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TPO, BI, Social Media, POS Products; Conv. Conforming Changes; Blend CEO Interview

If I tried to carry my cat Myrtle around like in this short video, there would be conflict. We all continue to hear conflicting information about home sales and prices in different parts of the nation and at different price points. One thing remains constant: there are over 50 million people aged 28-38. Millions do not own homes yet; sure, some of them don’t want to own them, but millions do. There are currently only 562,000 active listings of houses for sale in the U.S. The supply/demand imbalance that helps home prices. Zonda did a survey of why people decide to buy a home. The top reasons, which every LO should use in conversations, are: building my own equity rather than someone else’s, marriage or having kids, stability, participating in home price appreciation, and it was cheaper to own than to rent. Recent reports have New Home Sales rising 9.6 percent MOM in March but were down 3.4 percent compared to a year ago. The median new home price was $449,800 which was up about 3 percent compared to a year ago. House prices rose 0.5 percent MOM and 4 percent on a YOY basis according to the FHFA House Price Index. And the Case-Shiller Home Price Index reported a 0.2 percent MOM gain in February, and a 2.0 percent annual increase. (Today’s podcast can be found here and is this week’s is sponsored by Blend. Want to power a better lending journey from application to close? Find out how their digital end-to-end mortgage experience can help you reach your business goals. Listen to an interview with Blend’s Nima Ghamsari on the future of the mortgage origination process and Blend’s financial health.)

Jerry-austen , Nima-ghamsari , Paul-zimmerman , Greg-mcdonell , Tom-boles , Robin-kozelka , Freddie-mac , John-gibson , John-ball , Freddie-mac-choicerenovation , Todd-lautzenheiser , Fred-cawthorn

Lead Source, Sales, Home Equity, Lien Release Products; FHA, VA, USDA, HUD News; Sterling and the DOJ

“Once you lick the frosting off of a cupcake, it becomes a muffin. And muffins are healthy. You’re welcome.” Adding another expense to a transaction is certainly not welcome, yet that’s exactly what was voted into effect by residents of Los Angeles County in November. When you sell a house, paying a 5-6 percent commission to the real estate agent is typical. In LA there’s another 5 percent tax on top of that for high-priced houses to help fund affordable housing. Apparently home sellers in Los Angeles are slashing prices and sweetening deals before a new “mansion tax” goes into effect on April 1. The effect on supply and demand and pricing will be interesting, especially how it impacts the volume of sales. Along those lines, don’t pad your volume numbers, especially if you’re about to go public, otherwise the Department of Justice may come knocking like it did with Sterling Bancorp. (And don’t discriminate. In this environment where every deal is precious, why would you? This Long Island, NY company ran afoul of the law.) (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week is sponsored by MGIC. Since 1957, MGIC has insured more than 13.5 million mortgage loans. With innovative products, tools and strategies that help customers solve problems and fuel growth, MGIC is a true partner to lenders. Explore tools and solutions to boost your business here. Listen to an interview with LexisNexis Risk Solutions Kevin King on alternative credit data and expanding the consumer credit box.)

Italy , Sheshank-shekhar , Los-angeles , Matt-matsuda , Kevin-quinn , Gibran-nicholas , Ashley-terrell , Andy-walden , Bill-withers , Mark-leslie , Joe-welu , Dan-catinella

