Wed, Apr 26 2023, 10:14 AM
There are 3 things that tell the truth: small children, drunk people, and yoga pants. HMDA data is close behind. Warning: sobering thoughts ahead, and...
Fri, Apr 7 2023, 10:11 AM
Rates can be 0 percent, but if there are no homes to buy, lender and real estate agent activity will grind to a halt. I realize that this is an extrem...
Thu, Mar 16 2023, 10:16 AM
Have to buy something for someone in your life who has everything? If they’re a basketball fan, how about food smoked with the same type of wood used ...
Mon, Mar 13 2023, 9:23 AM
Where should we start the week? How about how predictions and forecasts are nearly worthless when they’re out of date one week later? How about with a...
Tue, Feb 28 2023, 8:28 AM
“Life was much easier when apple and blackberry were just fruits.” But perhaps not as interesting. Here’s what happens when you put a West Coast MI re...
Fri, Feb 17 2023, 10:07 AM
Nature is full of trivia. The moon moves about two inches away from the Earth each year. The Earth gets 100 tons heavier every day due to falling spac...
Fri, Feb 10 2023, 9:17 AM
As I type this piece on Friday morning, I am at the O’Hare aerodrome for a flight from Chicago to San Francisco. O’Hare is packed and humming… What ec...
Tue, Nov 22 2022, 9:07 AM
When was the last time that you did something for the first time? (Warning: tissues may be needed.) The best use of technology is to improve quality o...
Fri, Nov 18 2022, 9:52 AM
Few base their company or family’s savings on the inherent risk in a prediction. But… On a big scale, and we’ve been hearing forecasts of a recession ...
Mon, May 23 2022, 10:52 AM
I recently opened my slang dictionary to the page that defined the origin of, “Different ways to skin a cat” and left it near my cat Myrtle’s water bo...
Thu, Apr 21 2022, 11:36 AM
When you’re working from home, how interesting can next Thursday’s, April 28th, “Take Your Children to Work Day” be? WFH, or hybrid arrangements, is a...
Mon, Mar 21 2022, 11:43 AM
Today, for yield curve fans, the 3, 5, and 7-year Treasury yields are all above the 10-year yield. But yesterday was the Spring Equinox, aka Vernal Eq...
Thu, Mar 17 2022, 10:10 AM
Walking around Memphis yesterday got me to thinking, “I wonder what the part of my brain that used to store people’s phone numbers is doing now.” Mayb...
Thu, Mar 10 2022, 10:20 AM
“I don’t always go the extra mile, but when I do, it’s because I missed my exit.” And that extra mile costs more every week. Higher gasoline prices ce...
Fri, Dec 10 2021, 10:46 AM
When the public sees headlines like, “A Black Couple had a White Friend Show Their Home and Its Appraisal Rose by Nearly Half a Million Dollars,” of c...
Thu, Dec 9 2021, 11:08 AM
LIBOR has taken longer to exit the stage than Lawrence Olivier, but the final curtain call is coming for the index. The Consumer Financial Protection ...
Tue, Dec 7 2021, 11:17 AM
Today I head to San Diego for a California MBA board meeting, the home base of the Pacific Fleet. It’s been 80 years since Pearl Harbor, a “date that ...
Fri, Oct 29 2021, 11:27 AM
I got some exciting news yesterday: Snickers are gluten free! Actually I don’t care (the more gluten the better… does the government allow us trick or...
Thu, Aug 12 2021, 10:41 AM
“I hope that I never go to jail because I haven’t memorized a phone number since 2001.” (Speaking of numbers, investors are mulling over Guild’s 2 nd ...
Tue, Jul 6 2021, 11:08 AM
Dang it is becoming more and more expensive to follow all the rules and regulations to originate residential loans. These costs, of course, are borne ...
Tue, Jun 29 2021, 1:17 PM
The government stakeholders involved in the various pandemic related forbearance programs appear to be directing their full attention to their upcomin...
Wed, May 5 2021, 10:52 AM
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) says the overall mortgage related complaints it has received recently are at their highest level in th...
Fri, Apr 30 2021, 10:19 AM
How are we 1/3 done with 2021 already? Few are sitting on their hands as the months roll on. Exxon had its first profitable quarter since 2019. Fannie...
Wed, Apr 28 2021, 10:57 AM
Lenders will have more than an additional year to comply with the General Qualified Mortgage (QM) Rule . The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFP...
