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Yesterday, a clown held the door open for me. It was such a nice jester. On the flip side, it’s not nice being taken advantage of and lenders are feeling Thunderstruck about, as this Commentary has mentioned several times, credit costs being jacked (more below). On the inflation theme and a little more mainstream, for me and plenty of people who read this Commentary every day, is the egg price fixing that has been occurring. (Remember when prices were way up around Easter?) Although inflation has been slowing, we don’t need this stuff. And the price of the twelve gifts described in the classic song “The 12 Days of Christmas” is at a record high of $46,730, according to PNC’s 2023 Christmas Price Index. At the other end of the cost spectrum, how’d you like to live like Martha Stewart (for a night) for $11.23? Rent her place! (Today’s podcast can be found here, and this week’s is sponsored by MCT. MCT’s technology and know-ho
Here in the Milwaukee area (yes, the autumn colors are stellar), I attended a Newrez joint venture event and one of the conversation topics (besides lenders either saying “no mas” and exiting or being purchased, more below, or NAR’s legal events, more below) is the changing landscape of down payments and down payment assistance programs. STRATMOR’s current blog is titled, “Mind the Down Payment”. Despite high mortgage rates and low buyer demand, home prices are still at record highs in many parts of the country leading to higher down payments. LendingTree analyzed data from more than 580,000 users of our platform who lived in one of the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas. A down payment on a home across the nation’s 50 largest metros averages $84,499. While down payments vary significantly by location, no metro in this year’s study has an average of less than $47,900. California is home to the three metros where down pa
“Who closes the door when the bus driver gets off? The world is full of questions. “Why have all the predictions of lower rates been wrong?” Yesterday I was in the SF Bay Area giving a speech to a group of LOs and management and was asked, “Rob, are you hearing that lenders are requesting clients pay for the credit report(s) up front?” Absolutely I am. Lenders have grown weary of paying for the credit reports of loans that don’t fund and heaping those rising costs on the loans that do. “Rob, are mergers and acquisitions going to pick up?” Yes. We had one recent depository bank deal (Mississippi’s Guaranty Capital Corporation will acquire Lafayette Bancorp, Inc.), but we can expect continued deals in an 8 percent mortgage rate world as lenders and vendors, big and small, re-evaluate either their position in the market or even if they want to continue to exist. (Today’s podcast can be found here: Sponsored by nCino, ma