Stream Mortgage News Today

“Alexa, where’s my damn package?” (Page down 3-4 times to the video.) Life is full of surprises, good and bad. Rates aren’t a surprise… The U.S. Federal Reserve can only do so much about inflation. Geo-politics are a big deal, of course, and there is nothing our Fed, tasked with maintaining economic stability in this country, can do about those. Vendors and lenders are doing what they can, cutting over-capacity and expenses. Capital markets staffs everywhere ar...

Last week my son asked if I had seen the dog bowl. I replied, “I didn’t know he could!” The weather here in Palm Springs, California is much different than that of Anchorage, and yesterday’s Commentary’s mention of the fabled Iditarod prompted Fairway Independent’s Susan Hawkins to send, “I was there when I lived in Anchorage! Here are some photos.” Looks cold, which is to be expected. What is not expected is when a lender or vendor makes h...

While the musical world mourns the loss of Gary Rossington, the last original Lynyrd Skynyrd band member, and I head to San Diego this morning for the TMC event, but I’ve heard through channels that my cat Myrtle is thinking about copywriting her trill after hearing the news that the Toblerone candy company is removing the Matterhorn from its label due to pressure from Swiss authorities: 80 percent of raw materials must come from Switzerland, so it’s a numbers game. Being a loan of...

I have news for you, and I hope that I’m not bursting anyone’s bubble here. If a meat packer could sell the delicious looking meat that you see in the background in ads for hamburger at $15/pound, do you really think they’d put it into $4/pound ground beef, or $2/pound hot dogs? Yes, numbers can tell a story, like it or not. How about this nifty map, great for loan officers and real estate agents and discovered in my email files, showing the population shift in the United St...

The MBA’s servicing conference is taking place, and it is an important subject, along with the impact of the 30bp cut in MIP for FHA borrowers. Owning servicing rights certainly helped the bottom lines for many lenders last year, some would say it “saved their bacon.” There are always those warning us of impending doom and gloom scenarios regarding the trillions of mortgages outstanding. But really, come on. We may see an uptick in delinquencies and foreclosures, possibly be...

Have you ever heard the term “scuddle”? It’s an English term from the 1500’s meaning “to wash dishes,” something many of us did plenty of over Christmas. I bring this up because on this date in 1886 Josephine Garis Cochrane patented the world’s first dishwasher! Where would we be without women in schools or the workplace or being educated… Or thinking? (Let’s ask the Taliban in Afghanistan: hopefully you’re following this nigh...

Let’s have a non-mortgage opening paragraph. Today is “Remember Pearl Harbor Day.” (If you like history, you gotta click on that link and see what is on there. Do a search.) The richest person in the world in the 1940s was Henry Ford, and when he died in 1947 his worth was about $200 billion in current dollars. (John D. Rockefeller became the first billionaire in 1916.) I mention these snapshots because one New Jersey industry vet wrote to me saying, “There are about ...

Robert K. writes, “My Mom always said, ‘Work until your bank account looks like a phone number. Well, I did it! ‘Available balance: $911.’” Speaking of numbers, thank you to those who wrote to me correcting the GDP of Mexico here as being $1.4 trillion and not $1.4 billion. Numbers certainly tell the story with vendors and lenders. Owners of vendors and third-party providers are looking at middle layers of management, cutting back, certainly cutting salaries, o...

Putting out this daily commentary is like being in the army: I usually do more by 6AM than many people do during much of the day. The commentary is a little early this morning since I received an email on Thanksgiving from IsabelleDuvall@opale-voyages.fr that my U.S. Government social security account password had expired and for me to send her my social security number and a new password. I wanted to take care of sending Isabelle the information first thing this morning, and am sure that everyt...

The release yesterday of FHFA’s report on Agency Guarantee Fees prompted some of the discussion here in Kansas City among mortgage folks about how challenging things have become, especially with rates and pricing. Sure, there are opportunities, but things are tough. Do you think your job is tough? How about this reporter’s? Do you think you’re good at your job, finding borrowers, processing loans, drawing docs, selling the loans, whatever? Really good? This video speaks volu...