Thu, Apr 22 2021, 10:25 AM
Not you, of course, but many other people in our biz are elderly. Sure you haven’t seen them in person in a year, but they’re there. Or they have elde...
Thu, Apr 1 2021, 10:45 AM
Worried about it being April Fool’s Day? Don’t be. We’ll take care of you. Today's podcast includes a discussion on extended locks, as well as an inte...
Fri, Mar 5 2021, 11:37 AM
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has proposed to delay the mandatory compliance date of the General Qualified Mortgage (QM) final rule ...
Mon, Feb 8 2021, 9:27 AM
A Pennsylvania man is suing Smart Water for not making him smart, and here, in this Commentary, I’d like to formally announce my lawsuit against Thin ...
Tue, Feb 2 2021, 11:18 AM
The Urban Institute (UI) has looked at a final mortgage rule issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in late 2020 which would provid...
Mon, Feb 1 2021, 11:01 AM
January’s already in the rearview mirror and our industry is keeping an eye on all kinds of things. Like silent movies moving into “the Talkies” in 19...
Tue, Jan 19 2021, 11:03 AM
Sometimes running a mortgage compliance department can seem like this short clip Indiana’s Carol K. sent along. Yet there is value in compliance, and ...
Thu, Dec 31 2020, 11:03 AM
I still don’t know what I’m wearing to the living room on New Year’s Eve. Heck, I may not even go. Wouldn’t it be nice to be on a cruise? Ever heard o...
Wed, Oct 21 2020, 9:13 AM
Want some guidance? “If you get a loan at a bank, you’ll be paying it back for 30 years. If you rob a bank, you’ll be out in 10 years. Follow me for m...
Fri, Oct 9 2020, 8:51 AM
Eddie Van Halen advised, “You only have twelve notes. Do what you want with them.” Twelve is probably the number of undecided voters in the U.S. at th...
Fri, Sep 4 2020, 9:34 AM
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has been on a two-month enforcement tear aimed at mortgage lenders employing deceptive practices in th...
Thu, Aug 20 2020, 9:06 AM
In these times that lenders describe as busy, profitable, and overheated, capital markets personnel are focused on margin & capacity management, staff...
Wed, Aug 19 2020, 9:58 AM
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is proposing a new category of qualified mortgage (QM) which it says is intended to "encourage innovat...
Thu, Jul 16 2020, 8:58 AM
I was on the phone yesterday with my psychic who told me, “You will live a long and healthy life if you abstain from anything that brings you joy.” Ok...
Mon, Jul 6 2020, 9:43 AM
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) today issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that would amend Regulation Z of the Truth-in-Le...
Tue, Jun 30 2020, 8:50 AM
Some days you don’t learn much, other days you learn a lot (skip the ad). We’ve learned that COVID is driving our economy, not fundamental economic ne...
Mon, Jun 29 2020, 1:38 PM
The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision along partisan lines, took a chunk out of the intentions the Dodd-Frank Act had for the Consumer Financial Protec...
Tue, Jun 23 2020, 10:21 AM
With its so-called GSE Patch set to expire on January 10, 2021 (unless by some miracle the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) en...
Tue, Jun 23 2020, 9:15 AM
There are all kinds of things that I don’t, or didn’t, know. For example, the other day I learned that when dogs lap water, they’re actually scooping ...
Wed, Jun 17 2020, 4:36 PM
There has apparently been considerable confusion regarding servicer obligations to report to credit agencies regarding loans in forbearance. The origi...
Wed, Jun 17 2020, 8:52 AM
Yesterday afternoon I was doing my quarterly ten minutes of YouTube yoga (“Align those internal organs! “The journey is the reward!”) and my mind wand...
Fri, Jun 5 2020, 2:47 PM
A joint release from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors cautions mortgage servicers about th...
Thu, Mar 26 2020, 12:50 PM
Flexibility seems to be the keyword as government agencies try to adjust to a lot of new realities. The Federal Housing Finance agency has already emp...
Fri, Apr 17 2020, 9:10 AM
While in captivity, watching the time, and waiting for release , can seem like forever. We’re always waiting for something, whether it is the CFPB rol...
Wed, Apr 15 2020, 1:15 PM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) have made arrangements to share information during the C...
Thu, Feb 27 2020, 8:57 AM
I was telling my cat Myrtle that U.S. lenders are continuing to bask in the glow of a great 2019 and a start to 2020 (with March and April now looking...
