“Six cows were smoking joints and playing poker. That's right: The steaks were pretty high.” The steaks, uh, stakes, are high when changes to our housing finance system occur, or actions are taken that are negatively impact borrowers or reputations. In a typical organization, the CEO reports to the board of directors. The FHFA oversees Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and with FHFA Director Bill Pulte, he pretty much appointed the boards of Freddie and Fannie but they are ultimately responsible for his actions and statements. So is President Trump who nominated him to his post. The Department of Justice and the FBI are probing Bill Pulte and another administration official over investigations of president's adversaries, and Bloomberg published a story saying that Pulte is now a liability to the President. This puts the Pulte/Trump relationship in a tenuous position, and unless it is reconciled, it isn’t hard to predict who is going to stay in office and who isn’t. By the way, for anyone who doesn’t think that the Administration’s 50-year mortgage proposal is dead on arrival, here you go. (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 TD Bank’s Jon Giles on how today’s rate environment is reshaping housing supply, why rising renovation trends and growing HELOC demand are turning home equity into a powerful financial tool, and how lenders can responsibly meet homeowners’ increasing appetite for equity access.)

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

CANDID Announces Strategic Partnership With Lower.com! CANDID has announced a new partnership with Lower.com, following the lender’s acquisition of Movoto, a top-five U.S. real estate portal with more than 150 million annual visits. Lower.com turned to CANDID to consolidate its fragmented, legacy technology stack and implement a modern platform built for scale. Through the partnership, Lower now operates from a single unified ecosystem that boosts LO adoption with native tools like Group SMS, strengthens referral-partner collaboration through CANDID’s groundbreaking Realtor Portal, drives long-term retention with the Client Retention Cloud, and expands capabilities with both Recruit Cloud and Content Cloud.

“CANDID isn’t another piece of software. It’s the foundation for how the next generation of mortgage companies will grow,” said Garrett Locklear, Founder of CANDID. Learn more at candid.inc.

“AI is reshaping mortgage lending, but the top producers aren’t using it to replace human interactions. They’re using it to open new doors, restart cold conversations, and free up their time to build better HUMAN relationships. At Accelerate 2025, industry innovators came together to explore how AI, intelligent automation, and data-driven personalization are creating a new competitive edge for modern lenders. From streamlining operations to strengthening borrower engagement, AI is unlocking the speed, precision, and efficiency that modern lenders need to meet the expectations of modern consumers. Total Expert is driving this industry shift with our purpose-built AI Sales Assistant, intelligent automation, and true data insights that allow lenders to engage every opportunity with timely, personalized communications. Catch up on our biggest announcements from Accelerate 2025 and discover how AI can fuel your growth in the year ahead. Watch the recap here.”

End endless meetings: Roam is the virtual office built for high-performing distributed teams who need instant access to each other to close business faster. Thousands of mortgage professionals are transforming how they work with Roam’s 8-in-1 platform, reducing their tech costs by 80 percent, slashing meeting times, and boosting productivity across the board. You can replace Zoom, Teams, Slack, Calendly, Loom/BombBomb, Otter/Fireflies, and more, all while working in one seamless virtual office. All for just $18.88/month. Schedule a demo now or try it for yourself.

Ever wish you could read brokers’ minds before they lock a loan? The Broker Search Data License from Loansifter by Optimal Blue gives you nearly that. You get top-of-funnel visibility into what 6,000+ brokers are searching for each month. With over 1 million rows of anonymized search data and 20+ variables per search, you’ll uncover early signals of market interest. Unlike traditional pricing or lock datasets, this raw data integrates directly into your analytics workflows, helping you benchmark visibility, validate pricing strategies, and identify competitive gaps with modern, proven accuracy you can trust. Pair it with Investor Pricing Insight for a complete view of broker engagement and pricing performance. If your program is being searched but not locked, perhaps it’s time to rethink your pricing. Don’t wait for the market to tell you what’s working… See it first and act faster. Get started with Broker Search Data License today.

Last Word is today at 1PM ET. This week on Last Word, Brian Vieaux, Kevin Peranio, Courtney Thompson, and Christy Soukhamneut break down the first labor report in months and what it signals for lenders heading into year-end. They also cover rising credit report costs, Thanksgiving-week dynamics, and insights from both FHLMC Connect and Branches of the Future, held together in Austin.

