Processor Edge News Today

Start the day with a little something non-mortgage? Ira S. with U.S. Mortgage, on his time off, of course, found “River Runner.” One can basically click anywhere in the United States, and it will tell you, and your kids, where a raindrop will flow to the ocean. (No stories of you stopping at the Continental Divide with your drunk buddies, please!) This is cool technology, as opposed to ads that pop up on my computer from something I bought two years ago online. While on technology,...

Everyone has a story about something they said or asked that they shouldn’t have. “When are you due?” is a good one, as is asking, “When did you turn 60?” when the person is only 55. But forecasters are out in force, saying things about interest rates they may, or may not, regret later. Analysts at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, for example, expect an interest-rate increase likely forthcoming from the Federal Reserve to be less than the widely predicted half-per...

Today is “National Pizza Day,” a made-up day that wasn’t around when Jimmy Carter was sworn in as president 45 years ago. Back then the yield on the risk-free 10-year T-note was 7.40 percent and 30-year mortgage rates were 8.75 percent. Rates have bumped lower since 1981, but for the first time since August 2019, the 10-year Treasury yield is nearing 2%, reaching 1.95 percent this week. President Carter had housing on his agenda, and after the presidency went on to do Habita...

While the Northern East Coast digs out from snow, and Southern East Coast is on the lookout for falling iguanas in Florida, how’s this for a clever “out of office” message? “Knock knock. Who’s there? Not me!” I have some real estate agent humor today below, but plenty of real estate agents and builder sales staff are out of the office, as there is less reason for them to man the phones versus 2020. Approximately only 762,000 new homes were sold in 2021. ...

Overheard in the hallway: “My email got hacked again. That’s now the third time I’ve had to rename the cat.” But there’s a lot of other conversation and session topics here in the hallways at the IMB in Nashville. Discussion about the rapidity of the Federal Reserve’s moves in attempting to combat inflation, and how might those moves actually eventually push rates back down if they dampen the economy. How volume and margin projections for 2022 are changi...

Do we have an 8-year memory in an industry with 10-year business cycles? Bridging the gap between affordability, qualifying with a low income, and rising house prices are not issues confined to the United States. A new company and product out of London (Habito) claims to do all that, and is offering medical professionals and public servants a break. We don’t need to slide down the credit curve at the same time investors want higher yielding assets, as that didn’t work out so well i...

If you are a VA lender, or service servicemembers’ loans, you don’t want to be singled out by the Department of Justice or the CFPB. And the two of them sent out letters yesterday with one of the letters specifically addressing mortgage servicers regarding military borrowers who have already exited or will be exiting COVID-19 mortgage forbearance programs. How ‘bout adding a Twinkie as a stocking stuffer this year? The rise and fall of Twinkies is an int...

"Stare and compare" work performed by human mortgage loan processors is not only inefficient, but can introduce errors and inaccuracies.