Bruce Lund News Today

A correction to yesterday’s Commentary regarding the next holiday (Memorial Day) being two months out. Several emailed that Memorial Day is actually three months away! Overheard here in Texas the hallways at the TMBA Secondary Conference: “So if we don’t let athletes bet on games that they have the ability to influence, why do we allow Congress to invest in companies they regulate?” Here at the conference, the wise use of technology is definitely an important topic (t...

“What do you call James Bond having a bath? Bubble 07.” In different bond matters, mortgage rates will always be higher than Treasury rates, in part because of the prepayment risk in mortgages that doesn’t exist with Treasury bonds. With the drop in rates, sales management personnel at lenders are busy figuring out how best to remind the staff about EPO (early payoff) penalties levied by investors while at the same time working on ways to save money besides furloughing, cutt...

Today I head to Phoenix area for the AzAMP annual conference, and am reminded that, “Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.” The mortgage industry is constantly changing, although Freddie and Fannie have been a somewhat stabilizing influence. But explaining to someone not in the mortgage business what they, the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) do, is not easy, but in another one of his Mortgage Musings, attorney Brian Levy offers his thoughts on 15 years of bei...

Yesterday I listened to the CFPB’s Rohit Chopra discuss home loans. Today I head from Nashville to Chicago, both known all over the world. Here, the United States has everything: mountains, forests, plains, rivers, swamps, tropical jungles, glaciers, beaches… I could go on. But apparently there is a certain attraction for some in Italy, Mexico, Costa Rica, Portugal for U.S. citizens, and those are the top countries for Americans buying real estate abroad. Back in the U.S. of A, the...

“Yesterday I completed a chore I’ve been putting off for four months. It took me 20 minutes. I will learn nothing from this.” That sums up a lot of my tasks. But that was then, and today I head to Austin, the capital of Texas and where they just voted to approve a wide-ranging property tax reduction bill. Which is good, as Texas residents will need the money for air conditioning in the 106-degree heat forecast for today. What if you’re the owner of an office building ...

“I am part of the 4 percent who want to ban the teaching of math. We are a quarter of the country, and we will not be ignored! And that number is growing; soon we will be a fifth of the country!” While we’re being quantitative… Everyone knows that there are 50 stars on the United States Flag. In 1945 there were 48, before Alaska and Hawai’i were granted statehood. Someone should have told the folks who filmed or fact checked “Oppenheimer.” Continu...

Well, what should we start with today? How about how California and Texas ranked highest on the United States Postal Service’s annual list of states with the most dog bites against its employees? Or how ‘bout Freedom Mortgage Corporation filing a notice of data breach after learning that confidential consumer data entrusted to the company was subject to unauthorized access, the result of a cybersecurity incident at one of the company’s vendors, Mortgage Industry Advisory Cor...

Today I’m in Manhattan, having flown in to one of the nicer malls I’ve ever walked through, aka LaGuardia Airport. ($8 billion goes a long way.) No, I am not here to avoid the terrible tornadoes that have hit our nation, and I didn’t use Rocket’s new pro-home buying credit card to book the flight. No, I am not here regarding Donald Trump’s indictment by a Manhattan grand jury, although he is expected to come to New York today and to be arraigned in criminal cou...

Some things are nearly timeless, like this annual list of “10 Things to Do,” most of which can be applied any year. Here in Las Vegas, the time of sunrise is 6:05AM, and yes, I’ve been up for a few hours by then, not getting into bed. But can’t you almost feel the earth moving around the sun? Anchorage is picking up 6 minutes of daylight per day; Kanas City 4. Over a week that’s… uh… 7 times… well, you can figure it out per week. Every spri...

Renters in a picturesque Australian city are pulling out all stops to try and find a home in the nations most competitive market - and it shows no signs of improving.