Mon, Jan 24 2022, 11:42 AM
Anyone who’s seen 1968’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” remembers the talking computer HAL (whose name was cleverly derived from subtracting one letter from ...
Fri, Jan 21 2022, 10:57 AM
As I head to Northern California, and mourning the loss of Meatloaf, I’m thinking, “Dang. I guess that I shouldn’t have put my entire 401(k) into Pelo...
Thu, Jan 20 2022, 11:01 AM
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 ...
Wed, Jan 19 2022, 9:02 AM
As I head to Orlando this morning for business meetings, much of the concern is about Treasury yields, with mortgage rates tagging along, climbing to ...
Tue, Jan 18 2022, 9:43 AM
While rates continue higher, from South Carolina comes, “I just got 30 minutes of cardio trying to pick up an ice cube off the kitchen floor.” Plenty ...
Fri, Jan 14 2022, 11:15 AM
It’s Friday, things have slowed down a little bit, and I appreciate you taking a break from Wordle to check out today’s Commentary. Here’s a riddle: W...
Thu, Jan 13 2022, 11:20 AM
2022 is already off to an “interesting” start. Going directly to the borrower , normally the role of brokers, lenders, MI companies, and other mortga...
Wed, Jan 12 2022, 12:08 PM
Most people are paid wages… will raises keep up with an annualized inflation rate of 7 percent? Others may receive a large payout from the sale of the...
Tue, Jan 11 2022, 11:05 AM
As freezing temperatures continue on in the Midwest and Northeast, keeping people inside, I doubt if there is a single person in the United States who...
Mon, Jan 10 2022, 2:43 PM
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government sponsored enterprises (GSE’s) that guarantee most US mortgages, announced substantial increases in the fees...
Mon, Jan 10 2022, 11:53 AM
While Omicron continues to grab headlines, and economists, investors, and Congress grow increasingly wary of the immense U.S. fiscal expansion as evid...
Fri, Jan 7 2022, 10:52 AM
Anyone born around this time is a Capricorn, and if you believe in horoscopes, they are the most patient and careful, and they are down-to-earth for e...
Thu, Jan 6 2022, 11:26 AM
Today is about the day when you have to think twice about wishing anyone, “Happy New Year.” Okay, maybe tomorrow. There’s a lot of news out there to s...
Wed, Jan 5 2022, 10:33 AM
U.S. travelers to Hong Kong have had better days, with Hong Kong banning travel from the U.S. Chicago schools (with over 300,000 students) have had be...
Tue, Jan 4 2022, 10:41 AM
Years on a trading desk and hedging locked pipelines teaches one that different things move bonds at different times. Right now, rates are still being...
Mon, Jan 3 2022, 10:59 AM
Tabrasa’s Patrick H. wishes everyone a Merry New Year! Yes, 2022 is here, with its thousands of cancelled flights due to weather and omicron. Older lo...
Fri, Dec 31 2021, 11:26 AM
A “handsel” is a gift given to wish good luck for the year ahead. The word dates back to the 1300s, and derives from “hand” and “selen,” an Old Englis...
Thu, Dec 30 2021, 11:12 AM
Do we have an 8-year memory in an industry with 10-year business cycles? Bridging the gap between affordability, qualifying with a low income, and ris...
Wed, Dec 29 2021, 11:25 AM
Would you tie up your money for five years and earn 1.26 percent the whole time? That’s pretty much where the $57 billion 5-year Treasury note auction...
Tue, Dec 28 2021, 11:11 AM
Whether or not you think that climate change is real, you can’t deny that there is a climate, and that climate-related disasters occur… to the tune of...
Mon, Dec 27 2021, 11:07 AM
I hope that you’re not reading this while stuck due to the thousands of cancelled flights or road closures in Northern California! Kudos to Carol K. w...
Thu, Dec 23 2021, 11:33 AM
When I was a kid, we’d trade baseball cards between each other… at least the ones that weren’t in the spokes of our bikes. The creativity, technique, ...
Wed, Dec 22 2021, 11:23 AM
Yes, you should know that today is a date palindrome. Of course people in Ohio, and Florida, know that Key West is farther west than Cleveland . Utah ...
Tue, Dec 21 2021, 11:13 AM
If you are a VA lender, or service servicemembers’ loans, you don’t want to be singled out by the Department of Justice or the CFPB. And the two of th...
Mon, Dec 20 2021, 10:52 AM
W.C. Fields said, “Money will not buy happiness, but it will let you be unhappy in nice places.” Unfortunately, many people have much less of it, and ...
