Thu, Sep 29 2022, 10:45 AM
Water is a powerful force: just check out this time lapse storm surge video from Ft. Meyers in Florida. Turning to metaphors, Sun Tzu said, “If you wa...
Wed, Sep 28 2022, 9:46 AM
As Florida’s homeowners, insurance companies, and companies that service loans in Hurricane Ian’s path, brace for the storm, lenders nationwide contin...
Tue, Sep 27 2022, 10:17 AM
Yesterday, before the yield on the risk-free U.S. 2-year note rose to 4.25 percent, I mentioned my cat Myrtle being offered a big signing bonus by the...
Mon, Sep 26 2022, 9:18 AM
The big news in the Chrisman household is my cat Myrtle being offered a big signing bonus by the family next door. Apparently, word of her mousing pro...
Fri, Sep 23 2022, 9:33 AM
Tip-jar humor seen here in Chicago at a coffee shop: “Afraid of Change? Leave It Here.” Sure recessions typically mean lower rates, but are you okay w...
Thu, Sep 22 2022, 10:24 AM
All eyes have been on the Federal Reserve this year, but for independent mortgage banks, the focus has been on maximizing production and minimizing ov...
Wed, Sep 21 2022, 9:42 AM
It’s Fed decision day today and another 75-basis point rate hike is expected. Mortgage rates have surged to 14-year highs, deterring both buyers and b...
Tue, Sep 20 2022, 10:19 AM
One issue currently facing the mortgage industry is a lack of supply, or as rapper Cardi B said over the weekend in her analysis of high home prices a...
Mon, Sep 19 2022, 10:02 AM
In the words of former Vice President Dan Quayle, “We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur.” Around the world, soaring borrowi...
Fri, Sep 16 2022, 10:10 AM
With most mortgage related headlines focused on rates being back above 6 percent for the first time since 2008, it makes sense that 67 percent of mill...
Thu, Sep 15 2022, 9:59 AM
It really is the hope that kills you. That phrase, which was coined by English football fans and is probably more well known in America among Ted Lass...
Wed, Sep 14 2022, 10:31 AM
With inflation likely causing the Fed to keep hiking rates aggressively (more on that in the Capital Markets section at the bottom), many people in ou...
Tue, Sep 13 2022, 9:54 AM
With the Fed set to end its MBS purchases tomorrow, removing free money from the MBS market, where do you think home affordability will go from here? ...
Mon, Sep 12 2022, 10:45 AM
Does evolution lead to success? Major League Baseball is banking that instituting a pitch clock and banning defensive shifts starting next year will l...
Fri, Sep 9 2022, 9:48 AM
Whether it is independent mortgage banks or companies with the largest market caps in the world, new products are being developed and rolled out to he...
Thu, Sep 8 2022, 9:57 AM
California is currently going through a heat wave (Sacramento set a temperature record on Tuesday at 116°), taxing the state's power grid as energy de...
Wed, Sep 7 2022, 9:50 AM
The mortgage industry has come a long way from March of 2020, when the Federal Reserve pledged to buy “unlimited” amounts of Treasuries and MBS to sta...
Tue, Sep 6 2022, 10:26 AM
Now that we have passed the unofficial end of summer, am I allowed or not allowed to wear white on Zoom calls before 2023’s Memorial Day? Maybe darker...
Fri, Sep 2 2022, 10:29 AM
We have witnessed a change in our work environment. From the Central Coast of California, Jeff O. sent, “Yesterday I had convened a zoom meeting of ma...
Thu, Sep 1 2022, 10:07 AM
Tony H. writes, “I just switched my 30-year home mortgage to ‘student loan.’ Follow me for more financial advice.” I have been fielding questions abou...
Wed, Aug 31 2022, 10:49 AM
My cat Myrtle has a certain amount of “girth,” as they say. But I tell her that she carries it well as the calories from line-caught halibut have far ...
Tue, Aug 30 2022, 9:54 AM
Nature “always bats last.” Terrible flooding in Pakistan, flooding in Mississippi impacting its drinking water supplies. Severe temperatures in China,...
Mon, Aug 29 2022, 10:43 AM
Remember a few years ago when lender’s IT departments were thinking that blockchain was the answer to… whatever problem they thought it would answer? ...
Fri, Aug 26 2022, 10:03 AM
Abraham Lincoln famously stated, “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.” There are always rumors out there. The latest to cross my desk, ...
Thu, Aug 25 2022, 10:14 AM
Nothing is simple or easy in this world. Take pine nuts. Simple, easy, right? Nope. A staple of pesto, and some salads and desserts, those in the Unit...
