Today’s trivia: Missouri and Tennessee are tied for bordering the most states: eight. This week I head to Missouri, the jumping off point for thousands of wagon trains heading west in the mid-1800s. Back then, land grants were relatively common but home loans weren’t, LTVs were high, and repayment was usually within five years. Deals were done with a handshake. Fast forward to today, and we have Fannie Mae dropping its minimum credit score requirements and relying more on DU to assess borrowers. The topics brought up or publicized recently by the Trump Administration include mortgage portability, 50-year mortgage amortization, tech companies doing business deals (with the GSEs with possibly an ownership stake in their companies), and assumability. The last thing we, as an industry need, is being accused of wrongdoing, but unfortunately, under the leadership of Bill Pulte and the FHFA, Fannie Mae allegedly shared pricing information with Freddie Mac. Many of us have been in meetings where Agency counsel attended specifically to ensure that price is not discussed! Some are saying that Mr. Pulte, who reports to the boards of Freddie and Fannie, may be a liability to President Trump who is just trying to improve affordability. Stay tuned. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s are sponsored by Figure. Figure is shaking up the lending world with their five-day HELOC, offering borrower approvals in as little as five minutes and funding in five days. And, embedding their technology is easy. Hear an interview with MBA’s Joel Kan on the mortgage industry’s cautiously optimistic outlook, with steady purchase activity, emerging refi opportunities, and expected annual originations above $2 trillion, despite regional housing softness, a gradually weakening labor market, and uncertain short-term impacts from AI.)

Services, Products, Software, and Tools for Lenders and Brokers

“Automation That Powers the Modern Mortgage! In today’s mortgage industry, speed, accuracy, and scalability define success, and that’s where Moder makes a difference. We help lenders and servicers move from manual to machine, using smart automation and AI to streamline every stage of the loan life cycle and drive measurable impact. From document indexing and loan setup to quality control and post-close audits, Moder’s solutions deliver faster decisions, higher accuracy, and lower costs, without disrupting your existing workflows or compliance standards. Our approach goes beyond technology. We collaborate closely with your teams to identify high-value opportunities for automation, enhance process visibility, and ensure sustainable, future-ready operations that can scale effortlessly with business growth. Discover how Moder is transforming mortgage operations.”

It’s time to get your head in the game. Nearly half of US homeowners now own at least 50% of their home’s value, making this a potentially perfect moment to start incorporating reverse strategies into your business. Join Finance of America this Wednesday, November 19, for Reverse Mortgages, Reimagined: Options for Today’s Clients, a free live session exploring how these products have evolved to meet today’s financial needs. Others are already integrating reverse into their business. From lines of credit to JUMBO loans, reverse mortgages could help you turn home equity into opportunity. Don’t fumble this moment; register now to save your seat.

Experience unbeatable opportunities with LoanStream (DBA of OCMBC Inc.), where investors can now finance up to 8 units with the powerful DSCR 5–8 Program, offering loan amounts up to $2 million and a minimum 680 FICO for Purchase, Rate & Term, and Cash-Out refinances. DSCR 5-8 PROGRAM LoanStream Wholesale - Wholesale Mortgage Lending - Elevate your business even further with LoanStream’s innovative MaxONE DPA programs, including the exclusive MaxONE Home Assist, delivering up to 101.5 percent CLTV to help you open more doors for more borrowers. Don’t miss your chance to unlock expert insights into how these DPA solutions can expand your reach and boost your closings, reserve your spot for their upcoming webinar on Thursday, November 20th. Register yourself or your team today, space is limited! Webinar Registration LoanStream Wholesale - Wholesale Mortgage Lending.

“See why 22 of the top 25 IMBs have already joined the CreditXpert platform! Whether you’re a lender looking to close more deals or a mortgage professional wanting to add maximum value to your clients, this webinar will show you exactly how CreditXpert makes homeownership more accessible and affordable. Join Us.”

Last call webinar for credit unions interested in strengthening relationships with realtors and improving the borrower experience. Tomorrow (11/18), Telhio Credit Union Loan Officer Allie Hager and Realtor Kelly Hamilton of Realty Forward will join LenderLogix CEO Patrick O’Brien for a live discussion on how accessibility, faster communication, and modern technology are helping credit unions stay responsive, close more loans, and build stronger partnerships with realtors. The session begins at 1PM, register here!

