Tue, Feb 25 2025, 1:03 PM
In Connecticut, a portion of the formal and informal talk here is about how builder news touches on lenders. (As an aside, Home Depot’s earnings, repo...
Mon, Feb 24 2025, 11:46 AM
Today I head to Connecticut for a visit with First World Mortgage and the Northeast Mortgage Summit. Today happens to be rocker George Thorogood’s 75t...
Fri, Feb 21 2025, 11:53 AM
While much of the nation deals with the severe cold, I received this note from a new loan officer in Oklahoma. “Rob, I overheard my secondary group ta...
Thu, Feb 20 2025, 11:44 AM
“Inflation is really getting out of hand... But that's just my 5 cents.” Inflation impacts the prices of fixed-income securities, like the kind backed...
Wed, Feb 19 2025, 11:45 AM
So, you drive across town to a gym to walk on a treadmill? There are always interesting and strange things going on out there. Huh? The Florida’s gove...
Tue, Feb 18 2025, 11:45 AM
This weekend I spent a little time in the Miami Airport and overheard two people discussing how they were waiting for a builder in Tennessee to finish...
Fri, Feb 14 2025, 11:25 AM
As rumors of the demise of HMDA reporting swirl, as well as a 50 percent reduction in HUD headcount and actual VA cuts, think about this the next time...
Thu, Feb 13 2025, 11:45 AM
Capital markets participants around the world breathed a sigh of relief when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that President Donald ...
Wed, Feb 12 2025, 12:05 PM
With the whirlwind of Trump Administration news (Jonathan McKernan to lead the CFPB, playing hardball in Gaza, ending penny production, pardoning form...
Tue, Feb 11 2025, 11:49 AM
Hah! Just kidding… But did you think, “Oh no!” or “Yippee!” when you saw that subject line? The ups and downs of the Consumer Finance Protection Burea...
Fri, Feb 7 2025, 11:51 AM
“The San Diego Padres visited an orphanage in Mexico. ‘It's really sad to see their faces with no hope,’ said Juan, age 9.” In other San Diego news, O...
Thu, Feb 6 2025, 11:51 AM
“Nothing says, ‘I mean business’ than using a shopping cart at the liquor store.” We’re already 10 percent through with 2025, and residential lenders ...
Wed, Feb 5 2025, 11:40 AM
I know where to go when this Commentary writing gig grows stale. Wanna make 30 clams an hour? Costco’s hiring! (Remember when lenders and originators ...
Tue, Feb 4 2025, 11:46 AM
How’s your ability to predict the weather? Apparently not good if you’re a groundhog. It is not hard to predict how you’ll hear from the IRS, if you d...
Mon, Feb 3 2025, 11:52 AM
Where should we begin this week? There’s President Trump making good on one of his campaign promises over the weekend, and it wasn’t ending Russia’s a...
Fri, Jan 31 2025, 12:02 PM
Here in Las Vegas, I asked a German girl if Germans are afraid of numbers. She said 9. Numbers are interesting, as we will find out with the declared ...
Thu, Jan 30 2025, 11:54 AM
Any capital markets person will tell you, “What’s a surefire way to double your money in a casino? Fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.” I ...
Wed, Jan 29 2025, 3:27 PM
“Did you ever notice that when you put the two words "The" and "IRS" together, it spells "Theirs"? The impact of taxes and tax cuts (potential or expi...
Tue, Jan 28 2025, 11:44 AM
“Last year I joined a support group for procrastinators. We haven't met yet.” Lenders and vendors are certainly meeting here in Austin. What’s going o...
Mon, Jan 27 2025, 11:54 AM
“Dr. Oz says rubbing coffee grounds on your naked body will get rid of cellulite. Apparently, you can't do this in the downtown Austin Starbucks.” Her...
Fri, Jan 24 2025, 11:47 AM
“With oil prices going down, I’ll demand that interest rates drop immediately. And likewise, they should be dropping all over the world. Interest rate...
Thu, Jan 23 2025, 11:54 AM
“Be decisive. Right or wrong, make a decision. The road is paved with flat squirrels who couldn’t make a decision.” Potential borrowers wonder why mor...
Wed, Jan 22 2025, 11:47 AM
A fake image of Brad Pitt was used to scam a woman out of $850,000. (Hopefully every lender has set up policies and procedures regarding events like t...
Tue, Jan 21 2025, 11:40 AM
Please don’t touch my pizza! In a decision that has left countless fans disappointed,, including many in the mortgage ranks, Costco has decided to rem...
Fri, Jan 17 2025, 11:47 AM
We’re more than halfway through January already, the MBA has lowered its 2025 projection to $2.1 trillion, and there is a sense of “wait and see” out ...