Fri, Dec 17 2021, 10:38 AM
Are you afraid of the day that the Federal Reserve stops buying mortgage-backed securities? “Afraid” is too strong a word. (For many, this activity wo...
Thu, Dec 16 2021, 10:55 AM
I work hard to live a very glamorous life. I mention this because yesterday, when I sent the Commentary out from the road at a glamorous McDonalds in ...
Wed, Dec 15 2021, 10:42 AM
California has reinstituted its mask mandate. No one is interested in living in isolation again. Remember, “Your quarantine alcoholic name is your fir...
Tue, Dec 14 2021, 12:37 PM
No CEO wants to hear from their secretary, “The CFPB is holding for you on Line Two.” Lenders who have different prices in the same MSA? Don’t even tr...
Mon, Dec 13 2021, 11:31 AM
Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. If you haven’t seen a video this one from a drone ) of the destruction in the South and Midwe...
Fri, Dec 10 2021, 10:46 AM
When the public sees headlines like, “A Black Couple had a White Friend Show Their Home and Its Appraisal Rose by Nearly Half a Million Dollars,” of c...
Thu, Dec 9 2021, 10:59 AM
Want to know who’s in trouble for what? The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued its Supervisory Highlights report yesterday, which “shi...
Wed, Dec 8 2021, 10:49 AM
“Dear Santa: This year I would like a) a slim body, and b) a fat bank account. Don’t mix them up like you did last year.” Ah, if only we could turn ba...
Tue, Dec 7 2021, 11:17 AM
Today I head to San Diego for a California MBA board meeting, the home base of the Pacific Fleet. It’s been 80 years since Pearl Harbor, a “date that ...
Mon, Dec 6 2021, 11:19 AM
Do you smoke weed? Have you been vaccinated against COVID? Too early in the workweek for those questions? (Is it okay to ask if someone’s been vaccina...
Fri, Dec 3 2021, 10:56 AM
Huh? Someone told me that “reality” shows are all scripted out ahead of time and there’s a standard recipe! What the heck?! There are some things wher...
Thu, Dec 2 2021, 11:23 AM
Today, 20211202 (2nd December 2021), is a palindrome in the YYYYMMDD format. That aside, sorry the commentary is a little late this morning: I went ou...
Wed, Dec 1 2021, 11:01 AM
Lenders are focused on December, and 2022, and along those lines the MBA’s Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni will be presenting a forecast today for nex...
Tue, Nov 30 2021, 10:49 AM
Brian C. writes, “I was surprised when I got my new Tesla, instead of the new car smell, it had an Elon Musk.” Tesla was founded 18 years ago. Time fl...
Mon, Nov 29 2021, 11:02 AM
While headlines move interest rates and countries are shutting their borders again, our industry awaits the official 2022 conforming loan limits after...
Fri, Nov 26 2021, 10:39 AM
As millions of Americans convince themselves that loading and unloading the dishwasher counts as exercise, while we are reminded that rates are imposs...
Wed, Nov 24 2021, 10:44 AM
Ready to play Iowa's Thanksgiving dinner bingo ? Coffee prices are at a 10-year high, but drinkers will figure out what to do to afford it. All day lo...
Tue, Nov 23 2021, 11:06 AM
The price of plenty of things, not just mortgages, is set by supply and demand. Forget the price of turkey… how ‘bout Christmas trees?! I don’t know h...
Mon, Nov 22 2021, 11:02 AM
Time flies. For example, Thanksgiving week is here already. Debbie Harry, of Blondie fame, is 76 years old. Better.com has already been around five ye...
Fri, Nov 19 2021, 10:56 AM
Before we gear up for reported Christmas tree shortages and their exorbitant prices, Brent G. writes, “My family asked me what I was planning for Than...
Thu, Nov 18 2021, 10:19 AM
Recently the podcast, its link at the bottom of this opening paragraph daily, quoted, “Change in residential lending is mandatory; progress is optiona...
Wed, Nov 17 2021, 10:39 AM
29 working/business days left in 2021. Some MLOs, who can shift their client’s refi closings, are thinking about the tax implications of closing this ...
Tue, Nov 16 2021, 11:52 AM
Broker and Lender Services and Products 163,000 pints of Guinness are wasted in facial hair each year , according to the Irish brewery, which commissi...
Mon, Nov 15 2021, 10:54 AM
This morning I head to Kansas for the MBAKC annual membership luncheon later this week. Home price appreciation is doing just fine in Kansas City , an...
Fri, Nov 12 2021, 10:45 AM
Forget mortgages… As snow hits the Upper Midwest and rain hits the East Coast, according to the USDA, nationwide frozen turkey inventories are 24 perc...
