Mon, Mar 7 2016, 10:33 AM
Well it's that time of year again, yup, election season. As you may or may not know with all the fireworks going on, a fellow mortgage industry member...
Fri, Mar 4 2016, 9:23 AM
This is the only day of the year that sounds like a military command: "March Forth"! That is certainly not as interesting as the SAT eliminating "tri...
Thu, Mar 3 2016, 9:52 AM
Household debt increased 0.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the NY Fed . Student loan and auto loan financing are growing the most, while mort...
Wed, Mar 2 2016, 10:55 AM
March... St. Patrick's Day, the religious holiday to honor St. Patrick who introduced Christianity to Ireland in the fifth century. Fortunately there ...
Tue, Mar 1 2016, 10:57 AM
I head to Atlanta today for a conference on preventing fraud, and decided to see what its housing market has been up to recently. It turns out that At...
Mon, Feb 29 2016, 10:31 AM
Lenders everywhere are looking forward to a great March given their swollen locked pipelines . As thousands of operations folks descend on Ellie's co...
Fri, Feb 26 2016, 10:58 AM
I continue to see lenders and vendors who are trying to help their clients in the best ways they know how in spite of the labyrinth of weighty, and o...
Thu, Feb 25 2016, 11:11 AM
How much do small firms spend on examiners and auditors camping out in their shops? And w hat about legal bills? I am sure it is a tiny fraction of w...
Wed, Feb 24 2016, 10:44 AM
Here's your IT lesson for the day. The NSA's Skynet program utilizes metadata to identify suspected terrorists. The system uses mass surveillance of...
Tue, Feb 23 2016, 10:26 AM
Actuaries, statisticians, the press, and the mortgage industry love acronyms and abbreviations, any list of which would take up this entire commentary...
Mon, Feb 22 2016, 10:12 AM
In the last 50+ years Detroit has lost nearly two thirds of its population. (Yes, 2/3.) And now the City of Detroit is offering up a mortgage pair...
Fri, Feb 19 2016, 10:36 AM
"A man goes to his nearest zoo. He walks around the entire place and the only animal there is a dog. It was a shih tzu." In a similar vein, I guess, b...
Wed, Feb 17 2016, 11:02 AM
To put some perspective on things, a trillion seconds is roughly 31,710 years. The Fed indicates that household housing debt is about $8.8 trillion ...
Tue, Feb 16 2016, 10:52 AM
The mortgage industry has certainly taken its lumps in the last eight years. Things are turning around, and Jason Frazier from California's Mason McDu...
Fri, Feb 12 2016, 11:30 AM
(Note: Monday is a federal holiday , and there will be no commentary.) Here's a note I received from the owner of an independent mortgage bank with a...
Thu, Feb 11 2016, 9:39 AM
What's this? Fifty five thousand residents in one mile-high building? Doesn't Tokyo have earthquakes? Let's hope not everyone wants hot water at the...
Tue, Feb 9 2016, 10:44 AM
"Have you heard the latest statistics joke? Probably." CNN reports the latest data from the IRS finds the top 10% of Americans make $128,000 in min...
Mon, Feb 8 2016, 10:42 AM
I asked my cat Myrtle (is she my mews?) if she knew anything about cybersecurity. She gave me a look that told me she spends as much time worrying abo...
Fri, Feb 5 2016, 1:32 PM
"How much does it cost to buy sixty female pigs and forty male deer? One hundred sows and bucks!" Money? I continue to be amazed at this stat: last y...
Thu, Feb 4 2016, 10:02 AM
Lenders
should know that the FDIC indicates it expects banks to evaluate and
manage cyber risk as it does any other business risk and to do so a...
Wed, Feb 3 2016, 9:08 AM
I
spent some time at the Texas Mortgage Banker's event earlier this week
in Houston, and some of the discussion revolved around another refi
bo...
Tue, Feb 2 2016, 9:14 AM
Where
does the penalty money that the CFPB collects go? And is it correctly
disbursed? The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has some thought...
Mon, Feb 1 2016, 8:34 AM
February
already? Ah, Valentine's Day - remember as a kid when your classmates
would hand out a 5 word card to every classmate and you received 20...
Fri, Jan 29 2016, 11:00 AM
Since
its Friday let's veer away from mortgages for a quick moment. With the
recent rash of celebrity and music deaths, including the Jefferson
...
Thu, Jan 28 2016, 10:27 AM
Zillow
is predicting that the rental market will cool down this year. Median
U.S. rents grew at a 3.3 percent annual pace in December, to $1,381...
