“This commentary is only available while supplies last!” In the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims, working hard in Plymouth Colony after coming to North America with limited supplies in 1620, held a three-day feast to celebrate a bountiful harvest: the nation's first Thanksgiving. No football was involved. (During the Lincoln Administration it became a national holiday in 1863 to be observed on the fourth Thursday of November.) 300 miles to the southwest, New Jersey has spent $2.6 billion replenishing the Jersey Shore with sand since 1922 and given the inexorable march of climate change fueling beach erosion, the fear is that not even that will be enough to keep the beach alive. Per foot of shoreline, Jersey has been one of the most aggressive when it comes to shoring up the beach. There are other ways to stabilize the shoreline, like facilitating vegetation and building out hard structures like jetties and t-groins, but those haven't seen anywhere near the investment that "just throw some more sand on it" has. (Today’s podcast can be found here, sponsored by Candor. Candor’s patented automated underwriting decision engine, CogniTech, is a state-of-the-art, 100 percent machine platform that can handle infinite loan scenarios.

Lender and Broker Software, Products, and Services

To help lenders succeed in an ever-shifting financial market, ICE has developed the Surefire CRM and Mortgage Marketing Engine’s Blueprints for Success: plug-and-play marketing journeys that help mortgage lenders quickly unlock results for more than a dozen common business cases. Serving lenders of all types across many market cycles has given Surefire a wealth of data on what works best and when. These insights have been codified in Blueprints for Success, giving lenders the advantage of decades of mortgage marketing research paired with award-winning content. To discover how Surefire can help accelerate your path to profitability by engaging leads, improving pull-through and fostering repeat business, schedule a demo with the ICE team today.

With all the technological advancements over the years, you’re probably asking yourself why is my subservicer so behind the times? Don’t they understand how leveraging today’s technology will help meet your customer’s needs? Servbank understands how you feel and has built cutting-edge technology to meet your needs. With its revolutionary servicing platform SIME, Servbank provides you with a user-friendly, completely transparent, on-demand access view of your portfolio. You can generate 150+ standard and customizable reports, instantly listen to recorded customer calls, review completed transaction history, and more. SIME also drives all private label client websites and mobile apps, which proactively empowers customers to independently manage their mortgage, resulting in an 82 percent self-service rate. Servbank designed SIME to give you the data, transparency, and assurance you deserve so you can feel confident knowing your portfolio and customers are in good hands…which is how servicing should be. Come experience excellence: Partner with Servbank.

As the Thanksgiving festivities wind down and the holiday frenzy begins, it's still important to remain vigilant and think before you click. The human element is the easiest target for cyberattacks, and data reveals the dangers of careless clicking. However, with proper training, your team can become your greatest defense against these attacks. In 2022, social engineering was the top attack vector, even for the best teams. Discover how to strengthen your human cybershield now so you can cross one thing off your list this holiday season. Reach out to Richey May's cybersecurity experts to assess and define your cybersecurity training needs. Don't let the cyber criminals take advantage of your holiday festivities.

Discover how selecting the right loan origination system (LOS) can transform your business. As a mortgage lender, your choice of LOS is pivotal in maximizing efficiency, ensuring a return on investment, and ultimately, winning more borrowers. Your LOS should function as the central hub of your technology stack, enabling you to coordinate your entire business from a single system of record. With Encompass® by ICE Mortgage Technology®, you can streamline the entire lending workflow in one unified system of record, significantly saving time and money throughout the loan manufacturing process. Click here to explore more ways to reduce your origination costs.

Correspondent and Broker Products

“We are excited to announce the NEW Bayview NON-Agency Loan Product expanded and simplified guidelines on our DSCR product. Up to 80 percent LTV on Purchases & Rate/Term, * Interest only loan options available using ITIA Payment, Multi-property/Blanket loan options available (2-25 properties), loan amounts up to $2.5 million / $6.25 million (multi-property), FICO as low as 660, DSCR ratios as low as 0.75x, and multiple pre-payment penalty options. To learn more about our various product offerings, contact our team of experts today! *Subject to terms and conditions.

Wholesale Lending - Why partner with NexBank? Competitive Products and Pricing: NexBank provides a streamlined experience that makes it easy for you to do business, along with a wide variety of products: Full suite of Agency, FHA and VA products plus competitive portfolio Jumbo and Non-QM, and pricing that gives you the competitive edge. $16 Billion in Assets: NexBank provides the strength and stability of the largest privately held bank in Texas. * Wholesale Lender since 2008: Our highly experienced and dedicated team understands the challenges that clients face and the opportunities that help you succeed. 100 percent dedicated to Wholesale Lending: NexBank does not compete with our clients for retail originations or refinancing business, and we are solely focused on building long-term relationships with our clients and helping them grow their businesses. Contact us. *S&P Global Market Intelligence as of 9/30/2023 for commercial and savings banks headquartered & operating in Texas. For mortgage professionals. Not intended for general public. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender. NMLS672886.

STRATMOR on Customer Satisfaction

STRATMOR Group’s MortgageCX program can help you deliver a world-class customer experience, which will give you a clear competitive advantage in today’s market and fuel your long-term growth and success. STRATMOR help you level-up your CX by engaging and motivating your entire staff with: Personalized scorecards for loan officers and processors, deep CX insights for managers and executives, benchmarking vs. industry peers, and reputation management tools (including hosted pages and review auto-posting). Are you willing to invest 30 minutes with STRATMOR to learn more about what MortgageCX is doing to help lenders realize their CX vision? If so, reach out to Mike Seminari.

