Wed, Jun 18 2025, 11:53 AM
Today we hear from the U.S. Federal Reserve. We can expect no change to overnight fed funds. As pointed yesterday by Dr. Paul Brewbaker, the economist...
Tue, Jun 17 2025, 11:46 AM
In Spain, Spaniards are shooting water pistols at foreigners to protest the impact of mass tourism: it has created a housing crunch. Tourism in the Un...
Mon, Jun 16 2025, 11:43 AM
Any food science major will tell you that the difference between jelly and jam is that jam has chunks of fruit in it; jelly is strained. There is also...
Fri, Jun 13 2025, 11:51 AM
Hey, for you LOs who think things are slow, you can always go into golf. The best example of this is ex-LO Ben Griffin who has racked up $11 million i...
Thu, Jun 12 2025, 11:51 AM
“I was always a home builder, but lately I’ve developed an apartment complex.” Here in Florida, so many structures are made of stucco because stucco i...
Wed, Jun 11 2025, 11:50 AM
Here in Tampa, I was walking through the hotel bar last night when I overheard someone say, “Age 60 might be the new 40, but 9:00 PM is the new midnig...
Tue, Jun 10 2025, 11:42 AM
“Why is Ireland so expensive? House prices are always Dublin'.” Those days are temporarily over in the United States, and the pendulum is quickly swin...
Mon, Jun 9 2025, 11:52 AM
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 ac...
Fri, Jun 6 2025, 11:45 AM
Today is the 81st anniversary of D-Day. “My granddad was responsible for 25 downed German planes in WW II. To this day, he is still known as the worst...
Thu, Jun 5 2025, 11:48 AM
The last time I was in Florida I saw a bumper sticker that said, “I thought growing old would take longer.” This weekend I return to the Sunshine Stat...
Wed, Jun 4 2025, 11:52 AM
As the world is watching the chicks learn to fly on the eagle cam, in the human world there are more “For Sale” signs. You know that problem we’ve had...
Tue, Jun 3 2025, 11:50 AM
My cat Myrtle never seemed to listen, but heard lots. LOs can hear the difference, when dealing with a borrower, between “What is your rate?” versus “...
Mon, Jun 2 2025, 11:51 AM
Any lender or mortgage loan originator hoping for lower rates to spur business is learning that hope is not a strategy. “Rob, you’re always talking ab...
Fri, May 30 2025, 11:42 AM
“Rob, what are the odds that the MBA will set up a ‘Man Park’ at the big conference in Las Vegas in October?” Slim to none. The United States is an in...
Thu, May 29 2025, 11:50 AM
How about those junk emails that start off with, “I’m not going to waste your time.” It already wasted my time. Is it a waste of time paying attention...
Wed, May 28 2025, 11:40 AM
Overheard in the hallways at last week’s MBA conference: “At my age, instead of a condom I carry a moist towelette in my wallet. At my age, I run into...
Tue, May 27 2025, 11:26 AM
Are your underwriters this fast? The current Administration has been fast to ax groups of employees in various government departments, including the A...
Fri, May 23 2025, 11:47 AM
“I can’t afford an Ancestry DNA kit to learn about my relatives. So instead, I posted online that I had won the Powerball Lottery.” Speaking of news d...
Thu, May 22 2025, 11:51 AM
Yesterday I headed west from the conference while my son Robbie headed south to the nCino nSight event. But while in Manhattan Dawn S. asked me, “How ...
Wed, May 21 2025, 11:50 AM
As nearly a thousand capital markets staff, managers, and vendors head home from Manhattan, united in trying to help borrowers, in a reflection of the...
Tue, May 20 2025, 11:41 AM
A mullah, a rabbi, and a priest walk into a bar here in New York. The bartender says, “What is this, some kind of joke?” What isn’t a joke is people’s...
Mon, May 19 2025, 11:22 AM
People who don’t attend the National Secondary here in Manhattan wonder what happens behind the scenes. Here you go. We had the MCT elevator failure l...
Fri, May 16 2025, 11:44 AM
This weekend is when many of us head to Manhattan for the MBA’s National Secondary event. For those flying in, check your ticket: NJ Transit’s on stri...
Thu, May 15 2025, 11:50 AM
“There’s a splendid saying about the definition of an economist being someone who “will know tomorrow why the things they predicted yesterday didn't h...
Wed, May 14 2025, 11:51 AM
As Roy Cohn once instructed a young Donald Trump, much can be accomplished by attacking first and dealing with the consequences later. I get opinions ...
Tue, May 13 2025, 11:45 AM
No one in places like Florida or Myrtle Beach or Colorado’s Glenwood Springs wants to wake up to a headline, sensationalist or not, saying, “Vacation ...
