Closed End Second News Today

There’s an old LO joke, telling their client, “When you’re buying a house, be sure to do it with a significant other, and make sure that one of you has good credit. That’s why it’s called ‘significant’ other: sign-if-i-can’t.” Everyone in our biz knows that owning property is a great way to build wealth, although between elevated inflation, stubborn mortgage rates, and general economic uncertainty (one can argue that the future is al...

Yesterday’s Commentary had a note about Atlantic Bay’s “LinkedIn traffic picking up.” I have been assured by Atlantic Bay’s CEO that the company continues to enjoy its 27 years in business and will remain independent! I apologize for any confusion yesterday’s note caused, and the Commentary continues. The conference in New Orleans also continues, with talk of repurchases, credit & verification costs skyrocketing (you’ll see it on your ...

“I threw my phone from the roof, and it broke. I guess airplane mode wasn’t working.” Plenty of folks will be traveling soon. Here’s some trivia for tomorrow at the dinner table! (One wonders if residential lending is heading in this direction) … But there are only 12 passenger airlines in the United States. That’s up from 10 just a few years ago but down from about 80 airlines at the peak industry in the 1980s due to a series of bankruptcies and mergers...

When you own your own home, you don’t have to deal with unreasonable landlords. (Warning: uncensored.) And then there are those who own their own homes that have no mortgage: almost 40 percent of Americans own their places outright, an all-time high. Do you think that you could live in 200 square feet? There are tiny homes, and then there is this place that kind of folds up! (Thank you to Arch’s Sharon K. for sending this along.) Meanwhile, among lenders there are many reports of, ...

"You have to be nimble, and you need to have good products," official says

"You have to be nimble and you need to have good products," officials says

If you want something sobering, almost mesmerizing, here’s a short drone video of the flood damage in Libya (at the 15 second mark you can see how it tore through the city). Fortunately not so sobering are some stats out of the United States. The U.S. homeownership rate in 2022 was even higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic at 65.8 percent compared to 64.6 percent in 2019. That rebound was driven largely by those aged 44 and younger. And who says Millennials aren't buying homes...

Time flies, and we’re more than halfway through the 3rd quarter. Few lenders and vendors look forward to heading into the autumn or winter of any year, and with the U.S. 10-year up to 4.30 percent, millions of borrowers content with low rates thanks to us, and with four consecutive negative prints in MBA mortgage applications, the demand for mortgages is now roughly 9 percent lower compared to the last positive print on July 14th. With mortgage rates hovering around 7.5 percent, we can al...

Hey, I’ve got news for you: 2023 is half over. Sometimes reality bites, and vendors and lenders can’t sit there, wringing their hands, waiting for things to get better on their own. Are lenders suddenly going to make huge margins on lots of volume in the second half? Are LOs who were doing 2-3 loans a month in the first half suddenly going to do 4-6? Are vendor reps suddenly going to double their clients? Are rates going to plummet? Is the number of houses for sale going to skyrock...

Born in Ukraine, Golda Meir said, “Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you are aboard there is nothing you can do about it." (Doubtful anyone called her Goldy.) Her time as the Prime Minister of Israel ended in 1974, and since that time oldsters in our biz have seen the yield curve invert ten times, give or take. Bond traders are no longer fully convinced that the Federal Reserve will do one more quarter-point interest-rate hike, given the nervousness about First...