Dang these five-day work weeks seem long! My cat Myrtle doesn’t seem overly concerned with work, days or weeks, as long as that line-caught ocean salmon keeps showing up in her bowl. Food? From Michigan, Don C. observes, “I hate when I think I’m buying organic vegetables, and when I get home, I discover they’re just regular donuts.” Spell them doughnuts or donuts, who out there doesn’t get excited when they catch a glimpse of that pink box coming through the door? But these treats have always faced an uphill battle for volume. Volume? According to Curinos, June 2022 funded mortgage volume decreased 48 percent YoY and 5 percent MoM. In the Retail channel, funded volume was down 53 percent YoY and 5 percent MoM. The average 30-year conforming retail funded rate in June was 5.31 percent, 32-bps higher than May and 207-bps higher than the same month last year. (Curinos sources a statistically significant data set directly from lenders to produce these benchmark figures; drill into this data further here.) What’s ahead? We all have a chance at listening to the MBA’s Dr. Mike Fratantoni discuss the latest MBA projections. (Today’s podcast is available here and today’s features an interview with SimpleNexus’ Chief Customer Officer Andria Lightfoot on keeping clients happy in a tough market environment. This week’s podcast 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

What type of mortgage do you need Flagstar Bank to warehouse for you? In all likelihood, Flagstar covers it. Flagstar’s warehouse range is vast, including (but not limited to) Non-QM, conventional, government-insured, second mortgage, manufactured housing, reverse mortgage, and construction loans. And Flagstar backs it with best-in-class resources to support you, including your own dedicated loan processor and relationship manager. Which means Flagstar knows you, your business, and is quick to respond if an issue arises. It’s how Flagstar became one of the largest warehouse lenders in the country. And it’s all part of Flagstar’s Human-Interest Rate: interest in its clients. Interest in solutions that put them first. Contact Jeff Neufeld today to discuss what Flagstar can do for you.

Scale up or down on demand. Cycles will always come and go in the mortgage industry. If you’re still trying to manage the market’s cyclicality by adding or reducing headcount, you need a better solution. You’ll find it with the Mortgage Automation Suite brought to you by Richey May Automate and Zoral Group. Intelligent automation not only helps you weather downturns without layoffs. It also helps you retain talent because there's less risk of jobs being eliminated. Hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), the Mortgage Automation Suite from Richey May and Zoral scales up or down on demand. So you get a built-in backup virtual workforce that alleviates pressure on your staff from loan officers to underwriters and back-office employees. Learn more about how to decrease costs and increase productivity with the Mortgage Automation Suite by Richey May and Zoral. Sign up for a demo today.

NEW REPORT: 2H 2022 Outlook: Advice from five mortgage vets on Managing the Possible Recession Ahead. The news paints a challenging picture for the remainder of 2022—but the truth is, with deliberate planning, it’s very possible to make money in tough markets like today’s. To dig into the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, mortgage solutions provider Maxwell asked five experts (Serent Capital’s Amy Brandt, Richey May’s Seth Sprague, and Maxwell leaders Bryan Traeger, Anthony Ianni, and Kim Powers) for their thoughts on the second half of 2022. The result is a forward-looking game plan to help lenders best position themselves to compete in a tightening market. For expert advice on how to allocate spend to bolster your bottom line, launch new loan channels and products like HELOCs, hone your mortgage process to achieve peak efficiency, and more, don’t miss this free report. Click here to download 2H 2022 Outlook: Managing Rising Rates, Declining Volume & the Possible Recession Ahead.

California has a New Down Payment Assistance option for County Employees in 37 Counties! Golden State Finance Authority is now offering up to 5.5 percent in down payment and closing cost assistance (DPA), combined with attractive First Mortgage interest rates for employees of GSFA Member Counties purchasing or refinancing a primary residence. The “Assist-to-Own” DPA is available for single-family 1–4-unit residences, condominiums, and townhomes and even some manufactured homes. The Program has flexible guidelines: minimum FICO 640, maximum DTI 50%, and best of all there is no first-time homebuyer requirement to qualify. If you are a Lender interested in offering “Assist-to-Own” DPA to your borrowers, join GSFA for lender training or visit here for more info.

Wholesale News

Often wholesale investor changes move in lockstep with correspondent changes. But the risk profile of the businesses is different, the pricing different, and who bears the legal responsibility when something goes wrong with the borrower or collateral can vary. Let’s see what a random sample of correspondent investors have been up to outside of the usual reactions to Agency news.