Mon, May 12 2025, 11:44 AM
Nearly a thousand of us head to Manhattan in less than a week for the MBA’s Secondary Conference. In 2025 Q1, the median asking rent in New York City ...
Fri, May 9 2025, 11:52 AM
Here’s something that our Fed can’t do anything about, inflation-wise: coconut prices have doubled due to extreme weather events. (More on weather and...
Thu, May 8 2025, 11:42 AM
“Why did the homeowner take so long in remodeling his home? He had trouble with da siding.” There are LOs, or correspondent investors, who have spent ...
Wed, May 7 2025, 11:48 AM
Most good loan originators are keenly aware of demographics in their area. Aren’t you tired of talking about a lack of inventory and builders’ supply ...
Tue, May 6 2025, 11:54 AM
This is the month of the MBA’s National Secondary in Manhattan. For some trivia, the nickname "The Big Apple" originated in the 1920s in reference to ...
Mon, May 5 2025, 11:46 AM
Today celebrates Mexico’s victory over France in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. (In this country, Hispanic home ownership rates continue toward ...
Fri, May 2 2025, 11:50 AM
Fortunately for the readers of this Commentary, we don’t receive federal funding, so it won’t be cut… Unlike groups like NPR and PBS which the Trump A...
Thu, May 1 2025, 11:51 AM
May Day… whether you celebrate today as “about” halfway between the Northern Hemisphere's Spring equinox and Midsummer solstice associated with maypol...
Wed, Apr 30 2025, 11:48 AM
I don’t know where April went, but we’re at the end of it, and 2025 is 1/3 over. The future sure quickly becomes the past. In the book “1984” George O...
Tue, Apr 29 2025, 11:44 AM
My cat Myrtle was always interested in both the primary and secondary markets… for line-caught halibut. In residential lending, the secondary markets ...
Fri, Apr 25 2025, 11:52 AM
What if your client called the CFPB about a servicing issue, or any issue, and no one answered? Things are changing, but for a thorough write up on th...
Thu, Apr 24 2025, 11:48 AM
“I hate it when I see an old person and then realize we went to high school together.” Nothing lasts forever, not top lenders or even computer compani...
Wed, Apr 23 2025, 11:50 AM
“I won a million dollars and donated a quarter of it to charity! I now have $999999.75 left.” Money can be funny… or not. In the past, a “flight to qu...
Tue, Apr 22 2025, 11:39 AM
“My boss pulled up in his brand-new BMW today and I couldn’t help but admire it. “Nice car,” I said as he got out. “Well,” he said, noticing my admiri...
Mon, Apr 21 2025, 11:44 AM
In the 1980s I fell off my bike and hurt my knee. I'm telling you this now because we didn't have social media then. It doesn’t take social media to k...
Thu, Apr 17 2025, 11:55 AM
A week from today is “Take Your Child to Work Day.” Something tells me that it won’t be observed in U.S. Government offices. While we’re on family iss...
Wed, Apr 16 2025, 11:45 AM
“Every morning, I get hit by the same bicycle… It's a vicious cycle.” Double meanings aside, seasons and the earth’s rotation are cyclical, and Anchor...
Tue, Apr 15 2025, 11:33 AM
Here in San Diego at the CU:REALM event, Cotality’s Chief Economist Dr. Selma Hepp noted that consumer and business sentiment has already dropped and ...
Mon, Apr 14 2025, 11:45 AM
“Why don't you tell rumors in a Botox Clinic? Nobody raises an eyebrow.” Who can keep track of the rumors out there, like a combo of a well-known real...
Fri, Apr 11 2025, 11:44 AM
I don’t know if the rumor is true that Webster’s is considering adding “Tariffied” to its dictionary, but the word certainly fits the climate. Capital...
Thu, Apr 10 2025, 11:29 AM
“Over the course of 18 years, it costs over $235,000 for parents to raise a child... and that's just for the alcohol.” Here in Dallas, plenty of peopl...
Wed, Apr 9 2025, 11:13 AM
How ‘bout some good news? Last week’s apps skyrocketed, and… Builders are sitting on a pile of unsold homes and are slashing prices and offering mortg...
Tue, Apr 8 2025, 11:43 AM
Today I travel to the Dallas area for a Logan Finance event, and this comment from a friend last night is echoing in my ears: “Becoming an adult is th...
Mon, Apr 7 2025, 11:20 AM
“Many people told Beethoven that he would never be a musician because he was deaf. Did he listen?” This week hundreds of mortgage bankers descend on W...
