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Home Equity Appraisal, Market Research Tools; Planet Home Stats; Agency Changes

I could tell that my cat Myrtle was miffed. Not only had the work on her “2024 Vision Board Statement” languished, but either there was no line-caught halibut in her bowl, or the laser pointer’s battery was dead. It turned out that it was neither. Instead, it was news that the CFPB was not meeting its goals. the Office of Inspector General of the Federal Reserve Board released a report assessing the CFPB’s process for conducting enforcement investigations and making two recommendations. First, noting that the CFPB has not met its stated goal to file or settle 65 percent of its enforcement actions within two years, the OIG recommended that the CFPB Office of Enforcement incorporates the timing expectations for key steps in the enforcement process into the tracking and monitoring of matters. The OIG also recommended improvements to enforcement staff training on document maintenance and retention requirements for the CFPB’s matter management system. The report states that the recommendations were accepted by the CFPB, with a follow-up to ensure full implementation. Today’s Commentary podcast can be found here and this week’s is sponsored by Calque. With The Trade-In Mortgage powered by Calque, lenders help their clients negotiate a lower purchase price, reduce their interest payments, and eliminate PMI. Hear an interview with Broker Action Coalition’s Katie Sweeney on her transition from leading the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts (AIME) to leading the Broker Action Coalition and the Political Action Committee that she started with AIME.

Owen-amster , Heidi-carter , Ginnie-mae , Tanya-blanchard , Nick-brett , Carl-wooloff , Sean-dugan , Rena-madia , Mike-day , Tony-fox , Trevor-friel , Freddie-mac

Appraiser, ECOA, Video Marketing Products; Conventional Conforming News; What Has Driven Rates Higher?

Did you know that wheat futures prices are at a 2-year low? And lumber prices continue to drop? Those numbers should help reduce inflation. During the conference in NY there was plenty of talk about external influences such as price increases on residential lending. But there are also plenty of issues within our biz that face lenders daily. For example, signing bonuses continue, albeit at a slower rate. Perhaps some of the economic bloom is off the bonus rose? Big signing bonuses come with big handcuffs. It stinks when a competitor takes your production but not your overhead, right? With the help of technology and tracking, a lender’s management can, more than ever, determine whether a given branch or LO is making money for the company, or is merely a source of concessions and extensions. Recruiters sometimes talk of the “greater fool” theory when bad LOs or branches move on to another lender. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s is sponsored by Black Knight. From point-of-sale through post-closing, the company’s trusted loan origination system, Empower, as well as its integrated, end-to-end origination solutions deliver unmatched capabilities, functionality, and support to increase processing efficiencies and lower operational costs for lenders. Hear an interview with Polunsky Beitel Green’s Stacey Maisano on women in the mortgage industry and getting the younger generation involved.) Lender and Broker Products, Software, and Services

United-kingdom , Germany , Japan , Michigan , United-states , German , Americans , Japanese , Freddie-mac , Alek-roberts , Stacey-maisano , Carla-herrera

Buydown, Corresp., POS, eClosing, Outsource, Insurance Products; FHFA/Freddie/Fannie Changes

I was having dinner in Manhattan last night, with the topics including Virgin Orbit filing for bankruptcy and the continuing Homepoint rumors (any questions should be directed to your wholesale AE or the publicly-held company itself!), when the waiter came up and asked how everything was before I’d taken a bite. Does that constitute a “dishruption?” Want a visual of something as disruptive as an FHFA pricing change with no notice or lead time? Here you go. For more acronyms that begin with “F,” the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced the framework of a marketing process for the approximately $60 billion loan portfolio retained in receivership following the failure of Signature Bank, New York, New York. Dig your loose change out of the couch and buy some of the portfolio “comprised primarily of commercial real estate (CRE) loans, mostly multifamily in NYC, commercial loans, and a smaller pool of single-family residential loans.” (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week it’s 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. Hear an interview with Personetics’ Jody Bhagat on automating consumers spending habits and pitching vendor technology to banks.) Lender and Broker Services and Software

Great-river , New-york , United-states , Michigan , Boston , Massachusetts , Spain , Spanish , Freddie-mac-homeone , Freddie-mac , Freddie-mac-creditsmart , Personetic-jody-bhagat

These fruit trees will produce well in Brevard's warmer climate

When choosing deciduous trees for the Space Coast's warm climate, look for plants that require fewer cold hours to bear fruit

Tropic , Florida , United-states , Texas , Kentucky , Brevard-county , China , Melbourne , Victoria , Australia , Ohio , Orange-county

Cybersecurity, Efficiency, DSCR, Lead Management, Correspondent Products, Freddie/Fannie Changes Continue