Brokers! In celebration of National Mortgage Brokers Day, Orion Lending is waiving Underwriting Fees on all loans uploaded on Monday, July 18th. Orion is dedicated to helping you serve more borrowers with new Jumbo AUS and Jumbo AUS Plus products being released Tuesday, which includes 15YR Fixed, 5YR, 7YR and 10YR ARMs as well as improved 30YR fixed pricing! Lock your loan in seconds with Orion’s new QuickLock pricing feature. No 3.2 or 3.4 required! If that wasn’t enough to celebrate, National Homebuyers Fund (NHF) DPA is back! FICO scores down to 600, forgivable and repayable 2nd options that are perfect for DACA/FTHB: what’s not to love? Keep in mind, new Brokers can get Express Approved by clicking here and start submitting loans by the end of the day! Additionally, Orion Lending offers a 15 BPS New Broker Price Special* on all products! With a broad range of new products and more on the horizon plus our 24-Hour SLA’s on select purchases, now is the time to hyper speed your business with Orion!

“Partnering with a reliable Non-QM lender can make navigating an uncertain market easier. NP, Inc. continues to be a trustworthy leader in Non-QM by being well capitalized and maintaining liquidity. We’ve honored all locks and loan commitments and are dedicated to being a fair market player, especially when the market gets tough. This position helps us to grow with our Non-QM clients even now: we launched our newest product, Select Flex Supreme, just last month. Flex Supreme allows for loan amounts up to $3 Million and DTIs up to 50%. It’s been designed specifically to offer better pricing options for full-doc borrowers (up to 89.99% with no MI and down to a 640-credit score) and those needing alternative-doc options (up to 80% LTV and down to a 680 credit score). To learn more about partnering with us or how you can take advantage of our new Flex Supreme product, please email Chris Penesso.”

United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) launched the UWM Partner Academy, an online Learning Management System (LMS), available to UWM partners at no cost. UWM Partner Academy comes equipped with a library of mortgage-related tutorial videos, each 1-10 minutes in length, with short knowledge checks included. Recently announced was also UWM’s new competitive pricing program, Compete & Beat. The exclusive program allows UWM to match and beat the prices of 20 of the top wholesale lenders on conventional, government and jumbo loans on primary, second and investment properties. Effective until June 30, UWM will beat select competitors on 30-, 45- or 60-day lock pricing by 1 bp to a maximum of 40 bps. For example, if UWM is outpriced by 31 bps, it will give 32 bps.

PRMG Product Update 22-33 includes information on requirements for new Pennsylvania Manufactured Home properties, clarification on acceptable trust options, States in which its Diamond Jumbo interest-only product is available, and more.

loanDepot Wholesale posted a reminder that the appraisal ordering screen in the mello® Broker portal defaults to the acceptable appraisal product, based on AUS findings. To ensure timely delivery and minimal costs of your preferred appraisal product, ensure that the preferred appraisal product is selected in the appraisal ordering screen dropdown at time of initial appraisal order.

Don’t forget that Mid America Mortgage, Inc. (Mid America) has rebranded as Click n’ Close following the sale of the majority of its retail lending operations to Houston-based Legend Lending. Click n’ Close will retain retail operations related to its reverse mortgage and Native American lending business and focus on delivering innovative down payment assistance (DPA) and adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) products through its third-party originator (TPO) channels.

Mountain West Financial Wholesale posted the recap of June bulletins released in MWF Wholesale Bulletin 22W-056. Complete bulletins are located on the MWF Wholesale page under News & Events.

As its “July Special,” Mountain West Financial Wholesale is continuing its improved Fast Forward adjustment throughout the month of July. Loans must be locked between July 1st and July 31st, and this applies to new locks only. All of the details are available in MWF Bulletin 22W-057.

Mountain West Financial posted upcoming changes affecting CalHFA 1st mortgage loans that are combined with a Forgivable Equity Builder Loan 2nd trust deed. View MWF Wholesale Bulletin 22W-058 for the details which will be effective for loans locked on & after July 11, 2022.

PRMG posted updated requirements on Chenoa and CalHFA products. Chenoa LLPAs are now applicable on most loan scenarios, it’s necessary to manually determine bona fide and non-bona fide discount points to establish the maximum available rate (OB will no longer exclude non-available rates). CalHFA first mortgage loans reserved, and rate locked on or after 7/11/22 that are combined with a Forgivable Equity Builder loan second mortgage, will require a minimum combined CLTV of 80 percent. Review PRMG’s Product Profile Update 22-34 for additional product updates including multiple agency updates.

