's middle name? His first name is an obvious pun on the word "wily." His middle initial, "E", is said to stand for "Ethelbert" in one issue of Looney Tunes & Merrie. And say what you want about California’s political and tax climate, “Cali” still accounts for nearly 25 percent of residential production in the United States, and… 80 percent of the world’s almonds! Unfortunately the 2,500 square miles of almond trees are water-intensive, as are putting out forest fires, and the finite water supply is causing issues. California is the site of next week’s in-person Western Secondary, with over 600 people registered. The state ranks 13th in ATTOM’s newly released Midyear 2021 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. But the news is good: nationwide foreclosure filings in the first six months of 2021 were down 61 percent from the same time period a year ago and down 78 percent from the same time period two years ago. So much (so far) for all the “experts” predicting foreclosure disaster this year. (California’s GDP is more than twice that of Russia’s, and well above countries such as India, Great Britain, and France.) Today’s audio version of the commentary is available here and this week’s is sponsored by Candor Technology, producing a high-quality loan that requires only 1 underwriter touch on 70% of loans.)

Products and Services

"Borrower Surety in 1 day." “1 UW Touch on 70% of loans!” Only Candor's Loan Engineering System: 1) Conducts initial underwrite at POS, 2) Issues complete conditions, including AUS and Reps/Warrants, 3) Clears 38% of conditions, 4) OCRs Documents, 5) Calculates & delivers final decision on income (W2 and Self Employed), assets and liabilities, and 6) Backs decisions with a defect policy. >900,000 underwrites later Candor clients are pulling ahead of the pack. Contact us for a demo.

Is handling title and settlement in-house creating bottlenecks and delaying the timely delivery of title documents? Sourcepoint’s full range of title, closing and recording products offer nation-wide support for all your title needs. “We help leading mortgage companies ensure first time accuracy on all disclosures and diversify risk. Whether you are an Originator, a Servicer, a Title Company, or a Home Equity Lender, we’ve got you covered. Our industry-leading settlement and vendor management platform, backed by our rigorous governance structure and 50-state coverage, drives outcomes that matter to you. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you seamlessly scale title operations, so your staff can focus on what sets your business apart.”

What does it take for a digital mortgage platform to be named a top 3% fastest-growing company in the country? Game-changing solutions that deliver tangible results. Maxwell ranked as the 15th fastest-growing private software company in the U.S. on the Inc. 5000 list because its products impact lending teams in undeniable ways. Lenders on the platform see their LOs close 20% more loans, and their time to close improves by over 10 days. With a suite of tech-powered solutions from point of sale to loan fulfillment, Maxwell offers a disruptive competitive advantage to lenders serving America’s communities. Ready to learn how one of the fastest-growing companies in the country can revolutionize your lending business? Click here to learn about Maxwell’s comprehensive solutions, or set up a call today.

“Is your application, lock, or funded volume up this month while your peers are slowing down? If you don’t know what your trend variance is compared to the industry, Richey May’s Peer View Ops can help. We provide annual, quarterly, and monthly trend variance in comparison to your peer groups with the ability to break this down further by loan type or purpose. Peer View Ops, Richey May’s new real-time peer to peer comparison tool, will allow you to see how you’re performing in vital production and operational areas in comparison to your peers. Contact us to schedule a demo today!”

Capital Markets

Are you a seller who has questions about transitioning from Cash to Guarantor? Join MCT and Freddie Mac for their webinar on August 19that 9am PT as they discuss Selling Guarantor: Ensuring a Successful Transition. This webinar will be a collaborative discussion of the best practices in converting from Cash to Guarantor executions. They’ll explore the preparation required for Guarantor pricing analysis, operations and systems readiness, and the contracting and delivery processes. They’ll also provide attendees with tools and resources to understand the steps required for a successful and profitable Guarantor execution. Register for their webinar for information on making the change from Cash to Guarantor! If you would like to receive educational content from MCT in the future, please join their newsletter.

Ready to further enhance pool optimization, best execution, risk management and more? Black Knight recently upgraded CompassPoint to deliver powerful enhancements to the solution’s industry-leading pool optimization suite. As a continuation of Black Knight’s commitment to helping lenders shift to securitization, this upgrade works to boost profitability for lenders that are GSE-sellers or actively seeking agency approvals. New capabilities allow lenders to incorporate user-defined fields into pool or commitment optimization processes, while enabling them to achieve best execution inclusive of considerations beyond price alone, such as non-owner-occupied properties and equivalent credit scores. This release also expands CompassPoint’s API library, enabling proprietary LOS users to access a real-time risk management experience. It also enhances CompassPoint’s MSR model to integrate directly with Black Knight’s AFT Prepayment and Credit Model. To learn more about Black Knight’s CompassPoint solution, which helped lenders hedge over $1 trillion of loans in 2020 alone, contact Mark Teteris.