Thu, Jan 16 2025, 11:55 AM
Do you know the interest rate on your loan? How about the age of your roof? Here in Austin, a big concern is too much growth: Austin has gained 1 mill...
Wed, Jan 15 2025, 11:48 AM
The folks here in Austin are sarcastically asking, “Who’s in your wallet?” Hopefully not Jennifer Garner or Samuel L. Jackson. The Consumer Financial ...
Tue, Jan 14 2025, 11:54 AM
“The older I get, the earlier it gets late.” It was early to bed last night for me, early to rise, since today we are heading to Austin, Texas for the...
Mon, Jan 13 2025, 11:49 AM
“An economics professor was walking with a student when the student looked down and said, ‘Look! A $50 bill!’ The professor explained, ‘That can’t be ...
Fri, Jan 10 2025, 11:51 AM
In Los Angeles County, with 4,058 square miles of land (more than Delaware and Rhode Island combined) at least ten people have died, and more than 10,...
Thu, Jan 9 2025, 11:45 AM
“My buddy’s wife complains about constantly being sexually harassed at work. He told her she can stop working from home and go back to the office if s...
Wed, Jan 8 2025, 11:47 AM
I can’t take credit for, “People don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.” Empathy and maintaining contacts are oh so imp...
Tue, Jan 7 2025, 11:52 AM
“We all get the same 365 days. The only difference is what we do with them.” In 2024 a lot of lenders buckled down every day. Time to take a breather?...
Mon, Jan 6 2025, 12:04 PM
It is right around now that people give up saying “Happy New Year” to others, mostly because they’ve lost track to whom they’ve said it. Welcome back ...
Thu, Jan 2 2025, 11:56 AM
Hello 2025, goodbye 2024. It’s been 50 years since Jaws or Godfather Part 2 were on the screens. A half a century since Kung Fu Fighting first graced ...
Tue, Dec 31 2024, 11:47 AM
Besides being enthralled with Tiger King and My Octopus Teacher four years ago, what do AL, CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, MD, MA, NJ, NY, NM, NC, RI, SC, TN, VT...
Mon, Dec 30 2024, 11:44 AM
“What do they call the 4th of July in nursing homes? In Depends Day.” (Another joke at the bottom.) There are plenty of elderly people, year ‘round, a...
Fri, Dec 27 2024, 12:02 PM
“I've just checked my home insurance policy and apparently if my blanket is stolen in the middle of the night, I’m not covered.” For many home owners,...
Thu, Dec 26 2024, 11:52 AM
“My housemates are convinced our house is haunted. I don't get it. I've lived here for 273 years and haven’t noticed anything strange.” Many people wo...
Tue, Dec 24 2024, 8:34 AM
In the news, besides American Airlines grounding all flights (it’s back running now), is Burt, the 90-year-old crocodile from Crocodile Dundee, dying ...
Mon, Dec 23 2024, 11:47 AM
Why do ducks have feathers? To cover up their butt quacks. Why did Congress pass a three-month, stopgap funding bill? To cover their… never mind. But ...
Thu, Dec 19 2024, 12:04 PM
When I see a headline with “housing” and “crash” in it, I think it is merely clickbait, and the author is trying to attract readers. For example: The ...
Wed, Dec 18 2024, 11:59 AM
“When a woman says, ‘What?’ it’s not because she didn’t hear you. It’s because she’s giving you a chance to change what you said.” Things are always a...
Tue, Dec 17 2024, 11:20 AM
Number progressions can be deceiving and surprising. Thank you to Eric D. who reminded me of “The Wheat and the Chessboard” example, guaranteed to sur...
Mon, Dec 16 2024, 11:47 AM
You don’t become cooler with age, but you do care progressively less about being cool, which is the only true way of being cool. This is called the “G...
Fri, Dec 13 2024, 12:15 PM
“They say that mafia members are nasty people. But while growing up, I lived next door to one mafia member, and he was actually a nice guy. In fact, e...
Thu, Dec 12 2024, 11:58 AM
What? You’re a builder who’s short on nails? Well, bring in some folks from Japan… they don’t necessarily need them. Of the nearly 300 types of nails ...
Wed, Dec 11 2024, 11:42 AM
“I love Christmas lights! They remind me of the people who voted for (insert name of politician). They all hang together, half of them don’t work, and...
Tue, Dec 10 2024, 12:03 PM
“To the paranoid people who check behind shower curtains for murderers: if you find one, what's your plan?” What’s the Fed’s plan? The Federal Reserve...
Mon, Dec 9 2024, 11:52 AM
“Wi-Fi outages are the new snow days!” Without the internet or cable, would we return to relying on newspapers, radios, and network channels for news?...
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