Mon, Jun 28 2021, 11:37 AM
The White House has announced another key appointee to a federal housing post. Julia Gordon has been named Assistant Secretary for Housing at the Depa...
Mon, Jun 28 2021, 11:16 AM
Seattle will hit 110 degrees F today. Change is afoot. Last week changes of personnel within the CFPB and the FHFA (hence Fannie & Freddie) captured o...
Mon, Jun 14 2021, 10:44 AM
Elaine F. reminded me of a quote from Hemingway: “Never mistake motion for action.” And basketball coach John Wooden said, “Never mistake action for a...
Thu, Jun 3 2021, 10:52 AM
Here’s your pro tip of the day: occasionally blow on the wine in your coffee mug to convince the rest of the Zoom meeting that it is tea. Speaking of ...
Wed, May 26 2021, 11:08 AM
Do you think that creativity is waning? Hardly. Some great products and ideas come out of the mundane. Wonder what happens to your unused hotel soap a...
Wed, Apr 7 2021, 10:01 AM
Does the CFPB have jurisdiction of all mortgage-related agencies, borrowers, and servicers? We’ll see, as yesterday, and this proposal should not come...
Wed, Mar 31 2021, 11:03 AM
The newly installed Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released her first quarterly report on the agency to Congress o...
Wed, Mar 31 2021, 10:54 AM
What word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it? Short. (There’s the cutting-edge wit this commentary is known for!) Time can play tricks on ...
Thu, Mar 25 2021, 10:16 AM
After spending millions of dollars studying the issue, a blue-ribbon panel found that statistics show that teen pregnancy drops dramatically after age...
Tue, Mar 9 2021, 9:56 AM
Does anyone agree on anything anymore? In the past, state trivia was fun because everyone agreed on it. No one will disagree that Alaska is the northe...
Mon, Mar 8 2021, 9:43 AM
Let’s start the week with a gaggle of questions. Do you feel old knowing that Taylor Swift is older than the four Beatles were when they broke up? Hav...
Fri, Feb 26 2021, 9:11 AM
Deadlines for COVID-19 related relief for borrowers with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (GSE) mortgages were extended by the Federal Housing Finance Agenc...
Tue, Feb 23 2021, 10:56 AM
(To listen to the audio version of today’s commentary, please click here .) Being home schooled was the goodest thing I ever did! Disparities in mortg...
Thu, Jan 28 2021, 10:33 AM
The stock price of American Airlines back to February 2020 levels. Investors seem to be “buying hope.” In Mortgage Land, though I am beginning to hear...
Wed, Jan 27 2021, 9:21 AM
The Acting Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced an extension of the deadline for borrowers with FHA mortga...
Wed, Jan 20 2021, 3:08 PM
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced on Tuesday that it has extended eligibility for FHA mortgages to individuals who are c...
Wed, Jan 20 2021, 9:49 AM
In his Saturday Morning Cup of Joe , Jeremy Potter quipped, “The word ‘homeowners’ has the word ‘meow’ in it. Good luck unseeing that from now on.” Pl...
Tue, Dec 22 2020, 10:06 AM
I hope that everyone had a happy solstice yesterday, with a few folks writing to suggest that “It is the shortest day, of the longest year, of our liv...
Tue, Dec 22 2020, 8:40 AM
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has extended the timeframe for several of the relief programs it put into effect last spring thr...
Fri, Dec 18 2020, 10:39 AM
I don’t know what’s longer, a “regular” minute, “microwave” minute, or a “treadmill” minute. Speaking of time, if someone sends you an email saying, “...
Wed, Dec 9 2020, 9:58 AM
I’m gonna ask my Mom if that offer to “slap me into next year” is still on the table. It’s great to be a lender in 2020, and should be into 2021, but ...
Wed, Dec 2 2020, 3:08 PM
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has published its 2021 Forward Mortgage Limits for FHA loans. The FHA limits are based on the Fe...
Mon, Nov 30 2020, 9:51 AM
Thank you to Tracy C. sent, “An unemployed court jester is nobody’s fool.” There are millions of unemployed U.S. citizens, and the CFPB, HUD, and othe...
Thu, Oct 15 2020, 12:04 PM
When I grow up, I want to live in… Estonia? If you need a break, and are thinking about leaving the U.S., take a gander at some highly-ranked work fro...
Fri, Aug 21 2020, 12:08 PM
Like the report from Black Knight earlier today, the second quarter National Delinquency Survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association shows the effect...
