This morning it’s off to Missoula, Montana, for me to spend some time with the folks at MAMP. (Few states have as many different species of mammals as Montana: nearly 120 out of a total of 490 in the wild in North America.) Going through the airport there were few signs of Halloween, although across the country, lenders’ employees are asking, “Which area of our office has the best leftover Halloween candy, underwriting or accounting? Or perhaps it is near the front desk… a Kit Kat bar after lunch won’t hurt anything!” I bet the folks at NAR could use something sweet: In a case where the appeal was nearly filed before the verdict, the National Association of REALTORS (NAR), Keller Williams, and HomeServices of America were found guilty of conspiring to inflate commissions and ordered to pay damages totaling $1.78 billion, a jury in Missouri ruled Tuesday. Good loan officers and real estate agents are masters at gauging customer psychology and sentiment. But leave it up to the Federal Reserve to turn 280 character tweets into its own, 36-page, slicing and dicing of consumer financial sentiment. But it doesn’t take the Federal Reserve to figure out that 8 percent mortgage rates have ground things to a halt. (Today’s podcast can be found here, sponsored by Richey May, a recognized leader in providing specialized advisory, audit, tax, technology and other services to the mortgage industry for almost four decades. Hear an interview with Kristin Messerli and Sean Herrero on appealing to a younger home buying demographic.)