Capital Markets

It’s a short week this week with Thanksgiving on Thursday and an abbreviated session on Friday, and there isn't much data that will be market-moving outside of the Federal Open Market Committee minutes that will be released later today. The biggest news yesterday was a solid $16 billion 20-year bond auction.

But there was plenty of data over the last week for markets to evaluate. Most of the data missed expectations one way or another and pointed to an economy that’s slowly losing momentum. Headline consumer prices fell 0.5 percent on an annual basis from 3.7 percent to 3.2 percent and core prices eased to 4 percent. Mortgage rates fell on the news as the prevailing expectation is that the Federal Reserve will not raise the fed funds rate at their final meeting of the year in December. It may still be premature to expect the committee to significantly ease rates over the next year.

Consumer spending continues to remain strong as evidenced in the retail sales report which saw control group sales rise 0.2 percent in October. While not as strong as earlier in the cycle, consumers continued to spend heading into the holiday shopping season. In a sign that the job market is cooling, continuing unemployment claims reached their highest number since the end of 2021 as laid off workers are having more difficulty finding new employment.

Today’s economic calendar has Federal Reserve’s surveys consisting of the Chicago Fed National Activity Index for October and Philadelphia Fed non-manufacturing surveys for November. Also up are Redbook same store sales, existing home sales for October, Treasury auctions of $26 billion reopened 2-year FRNs and $15 billion reopened 10-year TIPS, and the minutes from the October 31/November 1 FOMC meeting. We begin the day with Agency MBS prices roughly unchanged from Monday night and the 10-year yielding 4.41 after closing yesterday at 4.42 percent. The 2-year is down to 4.89.

Employment and Transitions

An established independent mortgage bank in the Dallas metro area is searching for an Accounting Manager. “Join our dynamic team as an Accounting Manager and play a key role in overseeing all financial activities. You will be responsible for ensuring accurate and timely financial reporting, managing the accounting team, and maintaining compliance with industry regulations. Your expertise will be crucial in analyzing financial data, identifying trends, and providing strategic recommendations for improvement, collaborating with other departments to streamline financial processes and enhance efficiency. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in accounting, excellent leadership skills, a deep understanding of industry regulations, and either live in the Dallas area or be prepared to relocate. Encompass and AMB experience preferred. If you are a detail-oriented professional with a passion for finance and a desire to make a significant impact, we invite you to apply for this exciting opportunity.” Interested parties should send a confidential resume to Chrisman LLC’s Anjelica Nixt for forwarding.

Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation’s commitment to technological advancements in the closing process is notable and reflects broader industry trends toward digitizing mortgage transactions for the benefit of borrowers. Fairway recently reached a significant milestone by surpassing 100,000 eNotes on the MERS© eRegistry, and more than 150,000 eClosings overall. Borrowers have provided positive feedback about their eClose experience. They recognize that a digital solution reduces stress and saves time over a traditional paper closing. Being able to preview and sign documents in advance of meeting with their signing agent adds convenience and can even reduce errors, enhancing the overall process. Fairway’s teams report close to 80 percent of all eligible transactions have an eClose component. Fairway continues to look to the future of fully digital and remote transactions, closing how, when, and where their borrower would like.

“Independent Mortgage Banker owners: If you are uncertain how you will survive this winter if rates remain higher, please contact me direct to discuss a win-win opportunity. Equity Resources, Inc is an established mortgage banking company that has been successful in business for 30 years. We are privately owned and continue to look at growth opportunities. We offer a full marketing team and a media production team to provide best-in-class support to our loan officers and partners. Our history and culture are exceptionally important so let’s have a conversation to see if we may be a fit. We are large enough to offer exceptionally sharp pricing and products, yet we have a boutique feel where you may talk to the owner of the company at any time. We have a successful history of incorporating other companies into our model. Please contact Tom Piecenski, EVP of Sales.

Accomplished industry veteran joins WeLoan! WeLoan proudly announces the addition of Frank Fuentes to its team as Executive Vice President of Retail National Sales. With an illustrious career spanning over 20 years in the financial services sector, Fuentes will oversee the Retail National Sales division, solidifying WeLoan's position as a growing presence within the mortgage industry. Fuentes joins WeLoan with recent experience as a Top Producing Loan Officer, Producing Branch Manager and National Vice President of Multicultural Community Lending. "We are thrilled to welcome Frank. His extensive experience and proven leadership in the multicultural sector align perfectly with our commitment to delivering exceptional value to our customers," said Rey Reyes, WeLoan CEO. WeLoan, a dba of Sharp Loan, Inc., is a California-based mortgage lender committed to excellence, customer satisfaction, and personal service.

“Cody Archer, a seasoned financial industry leader with over 22 years of experience, joins Northpointe Bank as Vice President of Business Development. Cody's impressive career spans from AG Edwards to United Guaranty and MGIC, where he consistently garnered many accolades and multiple awards throughout his career. Cody’s primary goal at Northpointe is to attract top-tier sales talent, while also championing the comprehensive tools and resources available to pave the way for success! At Northpointe, we pride ourselves on a diverse product menu, a steadfast commitment to efficiency, and an unwavering dedication to exceptional customer service. Our workplace is a high-performance environment that values its team members and customers like family. If you're eager to advance your career and become part of a dynamic team that encourages personal and professional growth and fosters meaningful relationships, connect with Cody Archer today to explore the exciting possibilities that await you at Northpointe Bank!”

Congratulations to Dave Gottfried who has joined MBS Source, an electronic trading marketplace for structured products!