Tue, Jan 12 2021, 9:53 AM
Nearly two weeks into 2021 already? I was just getting used to saying “2020.” Now I have to add a syllable every time. “One.” There’s continued talk o...
Mon, Jan 11 2021, 10:10 AM
Of course some found humor in last week’s riot in Washington DC. (“In light of recent events, Mexico has decided that it will pay for the wall after a...
Fri, Jan 8 2021, 10:31 AM
While the industry watches the personnel changes at Arch and National MI, I received several texts and emails pleading, “I’d like to cancel my subscri...
Thu, Jan 7 2021, 11:05 AM
Some will say that the world’s most anticipated palindrome is “1-20-21”. Others will say that Inauguration Day spells the end of personal freedom in t...
Wed, Jan 6 2021, 10:58 AM
Would you rather loan $200,000 to a Danish buntmager (furrier) or the United States Government? Well, while the industry is digesting the news that Gu...
Tue, Jan 5 2021, 10:54 AM
2021: Fifty years since the release of Led Zeppelin 4 (think Stairway to Heaven). In 1971 there were 208 million people living in the United States. N...
Mon, Jan 4 2021, 11:08 AM
Here we are on the first business day of 2021, the year of the movie Mad Max 2. (It is so much easier saying “2020” than “2021,” right?) Last year, as...
Thu, Dec 31 2020, 11:03 AM
I still don’t know what I’m wearing to the living room on New Year’s Eve. Heck, I may not even go. Wouldn’t it be nice to be on a cruise? Ever heard o...
Wed, Dec 30 2020, 10:35 AM
Loan originators in our business see potential borrowers whose monthly mortgage payments would be less than their rent payments but don’t qualify for ...
Tue, Dec 29 2020, 10:12 AM
With the passing of Pierre Cardin this morning, does it mean that bottle of cologne (circa 1978) I have in the attic became a collector’s item? The ph...
Mon, Dec 28 2020, 11:12 AM
Congress and the press have been talking about a second stimulus plan since the summer. The bill signed by President Trump last night keeps the U.S. G...
Thu, Dec 24 2020, 8:51 AM
New Homes Sales tumbled over 11 percent in November. Does that mean no one wants new homes, they’re over-priced, or there aren’t any to buy? One has t...
Wed, Dec 23 2020, 10:17 AM
My cat Myrtle (Myrtlus Domesticus) doesn’t have much in the way of material possessions. Need to get rid of unwanted junk during the holidays? Put it ...
Tue, Dec 22 2020, 10:06 AM
I hope that everyone had a happy solstice yesterday, with a few folks writing to suggest that “It is the shortest day, of the longest year, of our liv...
Mon, Dec 21 2020, 9:27 AM
As we watch the second largest stimulus bill in history move toward passage, greetings from the Winter Solstice, the official start of winter and the ...
Fri, Dec 18 2020, 10:39 AM
I don’t know what’s longer, a “regular” minute, “microwave” minute, or a “treadmill” minute. Speaking of time, if someone sends you an email saying, “...
Thu, Dec 17 2020, 10:07 AM
Who would’ve thought that one day we’d be smoking weed at a family gathering, but the illegal part would be the family gathering? For most of us, fami...
Tue, Dec 15 2020, 10:12 AM
“We were so poor when I was a kid that we couldn’t afford tinsel. We had to wait for Grandpa to sneeze.” At the opposite end of the economic spectrum,...
Thu, Dec 10 2020, 9:59 AM
“My ability to remember song lyrics from the 80s far exceeds my ability to remember why I walked into the kitchen.” The Baby Boomers are certainly rid...
Wed, Dec 9 2020, 9:58 AM
I’m gonna ask my Mom if that offer to “slap me into next year” is still on the table. It’s great to be a lender in 2020, and should be into 2021, but ...
Tue, Dec 8 2020, 10:41 AM
Huh? Talk of a government shut down? Again? Are you the typical lender off to a record December, after setting records in November, October, September...
Mon, Dec 7 2020, 8:54 AM
Large-scale mortgage in-person conference activity, and official mortgage business travel, appears to be shut down until at least the summer of 2021. ...
Fri, Dec 4 2020, 10:23 AM
Have you ever wondered why so many lottery winners go broke? If they had any financial sense, they wouldn’t have bought a lottery ticket in the first ...
Thu, Dec 3 2020, 10:09 AM
With the COVID pandemic, it doesn’t quite seem like we’re in the middle of pro football season, although apparently the folks in Jacksonville will do ...
Wed, Dec 2 2020, 11:17 AM
Fun with numbers for Hump Day! Numbers were behind HP’s decision to leave California for Houston. Thank you to Len T. who sent a great chart of the na...