Do you know what “splooting” is? Here’s a hint: 4-legged animals do it. (Hey, I don’t make these things up.) Quite the word. Words are very interesting, and can incite a riot, help someone get through a loss, make up this Commentary, entertain. Every morning I share my Wordle results with a few friends, comparing who was able to find the 5-letter word of the day in the fewest tries. For the most part Wordle is quick, fun, and mildly entertaining, which is the exact opposite of financing a home as any borrower or loan originator will tell you. Originate? “Origin”: source, inception, root means the point at which something begins its course or existence. Origin applies to the things or persons from which something is ultimately derived and often to the causes operating before the thing itself comes into being. “ate” is a suffix meaning “state of quality of” and when added makes an adjective a verb. Originate, tolerate, stimulate, nominate, dislocate, penetrate, intimidate… there are thousands of words with -ate on the end. And as many of us are in, or head to, San Diego for the MBA’s conference, origination volumes, margins, and revenues will certainly be discussed, as will attempting to lessen the friction that each loan goes through during processing and closing. It is important to remember that we’ve helped millions of families by originating their loans and save billions of dollars, and will continue to do so. (This week’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. Today’s has Part One of an interview with Keller Williams Scott Agnew on navigating through uncertain times and what the industry has learned since 2008.)

San-diego , California , United-states , Nebraska , Freddie-mac , Alan-parris , Anjelica-nixt , Tony-nienas , Maxwell-jim-smith , Gibran-nicholas , Peggy-rubadue , Bob-broeksmit

MSR Analysis, Appraisal, Outsourcing, Compliance Tools; Agency News

Do whatever you want to your clock, it doesn’t change the feeding time of your pets! Friday’s a holiday… Want to help out your vet (veteran, not veterinary) clients? There are plenty of good things that businesses and services are offering to veterans… My USN (1942-1962) Dad would have loved them. Check them out. Does your client have an existing VA insurance policy? You can add value by pointing out that with VA's online Instant Loan Approval service, Veterans with certain insurance plans may borrow up to the value of their policy. In our general industry, there’s a lot going on out there. STRATMOR’s current blog is, “Supply and Demand are Still Driving Mortgage Pricing.” Mr. Cooper’s laying off 800 employees. (As always, displaced employees can post their resumes here for free and employers can view for several months for the low fee of $75.) UWM and Rocket released earnings with much fanfare. This week lenders and borrowers are all, either directly or indirectly, impacted by election results. The U.S. election this week will steer some attention away from investors locked in on the Federal Reserve. The consensus expectation is that a divided government between the White House and Congress will lead to more political gridlock and a potential slowdown for some of President Biden's agenda. (Today’s podcast is available here and this week’s is sponsored by SimpleNexus, an nCino company and award-winning developer of mobile-first technology for the modern mortgage lender. Today’s features an interview with Jon Giles, Head of Consumer Direct Lending at TD Bank, on insights into what home equity data means for consumers as we approach the end of the year.

Puerto-rico , United-states , District-of-columbia , White-house , Americans , Tim-haug , Freddie-mac , Tom-piecenski , Seth-sprague , Ted-kramer , Amy-creason , Jon-giles

CRM, Automation, Home Equity, Non-English Products; FHFA and Freddie News

Tony H. writes, “I just switched my 30-year home mortgage to ‘student loan.’ Follow me for more financial advice.” I have been fielding questions about the impact of student loan forgiveness on credit (probably won’t impact credit scores) but also whether the forgiven debt is taxable (not at the Federal level, but Forbes thinks it may be at the state level in some places). While the government is intervening, wouldn’t it be nice if someone put a cap on college cost escalation? The government doesn’t directly determine compensation or profit margins, but both are huge issues for lenders. (“Lenders are Eying Compensation and Ops Trends” is the current STRATMOR blog.) The government doesn’t directly determine the rate of inflation either, but the Federal Reserve can address it. During his Jackson Hole speech, Powell said that the Fed will continue raising interest rates and hold them at a higher level until it is confident inflation is under control. Of course 30-year mortgage rates are pushed more by supply and demand, and inflation, than by the Fed. Meanwhile, lenders are “gutting it out” until… when? (Available here, today’s podcast has an interview with Dawar Alimi, CEO and Co-Founder of Lender Price, on how lenders should evaluate, implement, and use new technology. This week’s podcast is sponsored by MCT’s Hedge Advisory. As the industry leader in pull-through analytics and best execution with the highest staff-to-client ratio, lenders of every size trust MCT to manage risk and optimize profitability in their mortgage loan pipeline management.)