Broker, Efficiency Products; FHA, VA, USDA News; Bank Failures Explained

It hasn’t been a good few weeks for banks whose names begin with “Si” (Silvergate, Silicon Valley, and Signature, with Silicon Valley Bank declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy this morning; today’s Rundown discusses how the bank crisis may impact lenders). Ah, those clever secondary marketing folks. Cornerstone’s Henry S. frets, “I can’t believe it’s bank collapse season already. I just finished taking down my train derailment decorations.” Certainly, time flies by, and I hope you’re wearing some green today. Originally a religious holiday to honor St. Patrick, who introduced Christianity to Ireland in the 5th century, St. Patrick’s Day has evolved into a celebration of all things Irish, with the first parade on March 17, 1762, in New York City, featuring Irish soldiers who served in the English military. It certainly is more fun to think about celebrating the Irish than the constant stream of headlines as people race to conjecture about the health of world banking, and people crying “shoulda woulda coulda.” The markets seem to be performing a stress test on the Fed. The Federal Reserve’s (Fed’s) tightening seems to be finally having an effect, and an early victim has been smaller banks that did a poor job of managing interest rate and deposit concentration risk. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week is sponsored by Richey May, a recognized leader in providing specialized advisory, audit, tax, technology, and other services in the mortgage industry and in banking.)

New-york , United-states , Ireland , Michigan , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , Irish , American , Janet-yellen , Jesse-vazquez , Tina-jablonski , Anjelica-nixt

Ginnie EVP Jobs; Pricing, Credit Reporting, Compliance, Workflow, PPE Tools; Wholesale News

Hey, why wouldn’t you want to join the Mortgage Action Alliance? It doesn’t cost you a penny, and there’s strength in numbers. Signing up takes about 90 seconds. And the information you receive is much more reliable than mine! The U.S. Census Bureau produces some reliable information, unless you’re some conspiracy theory nut, and they have information that loan officers love: where most owners are free and clear of any home loan. And 30-year rates, which probably won’t be down to 2.75 percent again in our lifetimes, are less expensive than credit card debt, so there is business to be had. California has 2.4 million households free-and-clear of mortgage debt, the third-highest count among the states. There’s Texas at 2.9 million, and Florida at 2.5 million. After California comes New York at 1.7 million and Pennsylvania at 1.5 million. West Virginia has the largest share of free-and-clear owners at 53%, followed by Mississippi at 51%, North Dakota and New Mexico at 47% and Louisiana at 46%. Texas and Florida were both at 43%. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week is sponsored by Built Technologies: Increase efficiency, streamline processes, and improve construction and real estate financing. Built connects lenders with key stakeholders to expedite funding and provide real-time deal visibility via a cloud-based digital platform. Today, an interview with MGIC’s Vance Edwards dispelling common mortgage insurance (MI) misconceptions.) Broker and Lender Products and Services

China , New-york , United-states , Louisiana , Texas , Florida , California , Pennsylvania , New-mexico , North-dakota , Mississippi , West-virginia

Homebuyer Education, RON, Elastic Ops Tools; Conventional Conforming News; STRATMOR on Tech ROI

Want to really let someone know that you’re no longer interested in them? For $10 the San Antonio Zoo is offering a special Valentine’s Day greeting for exes who keep bugging you after you part ways: naming a cockroach after your not-so-special someone and feeding it to an animal. What about when a lender parts ways with a loan officer? Obviously a new company may not have the same product set, and good luck to LOs who rely on one product and then are cut loose, especially if it is a purchase-centric product. For example, I bet all of those Flagstar originators will miss that portfolio product: A well-priced ARM that allowed clients to buy before selling. (Flagstar offers a wholesale and correspondent channel, by the way.) (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s is sponsored by Milestones. Giving homeowners an all-inclusive homeownership experience including home value and equity monitoring, home maintenance reminders and how-to articles, cloud-based document storage, one-click access to hire professionals for various projects around the home, and much more. Today’s features an interview with ZestyAI’s Attila Toth on AI in the property tech space and at what point the companies that fail to adapt become obsolete.) Lender and Broker Software, Products, and Services Karl Otto Pöhl famously said, “Inflation is like toothpaste. Once it’s out, you can hardly get it back in again.” But, you can do something to offset the impact of a challenging economy: outsource your processing, underwriting, or closing functions to Computershare Loan Services (CLS). CLS can help you lower costs and improve productivity, in any market. Leverage its 20 years of experience and top talent to help you with your entire pipeline, from conventional, non-QM, and FHA loans to multiple product types, including HELOCs. CLS’ expertise and discipline are just a few reasons clients choose and stick with them. Contact CLS to find out how you can squeeze every opportunity out of 2023.