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.

What Are Renters Thinking?

New research from Experian® spotlights U.S. renters’ current sentiments around the prospect of homeownership and reveals nearly half (47 percent) believe they’ll be ready to purchase a home within the next four years. That figure jumps to 67 percent when looking over the next eight years. “Gen Zers and millennials appear to be the most optimistic about the prospects of homeownership, with 48 percent of Gen Z non-homeowners and 50 percent of millennial non-homeowners indicating they’ll be in a position to buy a home by 2029.”

“Consumers’ sentiment about the prospects of homeownership come at an interesting time for the mortgage industry, following the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and Director Pulte’s recent approval of VantageScore® 4.0 for use in mortgage decisions. The more modern scoring model considers rental payments and other forms of alternative data, making it especially beneficial for renters pursuing homeownership who consistently pay their bills on time but may have limited credit histories… Experian recently announced it would be offering the score at no cost to its U.S. mortgage clients.”

According to the research, funds for a down payment (67 percent), home prices (66 percent) and low credit scores (51 percent) were cited as the biggest barriers to homeownership for current renters and nearly 40 percent rate their understanding of financial concepts tied to homeownership as “fair” or below. While Experian’s latest State of the U.S. Rental Housing Market Report shows roughly 60 percent of today’s renters have near-prime or better scores, nearly a quarter (23 percent) say they’ve been denied a mortgage or rental application because of their credit score.

Renters stated the following forms of support would be most useful on their homeownership journey: Financial support (61 percent), a clearer understanding of what I can qualify for (51 percent), and more financial knowledge about the mortgage process (38 percent).

Capital Markets

Join the upcoming Agile Trader Talk Webinar on December 3rd at 11am PT to explore the Market Outlook for 2025–2026. As 2025 comes to a close, shifting monetary policy, liquidity, technological advancements, and geopolitical developments continue to reshape financial markets. Hosted by Agile President Greg Vacura, this session brings together leading broker-dealer panelists to discuss the year’s key market trends, deal flow, regulatory and compliance considerations, and the opportunities and risks expected in 2026. Attendees will gain timely insights into market structure, trading dynamics, and the forces likely to influence the road ahead. Register today to secure a spot in this forward-looking discussion.

For those interested in economic news, existing-home sales rose 1.2 percent month-over-month in October to a 4.1-million pace as slightly lower mortgage rates and gradually improving inventory pulled more buyers back into the market. While affordability remains a challenge (especially for first-time buyers in the Northeast and West) year-over-year sales improved, and price growth stayed contained thanks to better supply. Regional performance was uneven, but easing rents and cooling inflation could give the Fed further room to lower rates, creating a more supportive backdrop for housing as we move into 2026.

At the same time, the long-delayed September jobs report delivered a mixed picture of the labor market, muddying expectations ahead of the Fed’s meeting next month. Payrolls increased by 119k in September, but that strength was tempered by sizable downward revisions to prior months and an uptick in unemployment to 4.4 percent, the highest since 2021.

Markets responded by lowering the odds of a December rate cut to roughly one-third, even as Treasury yields fell, reflecting traders’ view that job gains were concentrated in a few service sectors rather than indicating broad economic acceleration. With the November jobs report pushed to mid-December and liquidity thinning into the holidays, expect range-bound trading and heightened volatility, even as Treasuries remain supported by cautious sentiment and profit-taking in equities.

Mortgage rates ticked up in the latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey from Freddie Mac. For the week ending November 20, the 30-year and 15-year mortgage rates rose 2-basis points and 5-basis points to 6.26 percent and 5.54 percent, respectively. From a year ago, rates are 58-basis points and 48-basis points lower.

Real weekly earnings for September, which are usually released with CPI, are kicked off today’s economic calendar. Later today brings preliminary November S&P Global PMIs, final November Michigan sentiment, and remarks from no fewer than five Fed speakers. We begin Friday with Agency MBS prices better than Thursday’s close by .125-.250, based on maturity and coupon, the 2-year yielding 3.51, and the 10-year yielding 4.05 after closing yesterday at 4.11 percent, perhaps based on stock markets sensing a slowdown and are having their worst weekly performance in seven months in the U.S.