Products, Services, and Software for Brokers and Lenders

Increase Your Business with Renovation Loans! Renovation lending is one of the biggest opportunities for brokers looking to expand their pipeline in today’s market. When inventory is limited, renovation financing helps turn fixer uppers into closed loans and creates new opportunities for buyers. Join TPO Go on March 19th at 2 PM EST for a live webinar focused on how brokers can confidently originate FHA 203(k), HomeStyle, Choice Reno, VA, and USDA renovation loans. Learn how to structure renovation deals, overcome common challenges, and position yourself as a trusted resource for buyers and referral partners. If you are looking to grow your business and add more solutions for your clients, this is a session you will not want to miss.

Mortgage lenders know they need automation and AI, but most are doing it wrong. JazzX can help. Most mortgage automation and AI tools today focus on individual tasks, not the full loan process. Basic tools may eliminate small inefficiencies, but they rarely lower cost per loan or accelerate credit decisions at scale. JazzX AI delivers true end-to-end intelligent automation with digital assistants that work alongside your existing LOS, streamlining operations across the loan lifecycle to lower costs, accelerate decisions, and improve quality without adding headcount. Want to learn more? Book a demo with the JazzX team.

A mechanical watch can contain more than 100 tiny gears moving in precise coordination. Individually, each gear performs a small task. Together, they create remarkable precision. Mortgage technology is beginning to operate the same way. At ICE Experience 2026, nCino will demonstrate how its AI brings the moving parts of lending into alignment. From DOC VOI (powered by Argyle), which uses automated data extraction and analysis to replace manual reviews of paystubs and W-2s, to AUS Smart Tasks, a feature that translates automated underwriting findings into clear next steps for loan teams, nCino is helping lenders make informed decisions faster and with fewer bottlenecks. Visit booth #208 to see how nCino can get your mortgage operation running like clockwork.

The New Math of Mortgage: Spring Forward Without Expanding Staff! The market has shifted. After years of boom-and-bust cycles, mortgage volume is stabilizing, creating a rare window to modernize. At the same time, technology has matured, paving the way for automation built on trusted, verifiable data. Now is the moment to act. Gateless Smart Underwrite® helps lenders grow volume without hiring, automating document review, verifying borrower data, and clearing conditions in hours, not weeks. Eliminate bottlenecks. Remove manual labor. Increase capacity without adding a single desk. This isn’t just a better process. It’s a self-scaling way to lend. Our clients are reporting significant capacity increases in operations and decreasing processing time. “Automate Intelligently, Scale Logically.” Book your demo.

With UAD 3.6 on the horizon, the real estate valuation is evolving. If your AMC hasn't enhanced its offerings to leverage modern tools like AI-powered machine learning and optical character recognition, you're missing out on distinct advantages to streamline the appraisal process. Your AMC shouldn't be playing catch-up but rather leading the shift to UAD 3.6. With 45 years of experience under our belt, PCV Murcor is already there and built for what's next! Experience innovation-powered precision and time-tested excellence by visiting here.

The Chrisman Marketplace is a centralized hub for vendors and service providers across the mortgage industry to be viewed by lenders in a very cost-effective manner. We’re adding new providers daily, so check back often to see what’s new. To reserve your place or learn more, contact us at info@chrismancommentary.com.

The Last Word is today at 1PM ET. This week on Last Word, the panel breaks down market signals, agency developments, and where the industry succeeded and failed over the past week. The conversation focuses on separating real insight from reaction as the market continues to shift.

Capital Markets

Markets spent yesterday recalibrating for the possibility that tensions around the Strait of Hormuz persist longer than initially expected, keeping geopolitical risk (and energy prices) at the center of price discovery. Crude oil surged toward $100/barrel, pushing gasoline prices higher and reinforcing inflation concerns, which in turn pressured both equities and rates. Treasury yields drifted higher throughout the day, with the 10-year hovering around the mid-4.20 percent range and struggling to attract safe-haven demand even as stocks weakened, an unusual dynamic that underscores how inflation and energy risks dominate the "macro" narrative.