Tue, Dec 1 2020, 10:08 AM
In equity news, despite some predictions to the contrary , the market had its best month since 1987. This, in the face of renewed layoffs and economic...
Mon, Nov 30 2020, 9:51 AM
Thank you to Tracy C. sent, “An unemployed court jester is nobody’s fool.” There are millions of unemployed U.S. citizens, and the CFPB, HUD, and othe...
Fri, Nov 27 2020, 9:17 AM
Left over pumpkin pie for breakfast today? Have you begun your company’s Holiday Cookbook yet? (Help corporate culture by sending an email, ad a recip...
Wed, Nov 25 2020, 9:36 AM
Second only to the excitement of the new phone book coming, the new conforming loan limit is $548,250 for 2021 , up from $510,400 in 2020, and some in...
Tue, Nov 24 2020, 10:59 AM
Remember when you drove to work every day? For non-mortgage kicks, here’s a site where you can take a virtual drive through dozens of cities around th...
Mon, Nov 23 2020, 10:02 AM
Sunday morning I was trying to explain to my cat Myrtle how the total cost of rescuing a stranded Matt Damon in all of his films (think Saving Private...
Fri, Nov 20 2020, 10:10 AM
Many years ago I was hanging out with George Clooney and made the mistake of telling him, “Look, you’ll never amount to much as an actor. You’d be muc...
Thu, Nov 19 2020, 9:01 AM
“Life is like a helicopter. I don’t know how to operate a helicopter.” Remember how exciting it was when the technology of spellcheck came along? (Peo...
Wed, Nov 18 2020, 9:13 AM
If you had 20 million close friends, and each one owed $500k on their house, the total would be $10 trillion of mortgage debt. Coincidentally, that is...
Tue, Nov 17 2020, 10:58 AM
Predictions? Show me one person, a year ago, who forecast what has happened (so far) this year! (I went to see a psychic the other day. I knocked on t...
Mon, Nov 16 2020, 9:12 AM
Here’s a good one. “I’m giving up drinking until Christmas. Sorry, wrong punctuation. I’m giving up. Drinking until Christmas.” Did you know that 1/20...
Fri, Nov 13 2020, 10:11 AM
Welcome to the first Friday the 13th of 2020 since March. What an eight months! Cindy E. writes, “The longer I stay at home, the more homeless I look....
Thu, Nov 12 2020, 10:52 AM
Are the election results under control? Thank you to Hawai’i’s Joe G. who sent along this site where the odds of who the next president will be are po...
Tue, Nov 10 2020, 10:28 AM
The headlines continue to blare and attract attention. HUD Secretary Ben Carson tested positive for coronavirus? True. Some foreign leaders not congra...
Mon, Nov 9 2020, 10:11 AM
First Sean Connery, and now Alex Trebek! Their time together on Jeopardy is legendary. (“Please refrain from using ethnic slurs!”) The last time I che...
Thu, Nov 5 2020, 10:29 AM
With Nevada’s 6 electoral college votes, nothing says 2020 like the fate of the nation resting in the hands of Reno. When sending out a daily commenta...
Tue, Nov 3 2020, 10:22 AM
What are companies doing with the 2020 money they were going to spend on travel and entertainment? Saving it for the second half of 2021? Last week I ...
Mon, Nov 2 2020, 9:44 AM
Some would say that the year is either flying by, others would suggest it is slowly bumping along the bottom. Either way, here we are in November, and...
Fri, Oct 30 2020, 9:47 AM
Happy X/XXX/XX if you are a Roman. Rome certainly had its share of slaves, and the existence of slavery in one’s family has certainly caused consterna...
Thu, Oct 29 2020, 9:43 AM
This weekend we receive an extra hour of 2020. If there was ever a reason to end the time change, this certainly is it! Markets don’t like uncertainty...
Wed, Oct 28 2020, 11:52 AM
Surely not everyone was kung fu fighting, right? I hope that we don’t see any fighting after November 3. I love to ask people, who think we’re going t...
Tue, Oct 27 2020, 10:55 AM
Etch A Sketch is buying Rubik's Cube? Who can keep up? What does a lender do when they’ve hit operational capacity, and don’t want to disappoint LOs w...
Mon, Oct 26 2020, 10:57 AM
The most reliable way to forecast the future is to try to understand the present. Vendor M&A is rampant (the latest being First American acquiring Ser...
Fri, Oct 23 2020, 9:49 AM
Let me state for the record that I am not a robot, although I often seem to be asked to check a box on certain websites by… robots. This article , how...
Wed, Oct 21 2020, 9:13 AM
Want some guidance? “If you get a loan at a bank, you’ll be paying it back for 30 years. If you rob a bank, you’ll be out in 10 years. Follow me for m...
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