For the next several days I am in Florida, in mortgage meetings and the MBAF, and in Saturday’s Commentary I noted the intense flurry of conference activity this week and last (“the MBA’s Chairman’s Conference, New Jersey MBA, the MBA Florida, EPM TAG, MISMO Spring Summit, The Gathering…). One continuing theme, to varying degrees, is conjecture about Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and their role in lending. By many accounts, the Agencies are “driving 10 mph in the fast lane.” A focus on ending their conservatorship, which conference goers were told by FHFA Director Pulte last month in New York, would begin in earnest in 2026, apparently has moved to… “now.” (More Agency news below.) A key issue continues to be whether the government’s role in the future will include an explicit or implicit guarantee if we see another 2008. It would be helpful if it minimized the impact on Agency rates, because those rates have a ripple effect through other mortgage products. Our MBA will be focused on educating regulators and Congress about this, since most were not around during previous attempts at removing them. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s are sponsored by Flyhomes. The Flyhomes Guaranteed Backup Contract, available in all 50 states, gives borrowers a bona fide purchase agreement on their departing residence, helping them exclude that mortgage from DTI calculations and remove the home sale contingency when buying their next home, all in under 24 hours. Hear an interview with First American’s Odeta Kushi on why Americans are staying in their homes longer than ever, the economic and policy forces behind this trend, and what it means for the future of housing mobility and market recovery.)
Products, Software, and Services for Lenders
You are invited to learn how Fairway Independent Mortgage is supporting loan officers and branch managers to succeed on their mortgage journey. Tuesday June 17th at 3PM EST there will be an anonymous virtual meeting that will bring you behind the curtain with the executive team and others for this successful independent mortgage bank. June Virtual Fairway Day!
In the Northwest and California, Banner Bank is searching for Mortgage Loan Officers looking for a diverse product group to create lasting client, Realtor and builder relationships. At Banner you have Portfolio lending, Construction to Perm financing, Fannie, Freddie, FHA, VA, and USDA along with equity products for HELOC, bridge financing and Lot Loans to serve your clients. Banner has opportunities for lenders looking to create or build onto their career with support for homebuyer education, CRA lending (state bond and Portfolio) as well as access to internal and external DPA to add value to your eligible clients and make more loans possible. Banner is the right fit for an established team, or the individual looking to grow their business and take the next step in their career. Please send resumes to Aaron Miller.
The Chrisman Job Board is live, the go-to platform for employment opportunities across the mortgage industry. For employers, adding a job listing is easy. Simply create an account and drop in your existing application link, or forward the details to our team and we’ll take care of it for you. For job seekers, joining our Talent Community is completely free. Upload your resume to be visible to hiring companies across the industry and stay connected to new opportunities as they go live.
Products, Software, and Services for Lenders
Flyhomes has launched a solution that empowers borrowers to buy their next home with as little as $0 down… Before selling their current one. By unlocking equity upfront from both the current and future homes, borrowers can fund the entire purchase price and even cover up to 5% in closing costs. This innovative program removes the down payment barrier and gives borrowers the financial flexibility to move forward with confidence. For the past 10 years, Flyhomes has helped 5,000+ buyers and enabled LOs to close 1.2 more loans per month on average. Book a call today to learn how you can help your borrowers buy with $0 down.
Join Prosperity Home Mortgage, Fannie Mae, Lodasoft, and Truv for the second episode of our “Strategies to Maximize the Power of Day 1 Certainty®” webinar series on June 12 at 2PM EST. Learn how leading lenders are simplifying income and employment verification, reducing operational risk, accelerating closings, and enhancing the borrower experience with tools like the Desktop Underwriter® validation service. Don't miss this opportunity to hear real-world insights from mortgage tech and lending innovators. Register today.
“Join Maxwell at Housingwire: the Gathering. Are you in Colorado Springs for Housingwire: The Gathering? If so, stop by our kiosk to explore how Maxwell mortgage technology transforms your mortgage lending, with a digital experience tailored to your unique needs. By stopping by, you’ll be one of the first to see QuickPricer, a first-of-its kind pricing tool that helps LOs save time, build trust, and guide borrowers to confident decisions, all built right into the Maxwell point-of-sale. We hope to see you there! Not going to be there, but want to learn more? Let us know and we’ll show you what Maxwell can do for you and your borrowers.”