Wed, Jan 27 2016, 9:31 AM
There
are traveler trailers and motor homes but have you heard of a Home RV?
EscapeHomes owner Dan Dobrowoski has created a tiny home, the Travele...
Tue, Jan 26 2016, 10:18 AM
What does Florida have that the rest of us don't? The highest percentage of cash buyers according to Zillow's latest research.
There are plenty ...
Mon, Jan 25 2016, 10:58 AM
Rumors are swirling that AIG has decided to pursue a partial spin-off of its mortgage insurance business,
United Guaranty (UG). Stay tuned for t...
Fri, Jan 22 2016, 11:29 AM
The
FHA's insurance fund is out of the headlines , having moved above the
mandated 2% level. (Yes, for the first time since 2008!) Everyone agree...
Thu, Jan 21 2016, 10:27 AM
Underwriters will want to know that IBISWorld has identified the top ten sectors with expected rapid growth price in 2016 .
Legal services are expe...
Wed, Jan 20 2016, 10:48 AM
If
you think regulatory trends aren't influencing businesses, big and
small, think again. In the latest "big" example, insurance company
MetLi...
Tue, Jan 19 2016, 12:16 PM
Tom
Finnegan contacted me yesterday saying, "Rob, yesterday you published a
list of reasons why loans are not currently being purchased. One of th...
Fri, Jan 15 2016, 10:51 AM
I've
spent some time going through airport security last week & this
week with time in Texas, Northern California, Colorado, and now Ft.
Lauderd...
Thu, Jan 14 2016, 9:05 AM
I'd
recently heard of an English teacher in high school who preached,
"Practice safe text, use commas...and never miss a period." How about
neve...
Wed, Jan 13 2016, 9:55 AM
Dodd-Frank
rules require public companies to provide their shareholders with an
advisory vote (non-binding) on the compensation of the most highly...
Tue, Jan 12 2016, 10:52 AM
Seen
recently: "The lottery gives you a one-in-two hundred million chance of
not going in to work tomorrow. Alcohol gives you one-in-five." What a...
Mon, Jan 11 2016, 10:45 AM
Plenty
of people around the industry believe that the three popular rating
agencies (Standard & Poor's, Fitch, and Moody's) have escaped their
p...
Fri, Jan 8 2016, 9:59 AM
Residential
lending, and real estate in general, is impacted by legal maneuvering
big and small. Sure the big cases and settlements garner the h...
Thu, Jan 7 2016, 10:31 AM
By
most accounts 2015 was a decent year for many builders, lenders, and
real estate firms - especially here in Texas where I'm spending a few
da...
Wed, Jan 6 2016, 10:15 AM
The Wall Street Journal reports banks are beefing up cybersecurity defenses
by taking actions that include banning employees from using USB drives...
Tue, Jan 5 2016, 11:03 AM
For
anyone who likes numbers, the U.S. Census Bureau projected the United
States population was 322,762,018 on Jan. 1. This is an increase of
2,...
Mon, Jan 4 2016, 10:23 AM
"Rob,
I can't help but notice the enormous TRID frustration among so many of
your readers. While we/MBA were successful in getting the letter fr...
Thu, Dec 31 2015, 12:41 PM
Given
my Resolutions from a year ago, and looking back at 2015, I've got
today to get skinny, save money, learn French, and undrink 987 bottles
...
Wed, Dec 30 2015, 10:39 AM
Death
is rarely funny, and the aftermath can be even worse. But here's an
interesting twist on things. Even in our digital world where e-mortgages...
Tue, Dec 29 2015, 11:45 AM
Are
you reading this while figuring out what you're going to do New Year's
Eve? The latest research studies find it is nearly impossible for our
...
Mon, Dec 28 2015, 12:02 PM
Fetch
your HP 12c - here's some math magic. Take 259, multiply it by your
age, and then multiply that by 39. You'll see an interesting result.
(...
Thu, Dec 24 2015, 11:45 AM
As
much of the nation reels from storms and their damage, and lenders
review their disaster policies, there is one thing we don't have to
worry ...
Wed, Dec 23 2015, 11:22 AM
It
is the holiday season. Some of us abstain from drinking alcohol, some
of us don't. And among those that don't abstain, some drink a little and
...
Tue, Dec 22 2015, 12:11 PM
Yesterday I posted some USDA rural housing updates ,
and received a couple notes from astute readers on a couple errors. The
upfront guarantee fe...
Mon, Dec 21 2015, 11:00 AM
Congratulations
- from here on out we'll see more daylight in the Northern Hemisphere
every day. And for readers living in Anchorage, Alaska, wher...
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