Mortgage-backed securities followed suit, with spreads widening and lower coupons underperforming as volatility tied to energy markets tends to discourage spread tightening. While trading volumes remained solid, conviction was limited as desks stayed cautious amid the fluid geopolitical backdrop. One bright spot came from the Treasury market’s successful digestion of a $22 billion 30-year bond auction, where demand exceeded expectations, suggesting long-end buyers remain willing to step in at current yield levels. It made for a good finish to this week’s mediocre auction slate.

Economic data, including steady jobless claims and stronger housing starts (up 7.2 percent in January due to a nearly 30 percent surge in multifamily, while single-family starts declined by 2.8 percent), did little to alter the broader narrative, leaving markets focused squarely on geopolitics, energy prices, and the inflation implications if disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz continue.

According to Prime Lending’s Andrew Stringer, “In this current environment, price targets age about as well as leftover milk. If there were a chart metric for panic locking, the benchmark would be the heart rates of LO’s and real estate agents watching rates forge higher. Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury yield might as well be correlated to a herd of cats with a garden hose. Forget fundamentals, the only thing the market cares about right now is the belief or disbelief in the word ‘transitory.’ The timing of all this is all but impeccable (cue sarcastic eye roll). In less than a week, the FOMC committee will cast their votes on future fed policy.

Meanwhile, Fed Chair Powell will take center stage and undoubtedly field questions about how oil prices may impact forward guidance. Keep in mind that it’s not the actual verdict that markets will latch onto, it is the word choice, tone, and emphasis he uses while interpreting recent events. Putting the recent geopolitical events aside for a moment, one cannot help but wonder how this meeting might have gone without the market impact of the war. In the past month we received a meaningful drop in payrolls, improvement in Treasury inflows, and CPI showing the most encouraging signals since 2021, especially given the seasonality when prices normally rise. This would have been a strong signal for bonds to improve if there were not a significant market derailment underway. I think it goes without saying that the only certainty we can rely on is the likelihood of more uncertainty. In times like these, pipeline defense is prudent and reprices can happen in very short order. The market is still searching for a floor sturdy enough to stand on.”

New FHA loss-mitigation rules introduced late last year are putting significant pressure on distressed borrowers and are driving a sharp rise in severe delinquencies across the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan universe. The policy limits borrowers to one home-retention option every 24 months and requires a three-month trial payment plan, ending the pandemic-era practice of repeatedly extending relief and causing delinquencies to “catch up” quickly. As a result, severe delinquency rates among FHA loans have climbed markedly: from about 5.1 percent at year-end to 6.1 percent by February, far outpacing trends in Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) mortgages, where borrowers tend to have stronger credit profiles. The shift is creating a growing pipeline of deeply delinquent FHA loans within Ginnie Mae securities, particularly among 2022-vintage loans and lower-coupon pools, which could lead to increased servicer buyouts as delinquency thresholds are breached, an outcome that may create opportunities for investors as affected loans are repurchased at par.

Mortgage rates rose in the latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey from Freddie Mac as oil prices surged following the US-Israel attack on Iran. For the week ending March 12, the 30-year rate rose 11-basis points to 6.11 percent, while the 15-year rate increased 7-basis points to 5.50 percent. Rates are still 54-basis points and 30-basis points lower than a year ago. The U.S. economy (read: the average annual growth rate of real personal consumption expenditures) is less sensitive to higher energy prices than it once was.

Today’s economic calendar brings a host of first-tier data, much of which was previously delayed due to the government shutdown(s). Markets have already received January personal income and spending (spending was +.4 percent versus +0.3 percent expected), PCE and core PCE (core was +.4 percent, as expected, +3.1 percent y-o-y), the second look at Q4 GDP (+.7 percent, cut in half!), and durable goods orders for January (flat, ex-transportation +.4 percent). Later today brings (delayed) JOLTS job openings for January, and the first look at March Michigan sentiment. After this bevy of economic news, we have Agency MBS prices little changed from Thursday’s close, the 2-year yielding 3.70, and the 10-year yielding 4.25 after closing yesterday at 4.27 percent.