San-antonio , Texas , United-states , Dallas , Spain , Denver , Colorado , Spanish , Martin-luther-king-jr , Freddie-mac , Karl-otto , Carla-herra

Trading, Servicing Transfer, CRM Products; STRATMOR on Bank Market Share; Wholesaler and TPO News

“Someone asked me to name two structures that hold water. I was like, well, damn.” As the storms continue to hit us in Northern California and Nevada, not only is my cat Myrtle ticked off, but we are reminded that it is either feast or famine in the Golden State. Take your pick, forest fires or biblical rain: Over 20 trillion gallons of water are supposed to fall on California in a two-week span. Yes, that’s with a “t.” Ratcheting back several decimal places, new estimates from the Census Bureau found that the U.S. population grew by only 0.38 percent from July 2021 to July 2022, which was the second-lowest growth on record behind just the 0.16 percent growth registered during the first year of the pandemic. The main thing increasing it was an increase in net immigration. To find comparably low rates one has to go back to the worst of the Great Depression, when growth was still a comparably robust 0.6 percent. All told, for those who don’t believe in pandemics, 24 states had more deaths overall than births. Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, and Arizona gained the most population numerically, while New York, California, and Illinois had the biggest losses. (Today’s podcast is sponsored by SimpleNexus, an nCino company and award-winning developer of mobile-first technology for the modern mortgage lender. Today’s has an interview with Ocrolus’ Rebecca Seward on investing in tech, automation, and innovation.) Lender and Broker Software, Products, and Services

Texas , United-states , New-york , Arizona , Georgia , Nevada , North-carolina , Atlanta , Florida , Illinois , California , City-national-bank

Marketing, Scalability, Lead Conversion Tools; Gender Pay Inequlity; Attorney's Thoughts on FHA Loan Comp

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 nightmare.) The United States is nowhere near that, but we have a gender pay gap that has remained relatively stable over the past 15 years or so. In 2020, women earned 84 percent of what men earned, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of median hourly earnings of both full- and part-time workers. Common explanations of this disparity, present across most industries and professions, include the perception that women are less likely than men to negotiate raises and promotions, women’s disproportionate childcare responsibilities, and stereotypes about women’s and men’s respective talents. A new paper highlights an underexplored way in which stereotyping can impact the livelihoods of women, particularly those working in high-skilled, client-based professions, long after they’ve committed to their industry of choice. The researchers reveal that gender stereotyping can weaken clients’ perceived trust in female professionals’ core offering: their expertise. (Today’s podcast is coming from Candor Technology. Home of the One Touch Underwrite, supporting lenders from Point of Sale to Post Close QC, to reduce repurchase risk, increase underwriter productivity by 400 percent, and decrease turn-times by 10 days.

Florida , United-states , Afghanistan , Texas , Dale-vermillion , Josephine-garis-cochrane , Ginnie-mae , Citizens-correspondent-national-bulletin , Triserv-appraisal-management-solutions , Chenoa-fund-program-announcement-for , Broker-software , Agency-freddie-mac

Credit Reporting, Automation, BI, Marketing Tools; FHA, HUD, VA Changes; Bank Market Share

