Fri, Jul 20 2012, 11:41 AM
On Thursday, Fannie 3.5% securities (composed of 3.75-4.125% 30-yr
mortgages) traded at a 6 (yes, six) point premium . Put another way, 106.
Fannie...
Thu, Jul 19 2012, 9:56 AM
Yesterday we all learned what lock desks and pricing engines already
knew: mortgage applications in the U.S. jumped last week by the most in a month....
Wed, Jul 18 2012, 9:56 AM
With the withdrawal of Wells Fargo from the wholesale channel,
correspondent reps from the aggregators are receiving renewed interest from
mortgage...
Tue, Jul 17 2012, 10:50 AM
Someone just sent me 90 seconds of amazing footage of a CFPB auditor
graduating from the program .
(I especially like the nonchalance of the other ...
Mon, Jul 16 2012, 11:23 AM
I was very excited when my son came home the other day and said,
"I've decided what I want to do when I get out of school - I am going to be
a buil...
Mon, Jul 16 2012, 11:17 AM
em·i·nent
do·main : Noun - "The right of a government or its agent to expropriate private
property for public use, with payment of compensation."
...
Fri, Jul 13 2012, 9:32 AM
I was going to start today's commentary (from San Diego) with a reminder
to, "Be careful what you wish for," or a reminder that no one, at the
start...
Thu, Jul 12 2012, 9:59 AM
Here at the Western Secondary conference in San Francisco, talk is
focused on investors pushing purchase clearing numbers down and speeding up
purch...
Wed, Jul 11 2012, 12:04 PM
I remember in the 1980's there were charity events to help farmers. (Farmers
care about the weather - be sure to check out the weather report at the ...
Tue, Jul 10 2012, 5:49 PM
I received a note yesterday from the CEO of a mid-sized lender.
"Rob, I have begun thinking that the
CFPB is the best thing that ever happened to m...
Mon, Jul 9 2012, 10:50 AM
Welcome back to work! I'll skip the story that the press seems excited
about (a Massachusetts man paying his mortgage off in pennies), and the news
...
Fri, Jul 6 2012, 9:26 AM
A senior citizen goes to the doctor. After running some tests, the doctor
says, "I have bad and even worse news, you have cancer and
Alzheimer's." T...
Thu, Jul 5 2012, 10:32 AM
This is 70 seconds of "head shaking, jaw dropping," why one
should never bet on cards .
Many of us enjoyed a little BBQ grub yesterday. For the...
Tue, Jul 3 2012, 12:09 PM
Tomorrow, on your day off, here is 3 ½ minutes of a few very clever
creative bets that you can win.
Speaking of clever, a veteran male trader at...
Mon, Jul 2 2012, 11:51 AM
On July 4th in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved by the
Continental Congress, setting the 13 colonies on the road to freedom as a
s...
Thu, Jun 28 2012, 9:19 AM
Remember that scene in Apollo 13 when it dawns on the astronauts that
NASA doesn't know how to get them back? Regarding our economy, one can imagine
...
Wed, Jun 27 2012, 10:14 AM
I have been subtly warning groups during speeches, and writing in this commentary, about the implications of Basel III. Most of the focus is on servic...
Tue, Jun 26 2012, 8:54 AM
President Obama just played his 100th round of golf since being elected
President. In 4 years he has gone through more white tees than the cast of Je...
Mon, Jun 25 2012, 9:07 AM
The political climate is heating up. Jokes that we were able to tell on
the trading desk, regardless of political
affiliation , are flying around, ...
Fri, Jun 22 2012, 10:42 AM
Want some good news? My grades did not qualify me for admittance to Harvard
(that is not the good news), but that institution put out good research
...
Thu, Jun 21 2012, 10:39 AM
Mortgage rates are low.
But volume is a problem.
Raise our margins now!
(See Miss Hickox? Your 7th grade haiku section really paid off!) ...
Wed, Jun 20 2012, 11:38 AM
Here we are on the day that teenagers everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere
despise: the solstice. The sunrise in Nome is around 4:19AM. Even here in...
Tue, Jun 19 2012, 10:29 AM
Do we really need Congress writing or approving the industry's disclosure
forms? Can't it pick on the rental car agreement forms that no one reads,...
Mon, Jun 18 2012, 10:03 AM
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. Another ex-exec (the CFO) at
Taylor Bean Whittaker is now going to prison for five years.
Rates ar...
Sat, Jun 16 2012, 1:30 PM
The lender/investor/M&A/vendor/training/conference updates
keep coming. As always, it is best to read the actual bulletin, but these
recent notes ...
