Page 2 - Best Efforts Commitments News Today

National MI turned heads yesterday by announcing its temporary increase to AUS conforming loan amounts, despite the official FHFA word not coming until the end of November. (More below on the amounts.) Our biz is filled with “numbers people,” good or bad. According to Curinos, September 2023 funded mortgage volume decreased 30 percent YoY and 14 percent MoM. The average 30-year conforming retail funded rate in September was 7.01 percent, 18bps higher than August and 146bps higher t...

As if lenders and vendors don’t have enough other stuff to worry about, the budgetary standoff in the U.S. doesn't look like it will abate soon, raising the likelihood of the first government shutdown since 2019. Current funding for federal operations will end on October 1 unless a deal is reached or the proverbial can kicked down the road. Thousands of federal workers might be furloughed without pay. Sure it will be temporary, and its wider impact will likely be limited, but stil...

McDonald’s taking 9 years to eliminate its self-serve soda pop machines. (Couldn’t they take 5 hours and just move the machines behind the counter?) In other non-mortgage news, arguably more interesting to talk about than the continued decline in mortgage applications and IMBs concerned about CRA requirements (STRATMOR’s current blog is titled, “Knowing CRA Developments is Critical”), remember when it was Ford, GM, and Chrysler? The third largest automaker in t...

Did you know that wheat futures prices are at a 2-year low? And lumber prices continue to drop? Those numbers should help reduce inflation. During the conference in NY there was plenty of talk about external influences such as price increases on residential lending. But there are also plenty of issues within our biz that face lenders daily. For example, signing bonuses continue, albeit at a slower rate. Perhaps some of the economic bloom is off the bonus rose? Big signing bonuses come with big h...

If I tried to carry my cat Myrtle around like in this short video, there would be conflict. We all continue to hear conflicting information about home sales and prices in different parts of the nation and at different price points. One thing remains constant: there are over 50 million people aged 28-38. Millions do not own homes yet; sure, some of them don’t want to own them, but millions do. There are currently only 562,000 active listings of houses for sale in the U.S. The supply/demand...

Yesterday I spent some time in Northern California with two groups, one of which was CAMP, and while morale is good and everyone is in the holiday spirit, the business focus is on trying to reduce costs, rollout products to help what few borrowers are out there, and leverage technology as we head through December and into the winter. Christmas will be here before you know it. Have you noticed that FedEx trucks have different colors in their logos? Well, they do, and they mean something. (And don...

Let me save you a web search tomorrow: 1-800-butterball. A web search turned up a misconception: It appears that robber Willie Horton, when he was asked why he robbed banks, never said, "That's where the money is." But banks are where the money is, and it is certainly catchy. You don’t think someone is making money off your money sitting in that bank? Another web search shows that the 1-year CD national average is 0.43 percent. The current 1-year risk-free Treasu...

The other day I walked in on Myrtle who was looking at the litter cleaning robot on the screen as if to ask, “What’ll they think of next?” Businesses and arrangements are always coming and going. There’s a new in-house appraisal product, noted below. Who wants to go in with me on starting a 2nd home company with a common-sense name, nothing foreign sounding. “Let’s Split It.” (Tagline: “Your Perfect Vacation Home Awaits.”) Wouldn&#x2...