Walking around Memphis yesterday got me to thinking, “I wonder what the part of my brain that used to store people’s phone numbers is doing now.” Maybe being used to store cool ads like the one in the joke section below, or lyrics of old songs? Thank you to VanDyk Mortgage’s Steve Richman who reminded me of Mott The Hoople’s “All The way From Memphis.” In 1973, when that song was released, the Fed Funds rate hit a high of 11.22 percent. Inflation can be harsh. Are you thinking about the price of food and gas a few months ahead of summer vacation season? You’re not alone. Millions of families are wondering what vacations are going to set them back this year, and possibly reconfiguring plans to spend less. Dramatic inflation can have that affect. I bring this up because, as was widely expected given the constant attempt to keep the U.S. economy stable, and battle against runaway prices, the FOMC raised the target range for the fed funds rate by 25 bps at yesterday's meeting. But the marked upward shift in the so-called "dot plot" indicates that many Committee members believe that a "significant" amount of further tightening will be warranted this year. (Today’s audio version of the commentary is available here and this week’s is sponsored by Candor, AI that puts your underwriting on autopilot.) Lender and Broker Products In today’s market, originators are likely looking for investor partners who can drive efficiencies, provide trustworthy financing and help you drive cost out of your operations. AmeriHome Mortgage, the number one bank-owned correspondent investor in the country, and their parent company, Western Alliance Bank, invite you to access an exceptionally strong suite of correspondent lending and warehouse banking resources from one responsive team. In addition to its Agency and increasingly popular Non-Agency Portfolio suite of products, AmeriHome is now offering Western Alliance warehouse lines to their clients, both Delegated and Non-Delegated, for both Agency and Non-Agency business. This will be a powerful tool to reduce costs in a tight margin environment; by using a Western Alliance warehouse line and selling loans to AmeriHome, clients will be able to reduce warehouse line carry costs, loan payoff times, and funding haircuts, and benefit from a streamlined document review and credit approval process. Reach out to CLsales@amerihome.com for more information about what AmeriHome can do for you!
I flew into San Diego yesterday for the MCT Exchange, and it is hard not to notice the number of boats in the harbor. For some quick “fun with numbers” on recreational boating: The U.S. state of Florida has the highest number of registered recreational boating vessels in 2020, with almost 959 thousand, closely followed by California. Hawai’i has half as many as Wyoming. In contrast, the District of Columbia had the smallest number of registered boating vessels, with just over two thousand in 2020. Keeping with the “numbers” theme, I receive my share of questions regarding mortgage-backed security statistics. Anyone doing research on them should check out FINRA’s Reporting of Mortgage and Asset Backed Securities (Securitized Products), a little dry but packed with information. I mention this because, as we know, soon the Fed is scheduled to stop buying MBS every week, and for those of you who like graphs, here is the link to the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet. Yikes! (Today’s audio version of the commentary is available here and this week’s is sponsored by CWDL, providing industry-specific audit, accounting, and tax solutions that help you better understand the present so you can plan for the future. See what’s possible with CWDL. Today’s features an interview with Justin Demola, President of Lenders One, on how collaboration helps those in the industry.) Lender and Broker Products and Services PNC Bank partners with ActiveComply for social media compliance! Created for the financial industry, by the financial industry, ActiveComply is an industry-specific social media monitoring platform that collates social media for IMBs, banks, credit unions, & more. ActiveComply monitors profiles and post content 24/7 to ensure compliance and protect brand reputation. PNC saw an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to technology and innovation by adding this cloud-based solution to its tech stack. Learn more about how ActiveComply helps you engage with social media safely and meet your compliance and archival requirements by scheduling a personalized demonstration today!