Imagine knowing exactly which past borrowers you’re losing… and to whom. That’s what happens with RETR’s Loan Loss Report. In a market where originators are losing more than 65% of their previous customers, this report finally gives lenders clear visibility into where those deals went, who captured them, and the actual revenue impact. It transforms guesswork into data you can act on, helping teams improve retention, strengthen agent relationships, and protect the book of business they’ve already worked hard to build. Instead of discovering lost production months later, you get real intelligence you can use today to keep borrowers close and win back opportunities before competitors get there first. See the Loan Loss Report and what you may be missing.

“’The 2-Week AI Transformation: From Skeptic to Believer.’ Recently, a top producer in the country called AI "overhyped." Today, they're engaging with overwhelming inbounds of customers using Prajna's agents. What changed? They stopped debating and started doing. One pilot agent handling repetitive customer reach-outs. Immediate 10x efficiency gains for lead engagement. No massive IT project, no million-dollar budget…just battle-tested AI that works out of the box. Now they're expanding to lead qualification, streamlining operations, and customer service. Small and mid-sized institutions don't need to bet everything on AI. Start with one painful manual process: maybe it's follow-up calls, application status updates, or answering routine questions. Deploy our proven agents. See ROI in weeks. Then scale. The institutions winning with AI aren't the ones who planned the longest. They're the ones who started first. Stop planning. Start transforming. Visit here or contact us.”

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.

STRATMOR on Saying Thanks!

STRATMOR’s Customer Experience Director Mike Seminari is back with a new CX Tip, and this one hits right at the heart of 2025’s margin-tight reality: gratitude sells. Mike shows how a simple, authentic “thank you” can boost NPS by 30 points and meaningfully increase repeat and referral business; no new lead spend required. Mike also lays out three practical steps lenders can take this week to turn past borrowers into active promoters. If you’re looking for low-cost, high-impact ways to drive volume and strengthen relationships, this one is worth the read. Check out the full article: “NPS Gold Rush: How Gratitude Is Driving Mortgage Sales.”

Conventional Conforming News

Beginning yesterday, the single-credit score requirement will be eliminated. Instead of relying on a traditional FICO score, Fannie Mae will use Desktop Underwriter®(DU) to assess borrower eligibility. This DU-driven approach allows for a more holistic evaluation of a borrower's overall financial profile. This update is expected to benefit home buyers with limited credit history, non-traditional credit sources, or those actively rebuilding their credit. By shifting the focus away from a single score, more borrowers will have increased access to conventional financing options.

Fannie Mae published key updates to the Selling Guide, Construction, and DU. Fannie Mae’s November Selling Guide announcement brings enhanced risk management and reduced friction. Key updates include expanding Day 1 Certainty® offerings to include representation and warranty relief for undisclosed non-mortgage liabilities, expanding the eligibility for the age of credit document exception for single-closing construction loans, and removing minimum credit score requirements from Desktop Underwriter® (DU®). Also, updates were made to DU the weekend of November 15. Key updates include new messages related to credit scores and undisclosed non-mortgage liabilities and application of the 2025 rural high-needs designations to new loan casefiles created on or after November 16th.

Fannie Mae November Servicing Guide announced updates to allowable bankruptcy fees and clarifying cramdowns. Stay compliant and better support borrowers in distress with the latest Servicing Guide update that provides guidance on the allowable bankruptcy attorney fees in alignment with the amendments to Bankruptcy Rule 3002.1. These updates clarify bankruptcy cramdowns on recourse or indemnified loans.

Portable Freddie and Fannie mortgages? Think of something else that would help and fits into our world of securitization.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte said the government agency is “actively evaluating” portable mortgages, which would allow a homeowner to transfer their loan from their current home to a new home when they move. Portable mortgages would make it possible for homeowners to keep their current interest rate instead of getting a new one.

With portable mortgages, the homeowner would effectively be able to keep their existing interest rate and terms instead of paying off the loan and getting a new one. That helps existing borrowers, but not renters or potential buyers, but proponents say that it’s a strategy designed to inject movement into a stagnant housing market because many homeowners and would-be buyers have remained on the sidelines because they are reluctant to trade their sub-4 percent mortgage rates for today’s loans hovering around 6.5 percent, the “lock-in effect.”

These types of mortgages, however, aren’t compatible with the architecture of U.S. mortgage finance, nor would they fix the broader affordability problems facing the housing market today if they were. Most in the industry view Pulte’s proposal as an incompletely thought-out attempt to solve the lock-in effect.