Vietnam , Republic-of , China , United-states , District-of-columbia , Spain , Spanish , Chinese , American , Vietnamese , Cheri-wolfe , Freddie-mac

Subservicing, Profitability, Servicing Products; Investor's Conventional Conforming Changes

Mortgage rates dropped after mid-June. Momentarily switching gears, given their role in cakes, breakfasts, custards, and breads, if eggs didn’t exist, would a food scientist have to had invented them? I mention this because the benchmark price of eggs in the U.S. was down to $2.16 a dozen two weeks ago, down 37 percent from the record high $3.38 a dozen in mid-July. These lower prices should be reflected at grocery stores with prices dropping by a dollar a dozen or so. The cause for the spike in the price of eggs was an avian flu that ravaged the U.S. population, killing 30 million commercial and wild birds, and the successful recent moves to repopulate the hens. The downward trend in prices is expected to continue. Homeowners and real estate agents don’t mind a return to “normal” inventory in markets and historical price appreciation rates. But this sensationalist headline will grab some readers: “Home prices plunging in ‘pandemic boomtowns’ as market slumps!” It seems that “plunging” has a different meaning than what I thought it meant as the article discusses slowing appreciation and some price cuts on the listing prices of houses. (Today’s podcast is available here and this week’s 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. Today’s has interview e1even’s Ryan Roberts on generating high value leads and calculating return on lead gen efforts.)

Nevada , United-states , Jackson-hole , Utah , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , American , Freddie-mac , Patrick-collins , Los-angeles , Garth-graham , Jordyn-dexter

Private MI, Servicing Testing, Broker Pricing, DPA Products; Conforming Conventional Updates

As rumors of correspondent, wholesale, and retail company cutbacks or closings continue to bounce around our biz, how about this non-mortgage tidbit. During his off hours in New York, Ira S. found yet another fun and fascinating website: a map of the U.S. that one can zoom in/out of, and it will list the resident looked up most on Wikipedia (they had to be born, lived in, or somehow connected to the city). Much less fun is the fact that Capital markets staffs have turned their attention, due to recent rate drops, to renegotiations in the primary markets with LOs and AEs. In the secondary markets, of course, Wall Street firms don’t renegotiate hedge positions. In other words, one can’t call up Morgan Stanley or BAML or Multi-Bank Securities and whine, “Uh, remember that MBS we sold you three weeks ago? Well, rates have moved, and we want a better price or else.” In fact, I’ve even heard nervousness from lenders about margin calls from broker-dealers, especially if we continue to see bond prices rally and rates drop due to an economic slowdown. Will the Fed raise rates too much, dampening consumer spending and increasing the odds of an actual declared recession? Right now employment is still strong, as are family and corporate balance sheets especially after refinancing trillions of dollars of debt in 2020 and 2021. Heck, even fancy coffee places like Starbucks, which reported record revenue yesterday, are seeing increased sales of premium cups of coffee. (Today’s podcast is available here and this week’s 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. Listen to an interview with Seth Sprague on the current mortgage servicing rights (MSR) market.)

Oakbrook-terrace , Illinois , United-states , New-york , Georgia , North-carolina , Texas , Washington , Kentucky , Florida , California , Indiana

Webinars, Training, Subservicing, Processing Tools; Freddie and Fannie Changes

I mentioned yesterday that 4 out of 3 people have trouble with math, but it doesn’t take a genius to do subtraction. 6 - .2 = 5.8, right? Wouldn’t you like to earn 5.8 percent on your money? The Federal Reserve reports that U.S. households are holding $17.9 trillion in cash and cash equivalents. If your credit union or bank is paying you (and other depositors) .2 percent on your bank account, but owns a portfolio of new Freddie or Fannie loans where borrowers are paying 6 percent, well, that is a darned nice spread. I know that I am simplifying that somewhat, but what bank wouldn’t want that? Along those lines, underwriters are keenly aware that the average monthly payment on a new car loan hit a record high of $686 in June. Household balance sheets are still in good shape after bolstering savings during the height of the pandemic, but we can expect those to ebb with inflation. (Today’s podcast is available here and is sponsored by SimpleNexus, an nCino company and award-winning developer of mobile-first technology for the modern mortgage lender.) Lender and Broker Products, Software, and Services Closing the racial homeownership gap is a priority for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the enterprises’ 3-year housing equity plans emphasize down payment assistance (DPA) as a key means of doing so. Award-winning DPA database provider Down Payment Resource (DPR) understands that to effectively confront racial homeownership disparities, we must first address generational wealth disparities that make it harder for qualified minority consumers to afford a down payment. Using DPR’s lender tools to connect borrowers with home financing support, mortgage professionals can grow their book of business while opening doors for historically underserved markets. DPA awareness is growing, so there’s never been a better time to jump on the DPA bandwagon! Check out some of the ways DPA plays into the enterprises’ housing equity plans.

United-states , Missouri , Vietnam , Republic-of , China , Indiana , Michigan , Spain , Springfield , Ukraine , America , Vietnamese