Mon, Nov 27 2017, 9:10 AM
The darkest, blackest material known to man? Vantablack . Don't be the last to paint your car with it. Speaking of looking into voids, who is in charg...
Fri, Nov 24 2017, 9:13 AM
Plenty of lawyers are basketball fans. What had once looked like a defense slam-dunk now isn’t: A federal judge declined to dismiss a fan’s suit that ...
Wed, Nov 22 2017, 8:59 AM
The lending world has plenty of truly very busy people. (Or maybe that is what they tell their bosses.) How best to communicate with them? Here’s an a...
Tue, Nov 21 2017, 9:19 AM
What is more relaxing than breakfast in bed? IHOP is there for you, and is testing IHOP home delivery in various states. Roshambo to see who answers t...
Mon, Nov 20 2017, 9:14 AM
Thanksgiving week already! Let’s temporarily shift from residential lending to economics. According to the SalaryforPilot website, Air Force pilots ea...
Fri, Nov 17 2017, 9:22 AM
Here’s a tidbit for Happy Hour tonight. Currently, about 21 percent of filers take the mortgage deduction, but under the new framework only about 4 pe...
Thu, Nov 16 2017, 9:09 AM
I think the rumors out there about Richard Cordray taking a much deserved break and then, forget that governor stuff, stepping into Dave Stevens' shoe...
Wed, Nov 15 2017, 9:18 AM
I remember when being worth a million bucks really meant something, and my parents occasionally pointed out someone who they thought was a millionaire...
Tue, Nov 14 2017, 9:23 AM
Are we destined to have robots making home loans ? I sure hope not, although no one has ever accused robots of being shilly-shally. And I sure hope th...
Mon, Nov 13 2017, 9:15 AM
Wells Fargo’s retail lending division & core bank have really “taken it on the chin” in the last year or so, what with the car insurance, sales practi...
Fri, Nov 10 2017, 9:17 AM
In lending we should all continue to champion and applaud the individuals and companies that are making a difference in our quest for equality, especi...
Thu, Nov 9 2017, 9:14 AM
Regardless of presidential administration, immigrants, and millions others, need places to live, and this morning a story was published about Fannie M...
Wed, Nov 8 2017, 9:14 AM
“These businesses are in a structurally disadvantaged position, given the challenging rate environment and marketplace,” Sanjiv Yajnik, president of f...
Tue, Nov 7 2017, 9:52 AM
The MBA sent a letter to the House Committee on Ways and Means regarding its recently released tax reform proposal. Given the tax proposal, the MBA re...
Mon, Nov 6 2017, 9:23 AM
New Lender Programs Impac Mortgage Corp. offers No Income No Employment loans ("Asset Qualification Loans"). Planet Home Lending announced the additio...
Fri, Nov 3 2017, 9:23 AM
One can focus on how to obtain a free sandwich today , since it is National Sandwich Day, or focus on the new tax proposal. NAR: "...at first glance i...
Thu, Nov 2 2017, 9:20 AM
Today the House Financial Services subcommittee is holding another hearing on GSE reform. Nothing is simple, but with Congress we really have an uphil...
Wed, Nov 1 2017, 9:14 AM
Sometimes things can be misleading, or don’t tell the whole story. For example, a 15-oz. bottle of Naked Green Machine juice smoothie has more sugar i...
Tue, Oct 31 2017, 9:18 AM
Hard to believe it is Halloween already, and lenders everywhere are mired down in contests. (“Remember the shipping department’s M*A*S*H get-up last y...
Mon, Oct 30 2017, 9:19 AM
I, for one, have no interest in buying shoes online without trying them on first. The same with a mattress – I want to lie on it myself. (Lay? Lie?) I...
Fri, Oct 27 2017, 9:22 AM
The average age of a loan officer is 73. Okay, just kidding. But as anyone in the lending industry and others age, they begin to worry about things su...
Thu, Oct 26 2017, 9:19 AM
NAR wrote a white paper detailing the barriers to homeownership and many of the reasons are well-known. Of course, real estate agents wish there were ...
Wed, Oct 25 2017, 6:11 PM
Yesterday’s commentary noted that HUD Secretary Ben Carson “turned some heads by suggesting lower potential penalties for lenders, especially those fi...
Tue, Oct 24 2017, 9:23 AM
We don’t eat plain ol’ “bacon” anymore. It is usually “Applewood smoked bacon.” Given the amount of Applewood smoked bacon lenders seem to consume at ...
Mon, Oct 23 2017, 9:26 AM
The undisputed hit of the conference so far in Denver? The MBA’s mPower event on Saturday. Yes, it eliminated "a Saturday off" for over 300 women, but...
