What’s the retail residential competition up to? Eave (not to be confused with Eaze!) launched a new software that automates mortgage applications and decisions and claims to provide buyers with a response within two days based on 10 documents. The company targets loans for high-end homes, from $665,000 up to $8 million, management includes a Capital One executive and Hailo executive, and its backers include Bessemer Venture Partners and Two Sigma Ventures. Ally is introducing the new baseball-themed edition of The Mortgage Playbook, a free resource that uses a baseball theme and familiar sports jargon to clearly outline the information consumers need to know when applying for a home mortgage. Bank of America began allowing buyers to access loans worth up to 80 percent of their home following an all-cash purchase, in some cases with a reduction in mortgage origination fees. And Better Mortgage Corp. started testing on a system to allow them to underwrite mortgages within a day.
Trainings and Events
National MI will host a Mortgage Leadership Roundtable in Orlando, FL on April 13. Capital Markets Cooperative and Fannie Mae representatives are among the speakers who will discuss a variety of hot topics relevant to mortgage lenders and servicers including the current state of the mortgage industry at the Orlando Mortgage Leadership Roundtable at the Isleworth Golf & Country Club in Windermere, FL. The free event is being hosted by National MI, a subsidiary of NMI Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: NMIH) a private mortgage insurer, along with Capital Markets Cooperative (CMC), a Computershare company with 400+ members that participate in CMC’s various programs, including secondary marketing services, and BKD, a national CPA and advisory firm. Included will be a secondary market overview, the critical role of internal audit in operational excellence, an update on Fannie Mae’s activities related to improving lender efficiencies and the quality of originations. Cultural Outreach Solutions, Kristin Messerli, Allan Weiss, CEO of Weiss Residential Research, Dana Wasson, Senior Manager for Accenture, and Chip White, Florida Housing Finance Corporation. Registration is required: contact Tracy Berry.
Gibran Nicholas, CEO of CMPS Institute and the Momentifi companies invites you to watch a free recording of the webinar he conducted last week called The Three Most Important Business Lessons You’ll Ever Learn (and how not to be the Blockbuster of mortgages). Billions of dollars are flooding the mortgage tech space because “they” see in mortgages what Amazon and Netflix saw in movies. Here’s why: according to the MBA, the average mortgage company generates $8,712 per loan and the average pre-tax profit per loan is only $237 (9 bps)! It’s no secret that loan originators are the mortgage industry’s single largest expense. No wonder why “they” want to replace you or reduce your compensation! Don’t let artificial intelligence, digital mortgages and changing market dynamics turn you into the Blockbuster Video of mortgages. CLICK HERE to watch a recording of this webinar and learn how to modernize and upgrade your business strategy for 2018 BEFORE it’s too late.
The National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers of America (NAMMBA) presents CONNECT 2018 in Atlanta on Thursday – Saturday, April 12-14, 2018. The women and minority focused agenda features speakers like the MBA’s Dave Stevens, Director of the FHFA Mel Watt, Sue Woodard, Motivational Speaker Inky Johnson, CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage Mat Ishbia, and more great speakers. Several specialized tracks including FOR HER a MBA mPower event, NAMMBA Sales Academy and more. “CONNECT 2018 is the fastest growing conference in the real estate finance industry focused on connecting like-minded professionals from across the country. This is great event for MLOs, owners, executives, managers and other mortgage professionals that are looking to enhance engagement of women and minorities in the mortgage industry.” Learn more here.
If you are a new Fannie Mae servicer, check out each of the latest 15-minute courses available now in its self-paced eLearning series: QC Audit and Compliance and Subservicer Oversight. Visit the Servicing Training page to find more resources.
Franklin American Mortgage Wholesale has published its April 2018 Wholesale Customer Training Calendar.
Plaza’s April 11th webinar, Income Analysis for Salaried Borrowers: Acceptable Documentation and Calculations is accepting registrations.
Join Mountain West Financial on April 18th for its webinar, what you need to know about manufactured homes.
The North Carolina Bankers Association is hosting the American Mortgage Conference in Raleigh May 1-2.
From May 3-6, in Destin, FL, the Georgia MBA will be holding its annual conference.
In Indiana, registration is now open for the IMBA 2018 State Convention & 60th Anniversary Gala, June 4th - 6th at the Marriott Indianapolis North. Some of the topics for this year's convention are; succeeding in a purchase market, national and state agency updates, servicing, federal and state legislative & regulatory updates, the state of real estate in Indiana.
Capital Markets
ICE, the owner of LIBOR, tells us it will live on. But the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has introduced an interest-rate benchmark to substitute the US dollar London Interbank Offered Rate. The bank says the Secured Overnight Financing Rate is designed to be an "alternative to US dollar Libor for use in certain new US dollar derivatives and other financial contracts".
Jobs and housing drive the economy, and last week we had plenty of job information. The initial economic reports for March indicate that while there will be some retreat from the exceptionally strong data released earlier in the year that they do not reflect a change in the underlying expansionary momentum. Unemployment for the first quarter remains at 4.1 percent and an average of 202,000 monthly jobs were added. Construction and retail employment showed volatility in March’s lowered headline employment, however the rest of the data appeared solid.
