Page 5 - Mortgage Collaborative News Today

SAN DIEGO, Calif., Oct. 11, 2023 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — The Mortgage Collaborative (TMC), the nation’s largest independent cooperative network serving the mortgage industry, announced today that the TMC Emerging Technology

“I dance like people wish they weren't watching.” Someone sure is watching, and counting, empty houses. Lack of available housing inventory has helped keep housing costs high throughout many of the nation’s big cities, but nearly 5.5 million homes sit vacant across the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas. The average vacancy rate across these 50 metros is 7.22 percent, with New Orleans (13.9 percent), Miami (12.7 percent), and Tampa (12.2 percent) having th...

As President Jimmy Carter celebrated his 99th birthday seven months into hospice, welcome to the 4th quarter! (Will lenders experience any “Q-4-ia”? Say out loud.) Let’s talk U.S. lists! California, Indiana, Michigan, Texas, and Virginia are top five in pumpkin growing. The National Association of Realtors, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Pharmaceuticals, American Hospital Association, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield are the leading five lobbying spenders. And you can add the Internal ...

Shutdown or no shutdown, the National Park Service’s Fat Bear Week is approaching, focused on how these behemoths tip the scale. Here’s your tip of the day: Having books in your Zoom background makes you seem more trustworthy. What if one of them is “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Mortgages”? Maybe put some gold bars on the shelf instead? You can buy them now at Costco. Owning a home is a great way to build wealth, although mortgage rates are at 23-year high and...

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...

Sometimes I send this Commentary out from some pretty nice places, sometimes not. Today comes from the tarmac at the Newark Airport, in Row 22, sitting next to some hairy guy who’s snoring and apparently went with the “Garlic Lover’s Pizza” last night. You can decide which category today fits in. “What do you call a small pepper in the autumn? A little chili.” Tomorrow is the fall equinox. Autumn? Autumnal? Different ways of saying similar things? Do you...

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...

“My mother used to say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Wonderful woman, lousy surgeon.” There is some great food in various parts of the nation, and today I will head from Dallas, TX to Jackson, MS, for the Mississippi MBA annual conference. Dallas is certainly home to its share of real estate owned by people outside of the country. But it turns out that annual foreign investment in U.S. existing-home sales declined 9.6 percent to $53.3 billion over the...

It was a rough weekend. My cat Myrtle, resting comfortably at the top of the food chain, was visibly miffed at me not nominating her (again) for the vaulted “40 under 40” award. I reminded her that she is way over that in cat years, but my explanation fell on her one deaf ear and her one good ear despite me telling her how much line-caught salmon we could buy with the nomination fee. (Hey, don’t get me wrong. I know some of those folks who were nominated or selected, and the...

The great thing about inflation is if you spend the same on groceries, the bags are lighter and easier to carry home. Restaurants and food companies react to higher prices either by reducing their portion sizes or passing the cost on to the consumer. In real estate, does the modern definition of an “affordable” house mean 350 square feet for $130,000? Lennar thinks so. Owning a home has long been considered the quintessential American dream, but even with 84 percent of Americans sa...