Tue, Jul 2 2019, 10:10 AM
This weekend I helped my son change apartments in San Francisco, and all over were billboards for ZeroDown.com : “Smartest Way to Buy a Home.” And if ...
Fri, Jun 21 2019, 12:59 PM
After the housing crisis and faced with a flood of insurance claims, FHA and the Department of Justice responded with enforcement efforts against lend...
Fri, Jun 14 2019, 9:08 AM
The House Financial Services Committee (FSC) passed a clutch of bills this week, several of which will assist homebuyers and homeowners. Two directly ...
Fri, Jun 14 2019, 9:05 AM
“The City of Baltimore, Maryland suffered a ransomware attack on May 7, 2019. Due to the attack, the City is currently unable to record documents unti...
Tue, Jun 11 2019, 8:17 AM
As I head to Kansas today, I have a great quote. Lenders I visit with are optimistic, raising margins to slow volume based on capacity constraints, an...
Thu, May 30 2019, 9:01 AM
My cat Myrtle’s direct exposure to the falling stock market is minimal. Mine, however, has become a sense of concern as I watch the value of my holdin...
Fri, May 10 2019, 8:50 AM
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced a a package of incentives to encourage multi-family property owners to invest in thousands of neigh...
Wed, Apr 24 2019, 9:08 AM
How often do you buy candles at retailer Pier 1? Me neither. Due to poor earnings Pier 1 Imports announced it will close another 45 stores (up to 150 ...
Thu, Apr 18 2019, 9:15 AM
Experienced originators know that lending is a numbers game. Every 100 cold calls result in 20 conversations, which result in 5 potential leads, which...
Thu, Apr 4 2019, 8:56 AM
NASA has taken another step to make interplanetary living a reality, naming the top three finalists for its ongoing 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge . I a...
Tue, Mar 26 2019, 2:43 PM
FHA is reversing an earlier decision to remove the rule requiring manual underwriting for mortgages with credit scores below 620 and a ratio of debt t...
Thu, Mar 21 2019, 10:33 AM
Want a growth industry? How about aging? PulteGroup's Del Webb 55+ brand will build 10 new Del Webb communities , planned to open over the next 18 mon...
Tue, Mar 12 2019, 8:41 AM
This morning I’m feeling old after a 3AM wake up call to travel from Ellie Mae’s conference in San Francisco to the MBAKY in Louisville. (Speaking of ...
Fri, Feb 22 2019, 8:53 AM
In the good news category, we can all knock “lumber prices” off the list as a hindrance to builders. Prices are down 25% in the last year. Is it “easi...
Thu, Feb 21 2019, 8:58 AM
“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” A clever quote about differences which reminded me that there are differences between the na...
Fri, Feb 1 2019, 9:02 AM
I can tell it’s almost Valentine’s day since Costco just put out the Halloween decorations. Speaking of Costco, its minimum wage is now $14 per hour. ...
Tue, Jan 29 2019, 12:14 PM
The days when published a monthly tally of the number of loan modifications made by servicers under several public and private sector programs are lon...
Wed, Jan 23 2019, 10:03 AM
The wholesale pricing wars continue, the latest salvo from Freedom Mortgage in the FHA & VA stadium (see below). Fans of FHA lending, who tend to bris...
Fri, Dec 28 2018, 9:31 AM
“Rob, should we be staffing up for another refi boom?” It seems like most lenders are pausing during the holidays to take stock of current staffing le...
Tue, Oct 2 2018, 8:49 AM
“Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution.” There are plenty of folks out there reminding lenders of the seasonality of ...
Mon, Oct 1 2018, 8:51 AM
Is every non-bank lender of any size looking at offshore options to save money? Perhaps, and underwriting costs and productivity are usually brought u...
Fri, Aug 31 2018, 4:37 PM
Fannie Mae’s 3% down payment HomeReady program was rolled out in 2016. HomeReady has numerous advantages over FHA loans (historically the most common ...
Fri, Aug 17 2018, 8:55 AM
Capital markets folks know that there are billions of dollars of outstanding 5, 6, 7, and even 8% securities filled with high interest-rate loans. LOs...
Thu, Jul 12 2018, 8:51 AM
Chris Whalen notes, “The failure of Bear Stearns & Co a decade ago illustrates the key lesson of financial markets, namely that non-banks are dependen...
Tue, Jun 26 2018, 9:02 AM
The interest rate environment is like the weather: we all talk about it, but no one can do anything about it. Lenders have certainly noticed that sinc...