Polly, a mortgage technology company creating a modern, data-driven capital markets ecosystem, is taking the guesswork out of per loan margin tracking. With Polly’s next gen Product & Pricing Engine, loan level margin management and reconciliation has never been easier or more accurate. Users are able to know the exact day-one margin on each loan in their pipeline and can configure margins based on standard or custom parameters in seconds. Simple customization functionality allows end users to effortlessly create and manage margins on highly dynamic and fully customizable single-view grids. To learn more about how Polly’s revolutionary Product & Pricing Engine is providing the most accurate per loan margin tracking in the industry, email Jacob Gerson or visit www.polly.io.

Have you heard that Saudi Arabia's state-backed mortgage refinancer (Saudi Real Estate Refinance Co., or SRC) expects to begin issuing mortgage-backed securities in 2021? SRC is comparable to Fannie Mae and was founded in 2017 to provide low-cost financing to banks and financial institutions so that they can offer cheaper mortgages to nationals. Thousands of young Saudis reach adulthood each year and a gradual trend for smaller families will boost mortgage demand. While the original goal of the program was aimed at diversifying and modernizing the domestic economy, the domestic home loan boom has been supporting the overall credit growth in the Kingdom. Bank credit grew close to 15 per cent last year with an expected growth in excess of 10 per cent in 2021. Credit growth will be significantly supported by mortgages that are expected to expand by 30 per cent this year.

The Saudi news prompted Dr. Matt Lind, Partner Emeritus at the STRATMOR Group, to observe, “In order to issue mortgage-backed securities on global markets, mortgages need to allow for evictions of delinquent borrowers. The Sharia clerics said they would not approve evictions that put borrowers out on the street. To solve this problem, it was suggested that the Kingdom provide decent government owned housing into which foreclosed borrowers could be moved. Such housing could also serve as lower income housing. This proposal was approved by the clerics in about 2010 but has apparently taken much longer to be implemented. Readers should know that Saudi mortgages do not use the term ‘interest payments’ which are a Sharia ‘no-no.’ Instead, borrowers pay a ‘profit payment’ to the lender.” Thanks, Matt!

Returning to the U.S., the Federal Reserve's bond buying program no longer makes sense in an economy restrained by shortages of essential materials and workers, according to Fed board member Eric Rosengren, president of the Boston Fed. He said he would support an announcement at the central bank's September meeting that it will start scaling back bond buying in the autumn and bring it to an end around the middle of 2022.

Along those lines, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) Minutes yesterday pushed back on both the timing and the pace of tapering as several committee members still do not believe that the goal of "substantial further progress" has been met toward unemployment and believe the start of next year would be a better target for reducing asset purchases. Most saw benefits in reducing the pace of net purchases of Treasury securities and agency MBS proportionally in order to end both sets of purchases at the same time.

The tapering discussion is going to be at the top of the agenda when the FOMC convenes in Jackson Hole in the coming weeks. Now, it's about determining the timing since the FOMC has surpassed its inflation target and are moving toward targeted unemployment. A pickup in the Delta variant of COVID obviously complicates matters, but the bond market was little moved overall by the trading day's end.

Home prices are high, as are costs for materials, land, and labor. Total housing starts declined 7 percent month-over-month in July to miss expectations, rising only 2.5 percent year-over-year largely due to shortages of labor and materials (July also wasn’t a great month for COVID). On the bright side from a future inventory perspective, there are now around 690k single-family homes under construction, the most since 2007. Building permits declined but were still more than expected, though it has been the pattern for at least a year where permits look good but starts don’t materialize. If/when supply constraints begin to loosen, the pace of construction should continue to increase as should home affordability.

Today’s economic calendar is underway with weekly jobless claims (375k down to 348k; continuing claims 2.82 million) and Philadelphia Fed manufacturing for August (-2.5 to +19.4). Later this morning brings July leading indicators and Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week ending August 11. We start Thursday with Agency MBS prices better nearly .125 and the 10-year yielding 1.23 after closing yesterday at 1.27 percent.

Employment, Promotions, and Transitions

PacRes Mortgage, formerly Pacific Residential Mortgage, is happy to announce its newest branch manager, Nicholas Boliard. Nick will be driving PacRes’ local growth in Roseville, CA. Nick said, “I’m so pleased to join the PacRes team. A business with over 17 years of success and commitment to preserving a hyper-local focus while increasing its local offices nationally.” Want to join Nick on the PacRes team? Please contact Eric Wiley, CXO at 971-645-7087.