“Kick-off summer with June Specials from LoanStream, a DBA of OCMBC Inc., with up to 75BPS price improvement on non-QM & FHA/VA! Here for a limited time for loans locked through June 30th, 2025 (restrictions apply). Non-QM: 25 BPS Non-QM (all programs except DSCR 5-8) & Closed-End Seconds June Special, 75 BPS Improvement when combined with Non-QM Select. FHA/VA: 25 BPS Price Improvement on all FHA/VA (excludes CalHFA & Jumbo, can be combined with SELECT), Get 60 BPS when combined with our Select Government Specials. 37.5 BPS FHA/VA Price Improvement Special, Eligible Loans with 600–679 FICOs, cannot be combined with Select or any other Special (excludes CalHFA, Jumbo and DPA). Plus! Join our new webinar: Beyond Prime – When Prime Fails, Non-QM Prevails. Registration now open so don’t miss out on this informative webinar on creative financing options.”
“The first two sessions of the NMP Webinar Non-QM Masterclass Series laid the groundwork: why non-QM matters in today’s market and who these borrowers are. Now it’s time to put it all into action with a marketing plan. Join us Thursday, June 12 at 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT for Session 3: How to Build a Non-QM Pipeline and learn how to turn non-QM knowledge into closeable deals. This session focuses on how to uncover non-QM opportunities in any market, build strong referral networks with real estate investors and financial advisors, and establish yourself as a go-to non-QM lender. You’ll get real strategies for marketing, branding, and business development tailored to this fast-growing segment. Don’t miss the most practical session of the series, register here. The Google doc can be found here.”
New event: Ncontracts hosts third-party risk management virtual bootcamp! From June 24-26, attendees will gain an in-depth look at important topics affecting your third-party risk management program. Led by industry experts, Ncontracts will reveal best practices and what to look for to ensure a vendor is a safe and reliable partner. During this three-day bootcamp, you’ll learn tips and solutions for common third-party risk management challenges, and best practices to improve your third-party risk management program and bring your organization success. Register today here!
See Dara by Sagent at Housingwire’s The Gathering. For an early peek at the next-gen servicing capabilities that are setting the pace for a fintech revolution, check out the live demo of this groundbreaking platform during HousingWire’s The Gathering next week (6/10, 9:45 AM MT). In this first public demo of Sagent’s Dara Core servicing platform, you’ll see firsthand how it simplifies workflows using a combination of smart UI, real-time data, and cloud-enabled connectivity, completing multi-step tasks in minutes vs. the days it takes with older tech. Plus, Sagent execs (Geno Paluso, Omer Farooque, Cynthia Treadwell, Ken Knudsen) will be on site if you have questions and want to talk shop. For more info on Sagent at The Gathering, click here.
Short-Term Rentals, Long-Term Impact with NAN! NAN (Nationwide Appraisal Network) is proud to announce the launch of our Short-Term Rental Analysis Form, a smarter, more targeted solution built specifically for today’s fast-growing STR market. As short-term rentals continue to gain traction, the traditional 1007 form simply doesn’t capture the full picture. That’s why we created a form designed to reflect the real dynamics of this unique asset class. It provides property-specific insights, including seasonal income trends, occupancy data, and local market drivers that matter most. With this form, lenders gain the clarity and confidence needed to make informed decisions and manage risk effectively. As the $19 billion short-term rental market is expected to grow another 10 to 12 percent in 2025, having the right tools in place is more important than ever. We’re excited to help our partners stay ahead of the curve. Request your copy of NAN’s Short-Term Rental Analysis Form today and see the difference.
In today’s market, lenders are looking for ways to cut costs wherever possible across the mortgage loan lifecycle. One preventable yet common expense during loan origination comes from fee cures, which may significantly impact operational budgets. According to a recent study by ICE Mortgage Technology, one in three loans include a fee cure, adding an average of $1,225 to production costs per loan. Understanding the sources of fee cures is critical for lenders looking to cut unnecessary expenses. Richard Lombardi, Executive Vice President of Property Data Solutions & Data Strategy at ICE Mortgage Technology, shares his insights in a recent article, How you can reduce origination costs by identifying the four common sources of fee cures. Discover the most frequent causes of fee cures and how leveraging effective fee management solutions can help streamline loan origination processes and achieve cost savings. Take control of your loan production costs and reduce fee cures with the right strategies. Read the full article now.
Anyone looking for mortgage technology or service providers can explore the new Chrisman Marketplace, a curated hub connecting lenders with trusted industry partners.
Conventional Conforming Changes
Communication through the appropriate channels is critical for changes that could impact thousands upon thousands of borrowers, potential borrowers, lenders, and vendors. The GSEs communicate pricing changes to lenders, as do the investors that sell to them. Remember when, for no apparent reason, the FHFA had Freddie and Fannie raised their gfees? In response to complaints that guarantee fees were sometimes changed on short notice, impacting the pipelines of lenders, FHFA instituted a practice that requires Fannie and Freddie to give 60 days’ advance notice of any g-fee increase of more than 1 basis point.