Mon, Jun 4 2018, 8:54 AM
Doing Good Wells Fargo’s charity work is legendary – more than any other company in the United States. The Mortgage Bankers Association has Project Op...
Fri, Jun 1 2018, 9:10 AM
Whenever I mention changes in LO compensation versus changes in lender profit margins, my cat Myrtle seems entirely disinterested. (Come to think of i...
Thu, May 17 2018, 9:45 AM
I don’t go anywhere without my sugar glider, including most of this week spent in Austin, TX with TMS . No, a sugar glider is not a risqué pet name fo...
Wed, May 9 2018, 9:11 AM
Psst… want a snapshot file that contains the national HMDA datasets as of April 18th, 2018 for all HMDA reporters, as modified by the Bureau to protec...
Mon, Apr 30 2018, 9:11 AM
Demographics will tell you that it makes more sense organizing populations by how they live – rather than where they live – is a much more precise way...
Thu, Apr 5 2018, 9:13 AM
My father was in the U.S. Navy for 20 years (1942-1962) and his first home loan in 1967 was a VA 30-year fixed rate mortgage. That was obviously pre-i...
Fri, Mar 9 2018, 9:15 AM
Let’s end the week with a non-mortgage related note about nature. You Tube has a live webcam a live webcam in the San Francisco Presidio of a Red-Tail...
Fri, Feb 9 2018, 9:14 AM
Here’s a riddle for tonight’s Happy Hour for snowed-in Chicagoans: What do New Day Financial, Nations Lending Corp., Freedom Mortgage Corp, LoanDepot....
Thu, Feb 8 2018, 12:27 PM
The National Delinquency Survey (NDS), a quarterly measure of mortgage performance from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), found delinquencies in...
Tue, Jan 30 2018, 9:23 AM
Opening today’s note with something non-business related, before the commentary comes out Wednesday (tomorrow) morning, we’ll have a full lunar eclips...
Fri, Jan 26 2018, 9:13 AM
When I grow up I want to… live in a shipping container live in a shipping container ? Hey, don’t laugh… they’re here, and some suggest are a piece of ...
Wed, Jan 17 2018, 1:54 PM
Several housing authorities recently suggested changes to the form and operation of the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program, more commonly ...
Thu, Dec 28 2017, 10:05 AM
For further evidence of the uneven recovery among U.S. housing markets , how's this: In the 10 most expensive U.S. metropolitan areas, median home val...
Tue, Dec 26 2017, 9:14 AM
Congrats to The Money Source. It is on a major hiring spree to build an in-house ad agency in the greater Detroit area. The marketing team will serve ...
Mon, Dec 11 2017, 9:22 AM
Lenders making tough personnel decisions can’t “kick the can down the road” like Congress and the President. On Dec. 8, the National Flood Insurance P...
Fri, Dec 8 2017, 10:34 AM
Loan limits will be rising in 2018 for loans guaranteed by the FHA. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced on Thursday it was...
Thu, Dec 7 2017, 9:20 AM
Upset that Richard Cordray has left the CFPB and is officially running for governor of Ohio ? Bored with lending here, and want to go into the home fi...
Fri, Nov 17 2017, 10:12 AM
The interest rate for loans originated (closed) in October inched down 1 percentage point to 4.20 percent, the lowest rate thus far in 2017, and the s...
Fri, Nov 17 2017, 9:22 AM
Here’s a tidbit for Happy Hour tonight. Currently, about 21 percent of filers take the mortgage deduction, but under the new framework only about 4 pe...
Wed, Nov 8 2017, 9:14 AM
“These businesses are in a structurally disadvantaged position, given the challenging rate environment and marketplace,” Sanjiv Yajnik, president of f...
Tue, Sep 19 2017, 9:15 AM
Ginnie, FHA and VA News Lender updates regarding Texas and Florida are quieting down slightly, so let's play some catch up on government programs. Gin...
Mon, Aug 14 2017, 9:22 AM
Time passes by, and we have one week until the first total solar eclipse crossing the US from coast to coast since 1918. Football fans know that the s...
Wed, Jul 26 2017, 9:17 AM
We’re in the midst of state fair season, and with it all the wonderful organic health food. Have you tried deep fried butter? Have a hankering for fri...
Tue, Jul 18 2017, 10:28 AM
How much would you pay to keep your job, or find a new one? Political analysts forecast that two wealthy contenders for the 2018 Illinois governor spo...
Mon, Jul 3 2017, 9:40 AM
We’ve sailed through half of 2017 already. (“Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.” Since many folks...