Capital Markets: Inflation in Focus

We received a set of hotter than expected inflation figures for the second day in a row yesterday, this time in the form of the June producer price report. The PPI report exceeded headline expectations, rising 1.1 percent month-over-month to lift the year-over-year rate to 11.3 percent, just below its peak from March (11.5 percent). The PPI focuses on inflation at the wholesale level, which will eventually translate into higher prices at the consumer level. Inflationary pressures were most pronounced in the manufacturing sector due to higher energy prices, and roughly half of the increase was attributable to gasoline prices. The release overshadowed the latest initial claims, which remained at a relatively low level, but still increased 9k to 244k, the highest mark since early February.

The increase in the CPI and PPI has changed the outlook for the FOMC meeting later this month, with markets now pricing in an 83 percent chance for a 100-bp hike in the Fed Funds rate. However, both Fed Governor Waller and St. Louis Fed President Bullard pushed back on the 100-bp point hike talk yesterday. Expectations are for a Fed funds rate of 3.75 percent to 4 percent by the end of the year, which would indicate another 125-bp of increases in September, October, and December. It’s not a pretty picture for the economy, as we are already talking about recessionary conditions now with this much tightening ahead of us and a nine- to 12-month lag for the economic effects of rate hikes to trickle through.

The Federal Reserve continues to use money from early payoffs. Yesterday afternoon, the NY Fed Desk released the MBS purchase estimate for the July 15 to August 11 period which totaled $12.0 billion, as expected, including the $17.5 billion taper. The Desk also released a new schedule covering the July 15 to 28 period totaling $6.0 billion which does not contain any changes in coupons versus the prior schedule with 30-year operations targeting 4 percent through 5 percent and 15-year operations targeting 3.5 percent and 4 percent. Today’s schedule sees one of the aforementioned UMBS15 operations with the Desk in 3.5 percent and 4 percent for up to $180 million.

Today’s calendar is packed with first tier data including some of the inflation variety. We’ve already received Retail Sales (beating expectations at +1.0 percent, ex-auto +1.0 percent), import/export prices (imports were +.2 percent), and Empire manufacturing (improving to 11.1). Later this morning brings June industrial production and capacity utilization, May business inventories and final July Michigan sentiment. We begin the day with Agency MBS prices unchanged from Thursday night and the 10-year yielding 2.96 after closing yesterday at 2.96 percent.

Employment

Sierra Pacific Mortgage (SPM) continues to bring new talent to its team. Debra Watt has joined the company as the VP/Divisional Sales Leader East and will oversee the Eastern Retail production and growth initiatives. Debra started in the mortgage business in 1994 and throughout her career has successfully built and managed teams at both Correspondent and Retail bank lenders. The Retail Channel also welcomed Suzie Ludwick as Southwest Regional Sales Leader, Todd Lawler as Midwest Regional Sales Leader, and Stan Schnippel as Mid Atlantic Regional Sales Manager. These new hires bring a wealth of leadership experience and align with the core values that are foundational to the ONE Sierra company culture. As SPM continues to expand its footprint in markets across the country, SPM is seeking talented mortgage professionals to join the growing team! For loan originators and branch managers interested in more information, please contact John Goulding.

Evergreen Home Loans™ is excited to announce the addition of Hal Sims as its new director of talent acquisition. Sims is responsible for leading and managing recruiting efforts for the organization. As Evergreen continues to grow, he will participate in strategic planning and growth initiatives to take Evergreen to the next level. “Evergreen has built a solid reputation as the premier mortgage company to work for by putting people first,” said Sims. “I’m excited to help the company grow by leading a dedicated team of talent acquisition managers who all embody the company’s core convictions.” If you’re a loan officer and want to work with a company dedicated to innovative products geared for your success and a place where personal and professional growth are a priority, visit the Evergreen Careers page.

“LoanCraft is seeking a Business Development Manager to help us grow. Qualified candidates will have a B2B sales background focused on the banking or mortgage industry. You will lead initiatives to generate and engage with business partners to build new business for the company. Please apply here: Business Development Manager . LoanCraft provides mortgage automation solutions and tech-enabled outsourcing services to lenders, built on a robust PPE platform. Services include all forms of income calculation services including self-employed income, automated credit scan tools, document solutions, and "Best Offer Wizard" offer selection and promotion. Outsourcing services include complete fulfillment of real estate loans.

Our on-demand income report service is transforming the process of calculating income. We provide a rapid and accurate assessment of income with the ease of ordering an appraisal. Customizable to conform to our customers’ guidelines, the report is well suited for all types of borrowers including self-employed and business owners.”