Fannie Mae Announcement SEL-2025-04 describes June Loan Product Advisor® (LPA®) release Selling Guide Updates which introduces a policy supplement outlining updates to appraisal forms, policies, and requirements for lenders using Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) 3.6, aligns Selling Guide terminology with American National Standards Institute® (ANSI®) Z765-2021 measurement standards, revamp requirements for lender quality control (QC) processes, and A miscellaneous update.
A new Fannie Mae Selling Guide Supplement is now available for Limited Production Period participants, providing updated policies aligned with the expanded UAD 3.6. For policies pertaining to UAD 2.6, refer to the Selling Guide. Read the UAD 3.6 Selling Guide Supplement
Fannie Mae published a new UAD 3.6 Messaging Guide to help the industry prepare for the UAD 3.6 and Forms Redesign mandate. This resource consolidates all of the collateral messages a user will encounter in the Fannie Mae Submission Summary Report (SSR) via the Uniform Collateral Data Portal (UCDP). Visit the UCDP page.
Stay current on policy updates to Selling Guide Part D, changes designed to provide greater clarity, flexibility, and transparency in our QC requirements. Review the Fannie Mae fact sheet to learn more.
Freddie Mac is requiring trended credit data for U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) submissions, are you ready? See What’s New.
National MI announcement UW 2025-02 describes updates to the TrueGuide® and Rescission Relief Guide reflecting the following revisions and clarifications.
Capital Markets
They may not be moving much over the summer. Not that the summer has anything to do with it, but, given the current economy in the United States, there aren’t a lot of reasons for them to go up or down much. (Watch… now that I said that, something will happen…)
It was quite the eventful close to last week. Treasury yields rose across the curve, including two-year yields topping 4 percent. Money markets trimmed bets that the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this year: traders now see a roughly 70 percent chance of a quarter-point rate cut by September, compared with a probability of about 90 percent the day before the May payrolls report. The amount of easing priced in for the year declined to about 43 basis points in total, fewer than two quarter-point cuts. Why?
The Fed is likely to remain in wait and see mode until the direction of inflation or the job market becomes clearer. A lot of that hinges on the (in)ability to determine whether President Trump’s approach is a well-calculated negotiating strategy or simply driving headlines and kicking the can down the road. Time may tell, but hands may be forced if the uncertainty results in business leaders scaling back expansion and hiring plans. The Fed has been in restrictive territory for a meaningful period of time and the recent trajectory of inflation indicates that monetary policy is working, albeit with a lag.
Traders were looking at the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ May nonfarm payrolls report for signs of how Trump’s trade war is affecting the economy. The report was the main economic release last week and showed that 139k jobs were added in May (versus 126k expectations and poor figures reported earlier in the week by ADP) and the unemployment rate was 4.25 percent. Despite coming in higher than forecasts, the prior two months were revised lower by a combined 91k and most of the job gains were limited to the hospitality and healthcare sectors. And while the report marked a slowdown in hiring from the previous month, the figure was stronger than if the large tariffs on China had continued.
When taken alongside a declining “quits” rate, and slowing job openings, it points to a softening labor market. Additionally, the workforce population increased by 188k, while the labor force fell by 625k, meaning the number of people collecting paychecks fell by almost 700k. This is why many view BLS "jobs created" as illusionary, as they are based on statistical adjustments to the data (e.g., births, deaths, and immigration rather than people collecting paychecks), which helps to explain the difference between the ADP jobs report (where only 37k jobs were created) and BLS data.
Additionally, the ISM Manufacturing Index declined to 48.5, its fourth straight monthly decline. The services index also fell into contraction territory for the first time since June 2024 with a reading of 49.9. Both indices cited uncertain international trade conditions due to tariffs as influencing the headline readings. A significant decline in import orders suggests that the pull-forward effect observed earlier in the year may have run its course. Economic growth appears to be moderating, and businesses appear to be operating with caution; not dramatically laying off workers, but also not rushing to hire.
This week’s key events include $119 billion in refunding supply to be auctioned over Tuesday to Thursday. May CPI and PPI will be released on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. Besides the normal weekly releases, the rest of the data includes small business optimism, the budget statement, and preliminary June Michigan sentiment. No Fed speakers are currently scheduled as the Fed is in blackout ahead of its meeting next week, though the Quarterly Financial Accounts will be released on Thursday. For MBS, Class A 48-hours is tomorrow, and Class B net out is on Friday. Today’s economic calendar kicks off later this morning with wholesale inventories (previously unchanged) and sales (previously +0.6 percent month-over-month) for April, as well as the May employment trends index. We begin the week with Agency MBS prices slightly better than Friday’s close, the 2-year yielding 4.01, and the 10-year yielding 4.48 after closing last week at 4.51 percent, up 12-basis points over the course of the week.
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