When a typical homeowner moves today, they typically have to prepay their existing loan and take out a new one at prevailing rates. If that rate gap was the only thing holding back mobility, portable mortgages might unlock some activity and free up inventory. But it’s not. Recall the May 2025 Federal Reserve report that revealed how the lock-in effect only explained about half of the recent decline in mobility.

Yes, portable mortgages could lead homeowners to transfer their loan from their current home to a new one when they move. But nothing is clear or simple with weighty problems like affordability. In this case, portability is unlikely to bring sales back to normal levels, and any benefits of a portable mortgage would not be widespread.

Only current mortgage holders with low rates would benefit, while renters and homeowners without a mortgage would still face today’s rates. And it isn’t feasible given the U.S. mortgage system being built on securitization, where loans are pooled and priced based on the specific property backing them. Anyone in capital markets will tell you that mortgages must be tied to the home where they originated, so investors can assess collateral risk. If a mortgage became portable, the collateral (and therefore the risk profile of the entire pool) would change midstream, which would break the logic of securitization.

They would also throw off models used to predict how fast homeowners pay off their mortgage and how long those loans last, both of which are key to valuing mortgage-backed securities.

If moving no longer requires buyers to pay their current mortgage, the duration (how long they’re on the books) of these loans would extend sharply and unpredictably, so investors would therefore demand higher compensation for that extension risk, which would push mortgage rates higher, first abruptly and then structurally through wider spreads over the 10-year Treasury.

Capital Markets

The economy is changing. Private equity continues its march, the latest example being the maker of bubble wrap going private.

Expectations for additional rate cuts have weakened as Federal Reserve officials adopt a more cautious tone, pushing back against the need for further easing despite earlier market assumptions. Futures now price less than a 50 percent chance of a rate cut next month, reflecting policymakers’ growing concern that lower rates would do little to address the labor market’s underlying structural issues (driven by technology shifts and immigration dynamics) while potentially undermining confidence in the Fed’s 2 percent inflation target. Your takeaway? The bar for another cut has risen, especially after the Fed has already delivered 150-basis points of easing, ended quantitative tightening, and began exploring liquidity-focused balance sheet tools.

Top-line economic growth remains solid, supported disproportionately by higher-income households, while lower-income consumers continue to feel pressure; this is what a “K-shaped” divergence is referencing, should you hear that term used. With labor-market readings delayed by the government shutdown, investors have leaned on mixed private-sector proxies such as ADP, which point to a modest gain of roughly 42k jobs in October and leave uncertainty about whether hiring is stabilizing or deteriorating. As official BLS data resumes, stronger employment figures would bolster the case for a pause in Fed rate cuts, while clearer signs of cooling could revive support for another cut. Meanwhile, inflation remains above target, and some policymakers argue that holding rates steady best balances the twin risks of overtightening and letting price pressures reaccelerate.

Treasury yields have held in a tight range as markets await fresh data, and traders appear comfortable in a near-term holding pattern. With the government reopening after a record 43-day shutdown, the return of key economic releases, beginning with this week’s nonfarm payrolls report, should restore clarity. Risk assets have bounced back following the government’s reopening, but the broader policy uncertainty surrounding the Administration still looms large. Preventing major holiday air-travel disruptions may help steady consumer sentiment, but developments, from Fed speeches to the Trump administration’s adjustments to tariff exemptions amid consumer concerns, will continue to shape the evolving rate narrative heading into year-end.

Prior to the shutdown, import prices, industrial production/capacity utilization, housing starts, and jobless claims were all scheduled to be reported this week, though could be delayed. That leaves Fed surveys, an assortment of housing data, S&P Global PMIs, and Michigan sentiment as the only certain releases. Treasury supply will consist of $16 billion 20-year bonds and $19 billion reopened 10-year TIPS. Plus, there will be the usual array of Fed speakers and the release of minutes from the October 28-29 FOMC meeting/ For MBS, Class C and D 48-hours are tomorrow and Thursday, respectively.

Today’s economic calendar kicked off with NY manufacturing for November: +18.7, far above expectations. Four Fed speakers are currently scheduled: New York President Williams, Vice Chair Jefferson, Minneapolis President Kashkari, and Governor Waller. We begin the week with Agency MBS prices a touch better than Friday’s close, the 2-year yielding 3.61, and the 10-year yielding 4.13 after closing last week at 4.15 percent, up 6-basis points over the course of the week.