I received this from a loan officer in Michigan. “Forget the Serenity Prayer! Grant me coffee to change the things I can, and wine to accept those that I cannot.” There are tens of thousands of loan originators around the United States, primarily changing things for the better for their clients but recently some of them were caught taking a fraudulent continuing education class. Unrelatedly, one (former) Ohio Mayor claimed that ice fishing can lead to prostitution. Attorney Brian Levy somehow brings it all together in his Mortgage Musings about the slippery slope and what might happen to those LOs when they return from their 90-day suspensions. Fraud, including kickbacks, unfortunately, is on its way higher according to off-the-record chats with LOs, sometimes making the headlines (for example, a Georgia real estate agent ran afoul of the Department of Justice in committing mortgage fraud). And a quick note before we jump into the commentary: yesterday I published news about a new wholesaler (Champions Funding LLC). Brokers should know that, despite social media reports, Champions will be accepting broker applications in the coming weeks and at this point is fully testing its customer service software. This Commentary will keep you updated on its business roll out. (Today’s audio version of the commentary is available here and this week’s is brought to you by SimpleNexus, an nCino company and award-winning developer of mobile-first technology for the modern mortgage lender. Today listen to an interview with Greg Richardson, Chief Commercial officer at MAXEX, on secondary market trends and private label MBS demand.)
Andy Rooney died over ten years ago. Many will say that Bill Mahr has taken his place, albeit with saltier language and a political bent. In this piece, Mahr discusses his thoughts on young people in “Gen Z” and “van life” which I found humorous. It reminds us that we are made up of different generations, and given the snow hitting much of the U.S. it isn’t only your parents that walked through the snow uphill both ways to school. The U.S. Census Bureau has not defined “millennials” but most groups tend to group them into those born between 1981 and 1996, which means the 72 million of them have begun turning 41. By the time 2030 rolls around, all “baby boomers” will be older than 65. It should be of no surprise that reverse mortgages, basically available to homeowners with equity who are 62 and older, are a fast-growing piece of the mortgage landscape. Lenders can’t do anything about an environment where higher mortgage rates are “in the cards,” but they can do things to adjust to it. Along those lines, today’s audio version of the commentary is available here and today’s features an interview with Leo Anzoleaga, SVP of Residential Lending Draper and Kramer Mortgage Corp, on current housing trends and potential implications of rising mortgage rates. And this week’s is kindly sponsored by ActiveComply, making social media monitoring simpler, more compliant, and at a lower cost.) Lender and Broker Services and Products “Are you ready for a Fair Lending examination from the CFPB? By relying on the team of experts at Richey May, you can be. We constantly study industry regulations and work hard to interpret and apply upcoming requirements, ensuring our clients are prepared for the future. A high-level compliance review will reveal organizational issues but can only take you so far. Go deeper with the mortgage specialists at Richey May to not only identify potential fair lending issues, but to also learn how to improve your reporting. Contact our mortgage advisory team today to learn more about how we can help you with our Fair Lending Analysis and Ongoing Monitoring services.”
While there’s plenty of chatter out there about the return of Better.com’s CEO to its helm, and its interesting business model how LOs are supposedly not paid for closed loans but for how many they lock, I could tell that my cat Myrtle was miffed a few days ago. And I knew why: She figured out that I was not going to spend several hundred dollars to nominate her for some forgettable award. Now that a new year has begun, offers to nominate employees and producers are everywhere, and in some cases, lenders can nominate dozens of their employees at discounted bulk prices. I thought about explaining to Myrtle that she’d be better off with me spending those doubloons on line-caught salmon, or, in my opinion, that every lender would be better off spending their money on training, client retention software, or pricing concessions, rather than telling the world which producers their competitors should pick off. Of course, I was never big on giving a child a trophy just for being on the team either, but that sounds pretty curmudgeonly.) Along those lines, if you haven’t seen this video satire on hiring a millennial, you should check it out. Fortunately, the people I’ve met in our industry in their 20s and 30s don’t fit that mold. Speaking of people in their 20’s in our biz, today’s audio version of the commentary is available here and this week’s is sponsored by Sagent . Today features Interview with Sagent’s new Chief Product Officer, Courtney Thompson, on her career in the mortgage industry and how this move accelerates Sagent’s vision to remake loan servicing from the consumer perspective and deepens Sagent’s relationships with customers, regulators, and the fintech community. Give this mortgage modernization lesson a listen, and read about her new role .