Mission Mortgage, a member of the Newrez Joint Venture network, is looking for two ambitious purchase-oriented Loan Officers to work as Preferred Lenders inside two of the busiest real estate offices in the Greater DC area. As one of the fastest-growing Joint Venture partners of national mortgage lender Newrez, Keller Williams Capital Properties provides an outstanding platform for Loan Officers to expand their purchase pipelines. “For a skilled Loan Officer looking to grow their business, our Joint Venture model can’t be beat," said Tom O’Keefe, President of Mission Mortgage. "With our platform and a partner like Keller Williams Capital Properties, a Loan Officer can both grow and stabilize their business… And make more money!" To learn more about this role and other opportunities, contact Tom O’Keefe, contact the recruiting team, or apply now.

“Mortgage Executive Magazine recently came out with its annual ranking of the Top 100 Mortgage Companies, and Caliber Home Loans is #4 on that list. Pretty impressive! It’s just one of the many reasons our employees are proud to call Caliber home. The focus on your success and wellbeing begins the minute you join the Caliber team. That’s why Caliber has developed a unique onboarding program, called Power Up. From day one, you’ll get all the training tools, resources, and strategies you need to make your transition successful and seamless. Watch this video as Youssef Issa, onboarding program manager at Caliber, describes how Power Up, makes your transition to the Originations team simple and easy. Join the team that makes homeownership a reality. Contact James Hecht for Sales positions.”

A Colorado-based credit union is seeking loan originators who are as excited about the future as they are. Its expansion is driven by unprecedented growth, coupled with the urgency to help more Coloradans achieve their homeownership goals. This credit union is an 87-year-old start-up in the process of completely revamping from top to bottom, and has built a solid foundation to support the sales growth with strong operations, products, pricing, clever marketing, and technology. They are currently reviewing applications for the local area only. If you are interested, please contact Matt Finley and specify this opportunity.

“loanDepot Retail is thrilled to announce our newest member, Pacific Northwest Vice President, Jeremy Bordner. A Seattle native, Jeremy joins us from another lender where he served as an Area Manager and National Advisory Board member for the last 6 years. Previously, Jeremy was Founder and CEO of Star Capital Real Estate & Mortgage Lending a multi-year Top 10 Mortgage Brokerage in Idaho. Jeremy was also the youngest Executive Officer of an FDIC insured Bank in the state. Drew Collins, Senior VP, Production, commented, ‘loanDepot is committed to the financial success of the Pacific Northwest homeowner. We have built our PNW market presence becoming a value and service leader for mortgage customers, and the employer of choice for in market mortgage professionals. Jeremy is an exciting addition to our leadership team that will drive continued growth for loanDepot in the PNW.’ To connect with Drew or Jeremy please email.”

AmeriHome Mortgage, the 2nd largest correspondent and 14th largest mortgage lender in the country, is incredibly busy with its return to Non-Agency. AmeriHome’s new Portfolio Express product is currently available for Non-Delegated clients, and will be rolled out to its Delegated clients later this year, as will a Portfolio Prime Jumbo product for both delegated and non-delegated clients. As AmeriHome grows its Non-Agency program, it is also looking to grow its team! AmeriHome is currently hiring for several positions, including Underwriters of all levels. Visit their careers page to view all open positions, and submit resumes to careers@amerihome.com to schedule an interview. The AmeriHome team will also be attending several conferences and events in the coming months! For the full list of events that AmeriHome Correspondent is attending in-person, check out the upcoming events page. To get more information about AmeriHome, reach out to CLsales@amerihome.com, and be sure to follow AmeriHome Correspondent on LinkedIn for the latest updates!

Thrive Mortgage is pleased to announce the arrival of industry veteran Jason Lentsch as Regional Leader in the Midwest. Jason brings a vast wealth of industry experience, team building expertise, and unparalleled commitment to supporting the growth of those in his charge. “Making this move to Thrive signifies a very intentional decision to be with the best professionals in the industry - people who offer a refreshing perspective on the business,” stated Lentsch. “After taking a deep look at the capabilities and culture of Thrive Mortgage, it was an easy decision.” Randell Gillespie, EVP of Production, added, “Many institutions focus on company profitability. There’s nothing wrong with that, but we want to go beyond and be a company that focuses on the profitability of its people. Knowing Jason for many years, I could not be more thrilled to team up with him!” For inquiries about growth opportunities, visit us here or inquire at Info@ThriveMortgage.com.

Congratulations to Mason-McDuffie Mortgage for naming Chuck Iverson as its new President. Chuck has been hired to continue the legacy of MasonMac bringing together a storied history of one the oldest mortgage banking firms and a modern digital mortgage experience. "I am honored to lead MasonMac and follow mortgage banking legend, Marilyn Richardson, who has retired after many decades of service to our team and industry." MasonMac has quietly been building one of the best platforms for originators and branches through customized pricing solutions and technology coupled with a small team approach to service. Be on the lookout for news regarding digital breakthrough implementations to help the MasonMac team grow its business!