Wed, Aug 24 2022, 10:36 AM
Lenders continue to adapt, and LOs are adding value by being subject matter experts and marketing accordingly. (For example, today’s podcast features ...
Tue, Aug 23 2022, 10:33 AM
Mortgage rates dropped after mid-June. Momentarily switching gears, given their role in cakes, breakfasts, custards, and breads, if eggs didn’t exist,...
Mon, Aug 22 2022, 10:35 AM
John Kenneth Galbraith said, “The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.” How about forecasts of how dramatic th...
Fri, Aug 19 2022, 10:37 AM
“The officer said, ‘You drinking?’ I said, ‘You buying?’ We just laughed and laughed.... It’s Friday morning and I need bail money.” No one ever struc...
Thu, Aug 18 2022, 10:45 AM
Today is World Breast Cancer Research Day, a global recognition of the life-changing research (past, present, and future) to end breast cancer. That w...
Wed, Aug 17 2022, 10:09 AM
In Florida there are approximately 3,000 lakes, not enough to make it onto the leader board of states with the most named lakes (Minnesota, Wisconsin,...
Tue, Aug 16 2022, 10:03 AM
“Common sense is not a gift. It's a punishment because you have to deal with everyone who doesn't have it.” This is a tough market, and common sense u...
Mon, Aug 15 2022, 10:43 AM
Florida is the source of a sizeable percentage of home loans and fine lenders, as well as plenty of “Florida Man” stories. (Don’t read if easily offen...
Fri, Aug 12 2022, 10:43 AM
Loan officers who’d like to learn a thing or two about the current prospecting environment are invited to listen in today at 2PM CT/noon PT as Steve R...
Thu, Aug 11 2022, 10:33 AM
We began 2022 thinking that this might be the “Year of Non-QM.” The product certainly has its advantages for some borrowers, and lenders & investors. ...
Wed, Aug 10 2022, 10:40 AM
Big and small, they aren’t the first and won’t be the last. Residential lenders everywhere are ruminating on Notarize laying off 75 percent of its leg...
Tue, Aug 9 2022, 10:46 AM
Singer/actress Olivia Newton John AND author David McCullough, both dying to start the week? (I just finished “Mornings on Horseback.”) After I die, I...
Mon, Aug 8 2022, 10:21 AM
How much would you pay for a company responsible for a funny video? How ‘bout $1.7 billion bones? Amazon, catching the eye of the FTC, has made an off...
Fri, Aug 5 2022, 10:48 AM
Please answer the short questionnaire at the end of the Commentary. Okay, just kidding. I have grown to really dislike a survey request after I stay a...
Thu, Aug 4 2022, 10:43 AM
“Senility has been a smooth transition for me.” So quipped an attendee here at the Michigan Mortgage Lenders Association conference in Grand Rapids. T...
Wed, Aug 3 2022, 11:11 AM
As rumors of correspondent, wholesale, and retail company cutbacks or closings continue to bounce around our biz, how about this non-mortgage tidbit. ...
Tue, Aug 2 2022, 11:14 AM
“How many millionaires do you know who have become wealthy by investing in savings accounts?” Lenders, and their underwriters, work with income, value...
Mon, Aug 1 2022, 10:16 AM
Both basketball player Bill Russell and Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura on Star Trek,” passing away!? Meanwhile, today I head to Chicago, the #1 city for ...
Fri, Jul 29 2022, 10:16 AM
It’s a zany world we live in, and forecasts and predictions mean little (as seen by interest rates this week). Where should we start? Rumors of mortga...
Thu, Jul 28 2022, 11:10 AM
My cat Myrtle has some publicity once in a while, although she doesn’t want people knowing she can only hear out of one ear. Freddie Mac had some publ...
Wed, Jul 27 2022, 12:01 PM
“Common sense is not a gift. It's a punishment because you have to deal with everyone who doesn't have it.” Common sense tells us that what goes up, m...
Tue, Jul 26 2022, 10:37 AM
What in blazes?! The Choco Taco has met its demise?! Food is something we all have in common. Last week’s, “Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. ...
Mon, Jul 25 2022, 10:08 AM
Here at the California MBA’s Western Secondary in Orange County, besides talk of Utah’s Pie and Beer Day yesterday, or maybe it is Pioneer Day, most o...
Fri, Jul 22 2022, 10:57 AM
“Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.” What a gift it is to be able to read. Where are you reading thi...
Thu, Jul 21 2022, 10:21 AM
Just because something is interesting doesn’t mean it’s important. The demand for mortgages hit a 22-year low, which is both. And here’s an observatio...
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