Fri, Oct 20 2017, 9:38 AM
Not only are houses becoming smaller, but the lots are smaller also. Trulia tells us that houses built since 2015 occupy, on average, 25 percent of th...
Thu, Oct 19 2017, 9:26 AM
Yesterday I had some interesting geographic involving the United States that prompted Tony H. to send a few more items. The closest state to Africa? I...
Tue, Oct 17 2017, 9:22 AM
Does the Fed Chairman make a difference? Yes. Taylor and Powell’s names continue to be mentioned, although Trump is set to interview Janet Yellen Thur...
Mon, Oct 16 2017, 9:26 AM
Given the latest tax plan, will the mortgage interest deduction stay, but become worthless? The GOP blueprint would double the standard deduction for ...
Fri, Oct 13 2017, 9:24 AM
Per Fed Chair Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve has been working to revise post-crisis financial regulations, making them less onerous and better suit...
Thu, Oct 12 2017, 9:33 AM
The driving force of housing prices is supply and demand, and the demand is increasing. In the Bay Area, and for hundreds of miles north, the smoke is...
Wed, Oct 11 2017, 9:44 AM
I mentioned yesterday that 6,762 institutions took a residential loan application in 2016, per Richey May’s HMDA dashboard data. For perspective, the ...
Tue, Oct 10 2017, 9:20 AM
6,762 institutions took a residential loan application in 2016, per Richey May’s HMDA dashboard data. That is a lot of lenders!! Another big figure is...
Fri, Oct 6 2017, 9:21 AM
Thank you to the California MBA who sponsored a tour yesterday of the Tesla Factory – the building has the 2nd largest footprint in the world (behind ...
Thu, Oct 5 2017, 9:20 AM
One of my early jobs was digging fence post holes and picking up dropped nails for a builder in 100 degree heat. No one wants to do that anymore? In b...
Wed, Oct 4 2017, 9:19 AM
Hey, I am all in favor of the tiny house movement…if I have room for my bottle cap collection, antique banks, gumball machines, Spirograph and Battlin...
Tue, Oct 3 2017, 9:18 AM
Sunday this industry lost a brother and a friend in the senseless and selfish Las Vegas massacre. Brian Fraser was an awesome husband, father, origina...
Mon, Oct 2 2017, 9:26 AM
Freddie Mac is re-imagining the Mortgage Experience to create a smarter, simpler, and less costly origination process. We're using big data and advanc...
Fri, Sep 29 2017, 9:23 AM
Yesterday was the release of the HMDA information by the CFPB. Yes, there is a dashboard to slice and dice the data; more information below. And yes, ...
Thu, Sep 28 2017, 9:25 AM
Research by the Washington Post finds only about 20% of homeowners in Texas counties that were hit by flooding have flood insurance. In separate, but ...
Wed, Sep 27 2017, 9:14 AM
Princess Bride 30-years old ? Time flies. My 94-year old father remembers his childhood phone number in San Francisco: WAlnut 4694. Telephones moved t...
Tue, Sep 26 2017, 9:21 AM
Don’t you hate it when the dog tracks muddy footprints into the house? It certainly doesn’t help if you’re trying to sell your house. What if the foot...
Mon, Sep 25 2017, 9:23 AM
Think you have problems? What if you owned a mall and your main tenant is Toys “R” Us? As in the Toys “R” Us that declared bankruptcy. You aint alone:...
Fri, Sep 22 2017, 9:37 AM
Welcome to the autumn equinox. How about this? There have been no public CFPB enforcement actions or consent orders dealing with QM, ATR, or TRID. Zer...
Thu, Sep 21 2017, 9:25 AM
I am currently in South Carolina, and as it turns out, no other U.S. region is more populous than the South Atlantic United States (Washington, D.C., ...
Wed, Sep 20 2017, 10:27 AM
UCD Information As announced in September 2016,the Uniform Closing Dataset (UCD) mandate remains September 25, 2017Lenders who can deliver the UCD are...
Tue, Sep 19 2017, 9:15 AM
Ginnie, FHA and VA News Lender updates regarding Texas and Florida are quieting down slightly, so let's play some catch up on government programs. Gin...
Mon, Sep 18 2017, 9:23 AM
Saturday's commentary contained a letter from a reader saying, "Dodd Frank may have added more systematic risk than anyone had previously considered, ...
Fri, Sep 15 2017, 9:25 AM
Florida is sometimes called, “God’s waiting room.” The area, tragically, has seen its share of destruction & death this month, but the airports are ba...
Thu, Sep 14 2017, 9:21 AM
Disaster-related news continues to be front-and-center for obvious reasons. HUD announced it will speed federal disaster assistance to the State of Fl...