Wed, Aug 19 2020, 9:21 AM
Three weeks ago the Commentary included a webcam shot of Warrior Canine Connection’s Puppy Cam . (They’ve grown. Rated PG, depending on what they’re u...
Mon, Aug 17 2020, 10:13 AM
Out in California and parts of the West it’s “hotter than Satan’s house cat.” California is once again having rolling power outages, and an opinion pi...
Tue, Aug 11 2020, 9:40 AM
Me: “I want to travel.” Bank account: “Where? To work?” Think of people in their 20s and 30s. They’ve grown up with 9/11, the Financial Crisis, and no...
Mon, Aug 10 2020, 9:08 AM
“Paranoia is out of control: This morning, while reviewing this commentary, I sneezed in front of my laptop and the anti-virus software started a scan...
Fri, Jul 31 2020, 10:20 AM
As of Wednesday, there were 4.102 million mortgages in forbearance plans. This is 7.7 percent of the 53 million loans in servicer portfolios. Black Kn...
Fri, Jul 31 2020, 8:48 AM
Whether it is Northern Virginia or Lake Tahoe , we’re running out of houses. The pandemic has caused a buyer feeding frenzy away from apartments and c...
Fri, Jul 17 2020, 9:12 AM
Want an estimate of how many borrowers might be out there, benefitting from your assistance by you giving them a lower rate (assuming they, and the pr...
Fri, Jun 26 2020, 10:00 AM
There are plenty of tricks in any trade. Just-opened cellulose sponges are already damp because many are premoistened with sterile water. (Without H20...
Thu, Jun 18 2020, 9:12 AM
Capital markets folks focus on risk management every day. The public is getting a taste of another kind of risk management when they go to a bar, tatt...
Fri, Jun 12 2020, 9:08 AM
How the heck could anyone value a mortgage company these days? The value is pretty much comprised of its servicing, cash, receivables, and assets (loa...
Fri, Jun 5 2020, 9:01 AM
Change is certainly constant. “And just like that, every reporter has gone from infectious disease expert to civil rights attorney.” In our biz, if yo...
Tue, May 26 2020, 8:43 AM
I doubt if I have ever pressed “7” or “8” on my microwave oven keypad. Speaking of 7 & 8 (I know, a weak segue), originators are keenly aware of what ...
Thu, May 14 2020, 8:18 AM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and both GSEs (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) have announced a new option for homeowners in COVID-19 forbearanc...
Wed, Apr 29 2020, 10:26 AM
While in captivity it is important to observe the impact of your words during meal times. (Warning: Rated R for language.) Measuring the financial imp...
Tue, Apr 21 2020, 10:17 AM
There are now two entities tracking forbearance statistics on a regular basis, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and Black Knight. The informatio...
Wed, Apr 1 2020, 9:19 AM
“I hadn’t planned on giving up quite this much for lent.” So true. It is a different world than only a month ago. Of course rates are going to stay at...
Fri, Feb 7 2020, 9:09 AM
I can’t predict the future, don’t even know what I’m doing for lunch today, but in October this commentary suggested that with the MOU inked in Octobe...
Thu, Jan 30 2020, 12:05 PM
In the throes of the housing crisis, it sometimes seemed as though FHA was the only way to finance a home purchase , especially for those with less th...
Tue, Jan 14 2020, 9:00 AM
There are some clever people out there creating abbreviations and acronyms. Megxit? Yes: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle exiting from certain royal dut...
Thu, Dec 26 2019, 1:14 PM
“I hate it when people ask me what I’ll be doing in six days. Come on folks. I don’t have 2020 vision.” You can be guaranteed that the Republicans wil...
Wed, Dec 11 2019, 8:41 AM
Mortgage applications activity recovered strongly during the week ended December 6 after the usual Thanksgiving week lull. The Mortgage Bankers Associ...
Mon, Dec 9 2019, 1:11 PM
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) released its annual Report to Congress several weeks ago, reporting significant improvement in its Mutual Mor...
Mon, Dec 9 2019, 9:24 AM
With the Fed content with rates hovering here for the foreseeable future , lenders can focus on other things. "Rob, are you hearing that real estate a...
Wed, Dec 4 2019, 2:43 PM
Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Commissioner Brian D. Montgomery has announced the loan limits for FHA forward mortgages in 2020. The limits are ...
Tue, Dec 3 2019, 1:54 PM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHA) had to be bailed out by the U.S. Treasury during the financial crisis after its Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fun...