Fri, Jun 15 2012, 10:01 AM
On June 15, 1752, Benjamin Franklin performed his famous kite experiment,
proving that lightning is a form of electricity. Something that seems to be...
Thu, Jun 14 2012, 9:58 AM
Regardless of size, regardless of defense, regardless of current QC
measures, buybacks are an issue at every level. PNC , #17 lender by
volume in t...
Wed, Jun 13 2012, 12:32 PM
Industry experts believe that one of the several reasons Countrywide fell
was because of their quest for market share for its own sake, rather than h...
Tue, Jun 12 2012, 11:03 AM
Tonight the NBA finals start, just in time, or so it seems, for the NBA
basketball season to start all over again. But here's some aerobatic basketb...
Mon, Jun 11 2012, 10:29 AM
Here in Arizona, at the Arizona Mortgage Lenders Association conference,
it is clear that mortgage origination and pricing is a numbers game. Many ar...
Fri, Jun 8 2012, 9:22 AM
Unfortunately
for borrowers, and rate sheet pricing, the
Fed voted "full speed ahead" for Basel III . "Mortgage
servicing rights (MSR), for instan...
Thu, Jun 7 2012, 9:22 AM
Kids - Father's Day is coming up! The idea of
Father's Day was conceived in 1909 by Sonora Dodd of Spokane, WA, while she
listened to a Mother's D...
Wed, Jun 6 2012, 11:20 AM
Today is
June 6th, and 68 years ago the most famous D-Day took place on the shores of
Normandy. (D-Day, by the way, is a variable used in planning, ...
Tue, Jun 5 2012, 10:35 AM
I've heard
that the "average" loan officer closes about 2 loans per month. (And
some companies ask, "If an agent closes less than that in this
envi...
Mon, Jun 4 2012, 10:26 AM
I know
that some folks only read the first paragraph of this daily blather, and then
skip to the joke. That's why I am putting this in now: http://...
Fri, Jun 1 2012, 11:18 AM
Are politicians
always calm and collected and afraid to voice their opinion? Not necessarily - you
gotta check this out .
(You'd think those aroun...
Thu, May 31 2012, 10:22 AM
Sometimes I wish that I could use swear words in this commentary, but they wouldn't pass e-mail filters. But if I could, I'd use them here. Why is Co...
Wed, May 30 2012, 11:09 AM
Hey, not
every prediction about the future is right, right? In my visits around the
nation to different companies and mortgage banking groups, I con...
Tue, May 29 2012, 10:01 AM
Fannie and
Freddie aren't the only companies involved in residential mortgage lending to
be seized by the government. Here's a taste of the situati...
Thu, May 24 2012, 11:41 AM
(There
aren't many folks in the world who, on their death bed, would exclaim, "I
wish I had another day of work!" With that in mind, I am biking aro...
Wed, May 23 2012, 10:40 AM
Here is an
interesting note for debt market students: Germany is scheduled today to sell
two-year bonds that won't make set
interest payments . Th...
Tue, May 22 2012, 9:35 AM
Pick an
overwhelming percentage, like 80 or 90%. Remember when residential loan
production wasn't "that" percent agency? Non-agency loans are still ...
Mon, May 21 2012, 11:11 AM
Some
people are looking to fill their time - apparently they have too much on their
hands .
On the
other hand, some companies are looking to fi...
Sat, May 19 2012, 12:56 PM
London
plans to use a painfully "High-Pitched Sound Generator" to disperse large
crowds at the Olympics. Observers note that it will be Cindy Lauper...
Fri, May 18 2012, 9:33 AM
Facebook...Facebook...Facebook...I
guess the financial press is tired of discussing things like Europe's woes. ( Even today's closing paragraph at th...
Thu, May 17 2012, 10:40 AM
Accenture Credit Services announced that, "Low
interest rates, less competition, more regulation and tighter credit standards
have pushed the time ...
Wed, May 16 2012, 12:10 PM
Obama
played golf with Joe Biden last weekend. They were kicked off the course
because every time Obama yelled "Fore", Biden screamed - "More
Years...
Tue, May 15 2012, 2:58 PM
"Apparently,
I'm supposed to be more outraged by what Mitt Romney does with his money, than
by what Barack Obama does with mine." So wrote a witty L...
Mon, May 14 2012, 12:30 PM
What did
the Dali Lama say to the hot dog vendor? "Make me one with
everything." Some LO's out there wish the Lama could fix the pricing on
some of...
Fri, May 11 2012, 1:35 PM
Occasionally
I remind folks that rates are low . They know that, but to remind them even
further, I tell them that if Mr. & Mrs. Smith spend their ...