Happy Hanukkah (or Chanukah), which began yesterday. Others are looking ahead to Christmas, with some companies closed Friday the 23rd and some closed Monday the 26th. (The Federal Reserve and the stock market are closed Monday the 26th and then Monday the 2nd.) I am in Chicago where the weather could be termed as “brisk.” There’s a different term that the residents of Fairbanks, Alaska, and my Navy vet father, for that matter, would use to describe their weather, expected to have a high of -35 degrees F today! (To be blunt, which I can be since I’m not reporting to anyone, he’d probably say, “That would freeze the balls off a pool table!”) Weather like that does much more than cause goosebumps, although anyone who knows this song often has them at the 3:08 mark. Plenty of lenders are feeling trapped by current margins and volumes, which probably aren’t going to shoot up in the near future, and some have shifted a portion of their production to home equity lines, with more volume but even less margin. I mention this because the CFPB issued an update to the “What you should know about home equity lines of credit” brochure (HELOC Brochure). The new edition of the HELOC Brochure, available in English and Spanish, is updated to align with the Bureau’s educational efforts, to be more concise, and to improve readability and usability. (Today’s podcast is sponsored by Richey May, a recognized leader in providing specialized advisory, audit, tax, technology, and other services in the mortgage industry and in banking.)

Fairbanks , Alaska , United-states , Birchwood , Michigan , Spain , Utah , Chicago , Illinois , Spanish , Dale-vermillion , Alan-parris

Lender Products and Services; IMB Profits Plummet; Conforming Updates

Another day of travel, heading to California and its Central Coast. The state has seen its share of house price appreciation, as has the nation, and in terms of actual sales there are some who are predicting a steep decline in sales activity despite heading into the traditional summer buying season. (And there are stories about home “buyer’s remorse” which to me sound like whining.) Yes, as prospectors said starting in 1849, “there’s still gold in them thar hills.” There’s gold in startups also: Of course the co-founders are beaming in the photo from Tomo, a startup founded by former Zillow execs that aims to speed up the mortgage approval process, raised a $40 million Series A round at a $640 million valuation, doubling the company’s value after it raised a $70 million seed round last year. But there’s less gold in lending. Independent mortgage banks (IMBs) and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks reported a net gain of only $1,099 on each loan they originated in the fourth quarter of 2021, down from a reported gain of $2,594 per loan in the third quarter of 2021, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) newly released Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report. Marina Walsh, CMB, MBA’s VP of Industry Analysis, observed, “Among the headwinds were lower revenues and higher production costs… The average cost to originate a mortgage has now risen for six quarters in a row, reaching a study-high of almost $9,500 per loan by the end of 2021.” (More below!)&nbsp;

California , United-states , Genesee , Texas , Ukraine , American , Freddie-mac , Kate-dekay , Kevin-peranio , Nxtsoft-omniconnect , Francisco-daly , Marina-walsh

Compliance, MLO, U/W jobs; processing, disclosure, broker tools; conventional conforming changes; fraud report; refi to purchase shift

The mortgage talk here in Cleveland is how, “Tough times never last but tough people do.” Many estimates have residential production hitting $4.8 trillion in 2021, so is there anyone left to refinance? Of course there is, and in many conversations with lenders, rate &amp; term refis have been replaced by cash out. Black Knight, a mortgage technology and data provider, says there are still 3.8 million people who would benefit from refinancing (30-year fixed-rate mortgage holder with a maximum 80% loan-to-value ratio, a credit score of 720 or more, and a likelihood of reducing their current first lien rate by at least 0.75%) and potentially save $1 billion per month. But many MLOs and lenders have turned their attention to the purchase biz, so what are they doing? The current STRATMOR blog is, “What’s Next” about how lenders and MLOs are shifting to a purchase-centric focus. And unfortunately, even “purchase business” has a solid percentage being done by investors, and thank you to Pam B. for forwarding Redfin’s numbers on how nearly 20 percent of buyers are investors. Lastly, you’d have to go far to find anyone predicting lower rates are ahead of us in 2022. Certainly they’ve gone up, and the recent Freddie Mac PMMS showed the average 30-year rate at 3.92 percent. (Today’s audio version of the commentary is taking today off for the President’s Day Holiday but is normally available here . This week’s is brought to you by Sagent, bringing the modern experience customers expect from loan originations to servicing with platforms that let consumers manage their home-owning lives from anywhere.)

Miami , Florida , United-states , Boston , Massachusetts , China , California , Palm-beach , Denver , Colorado , Berkshire , Americans