Looking at a couple other numbers from Friday, both ISM indices pulled back slightly in March with the ISM manufacturing index falling to 59.3 and the ISM non-manufacturing index falling to 58.8. For reference, anything above 50 is a sign of improving conditions and readings around 60 are considered extraordinary. The trade gap also increased to a near decade high and now stands at $57.6 billion.
Rates were down to end the week, with the 10-year closing back below the 2.80% threshold. That came after some overnight movement Friday stemming from President Trump ordering trade officials to consider imposing tariffs on another $100 billion worth of imports from China – though Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin attempted to assuage concerns that President Trump's tariffs will lead to a broader trade war. The Friday morning movement was dictated by March employment numbers missing headline expectations by nearly 75k, though a 0.3% increase in average hourly earnings lifted the YoY growth rate to 2.7%.
We received some color on the employment numbers from Fed Chairman Jay Powell Friday afternoon, when he commented that still moderate wage gains show that the job market is not excessively tight. Additionally, Chairman Powell said that gradual rate hikes are warranted to best promote the Fed's goals as inflation is expected to accelerate in the spring due to base effects as last year's low prints drop out.
Continuing to slice and dice the data from Friday, we saw the labor force participation rate was 62.9% in March, versus 63.0% in February. Separately, total outstanding consumer credit increased by $10.6 billion in February, short of $15.0 billion expectations after increasing an upwardly revised $15.6 billion in January. The growth in February was driven almost entirely by nonrevolving credit, which was up $10.5 billion from January to $2836.6 billion.
Turning to today’s quiet calendar, the March Employment Trends Index, previously 107.7, is due out at 10am ET. We’ll have a $48bn 3- and $42bn 6-month bill auctions at 11:30am. Finally, the Congressional Budget Office will issue its annual Budget and Economic Outlook this afternoon.
Tomorrow sees March NFIB Small Business Optimism, March PPI, and February Wholesale Inventories. Wednesday we have the weekly MBA Mortgage Index, March CPI, and March FOMC Minutes. Thursday reveals March Export and Import Prices and jobs numbers, while the business week concludes with February JOLTS - Job Openings, and Preliminary April Michigan Sentiment. We start Monday with rates versus Friday afternoon: agency MBS prices are and the risk-free 10-year Treasury note is yielding.
Jobs, Products, and Retirement
In job & personnel news, theLender is excited to announce the addition of Rick Harway as its new VP, Western Divisional of sales! “Rick comes with over 25 years of management experience and a great depth of knowledge that will help propel theLender to new heights. ‘His accomplishments and solid track record of building successful divisions is nothing short of amazing. With the addition of Rick, we will see an immediate injection in monthly volume that will lead to more broken records in 2018,’ says Cory Tona, EVP. While competition goes into survival mode in 2018, theLender will continue to innovate, grow and break records. If you are a mid-high producing Account Executive, we are interested in you and your operations team! Contact Cory Tona and be part of a fast-growing fun company with superior opportunity!”
Bank of England Mortgage is pleased to announce the addition of Peter Nesmith to its Southeast Region. Based in Louisville, Kentucky he will serve as Regional Director of Business Development and will join Regional Manager, Darren Bronski, in building and growing sales teams throughout the state and region. Nesmith is a 17-year veteran of the mortgage banking industry. Most recently he was SVP and Director of Sales for a community bank successfully leading his team to become the 2nd largest residential lender in the Louisville market. He served as the president of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Louisville in 2014 and returns to serve a second term in 2018. In addition, he has served as an Associate Director for the Building Industry Association of Louisville. “If you are ready to join the best mortgage bank in the country and make your final career move, contact Peter Nesmith (859-509-4729) or Darren Bronski (859-492-4221).”
Roostify, one of the fastest growing fin-tech companies in the country, is expanding its team and looking for an Enterprise Sales Director in the Southeast US region. The company's CEO, Rajesh Bhat, noted, "It’s an exciting time to be at Roostify. We’ve rolled out at several top-tier national lenders, we’re expanding our platform capabilities to improve more parts of getting a loan, and we’ve just raised a $25M Series B with a round of prestigious investors to help us accelerate our growth and further capitalize on a fantastic market opportunity. We’re looking for creative, passionate people to help us get there." Apply directly through the website, or contract Roostify's Talent Acquisition Manager, Ashley Burnstad.
price leading Platinum Jumbo that is approved in-house for loan amounts to $2mm with FICO’s as low as 680. MEGA has openings in Washington, Oregon, Northern California, Southern California, Texas, Colorado, Maryland and Florida. If you are an AE with a solid book of business looking for a positive change and an unsaturated territory, MEGA wants to hear from you: email Keith Stubbs.
Caliber Home Loans, Inc. retained its title as the fastest-growing mortgage company in America recently. Inside Mortgage Finance released its end of year Top Mortgage Players issue, and Caliber achieved the biggest year-over-year growth again among the 10 largest lenders! “In 2017 Caliber produced record-breaking overall volume, growing over 8%. During the same 12-month period most of the top lenders and banks decreased in volume again. Loan Consultants interested in joining a lender whose numbers are UP, should come on over to Caliber.” Contact Jeremy DeRosa or visit www.joincalibernow.com.
Congratulations to Jeannine Stanke who is retiring this week after 31 years in the mortgage department at Washington’s Banner Bank! That’s a lot of extensions and renegotiations.
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