As the summer months start to take shape it appears as if there is a refinance storm brewing. The Wall Street Journal published an article yesterday that touted strong phrases like “trade tensions” and “dark economic outlook”. Now, most people would read this article and *gasp* at the fear that our strong economy looks more like that picture of flabby Arnold Schwarzenegger… but not the mortgage industry. Every single one of us is waiting in the wings licking our chops with dr

Big news in the mortgage world this week...I'm sure almost everyone is aware of the rate hike that has occurred. The Fed stuck to their plan and increased interest rates for the fourth time in 2018 despite resistance from influencing powers. We’ve seen rate hikes in this past March, June and September already, and despite efforts to delay the Federal Open Markets Committee decision they have elected to raise the targeted rate range from 2.25% up to 2.5%. The main factors that

In the mortgage industry, new lenders are popping up every day, while classic staples run the risk of fading away. Out of the top 20 mortgage lenders from 2006, only 5 survived the 2008 recession. Out of the 15 that folded, 5 were acquired by other lenders and the remaining 10 shut down operations completely. With experts predicting another recession in the coming years, what does it take to weather the storm? Who can keep their head above water? Rates are up and origination

As we enter into the final 2 weeks of Q3 it’s clear to me that the competition in our space is stronger than ever… so strong that Fannie Mae’s Mortgage Lender Sentiment Survey showed that lenders are feeling bleak about the market this quarter compared to last year at the same time. Why’s that you ask? One answer. Competition. The market is very compressed right now. Refi’s aren’t growing on trees anymore and everyone is fighting for the same piece of the mortgage pie… purcha

Home prices are up, inventory is down, lets increase rates a little bit and see what happens. I imagine that’s how the conversation in Jackson Hole went yesterday. With a rate hike coming in September I think I’m officially a believer in this 2020 recession theory. I’m also starting to question whether the Feds are in on it. It’s easy to turn on the news and see that unemployment is at an all-time low. However, there is an interesting conversation about underemployment going

Just before the walls started to close in around Luke, Chewy and Leia... Han muttered the iconic phrase, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this..." Unless the soaring housing prices have caused you to live under a rock, you’re probably aware we’re in the early stages of what some experts are calling a ‘trade war’. On July 3rd, the administration of President Donald Trump officially imposed tariffs on $34 Billion worth of Chinese goods. There are threats of tariffs as high as $800

$8,957. That was the per loan cost to originate a mortgage in Q1 of 2018. We haven’t seen the costs this high since 2013 – 2014 and it doesn’t appear that things are going to change any time soon. As an industry we lost $118 per loan in the first quarter and Loan Officers are reporting negative profits for the first time in a while. Soooo… what’s causing this mess?! The truth is it’s a bunch of different things, but let’s not act like we didn’t know this was coming. Productio

It is rare in our industry for everyone to be having the same conversation. So many people and businesses are involved in the housing market that there is always something new to discuss or a different viewpoint of an archaic rule. Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty happening out there, but you can’t look anywhere right now without hearing the same thing…rates are up, and they don’t seem to be going down anytime soon. Freddie Mac announced yesterday “The 30-year fixed mor

In my previous blog post, I discussed how home prices were outpacing the average US wage. A short housing supply and an ever-increasing demand for home purchases seemed to be the catalyst for all this. This week we received more data to confirm this general market trend. Applications for mortgages jumped 4.8 percent last week from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's seasonally adjusted report. This happened as interest rates rose again last week

Good morning to everyone out there, and I hope you’re having a great week so far! We’ve had quite a busy one, not only inside our industry, but across the board. So, I’m going to try something a little different today… since it’s been so eventful and there’s a lot to cover, I’m going to do a “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” – esque blog. If you’re not sure what that means or have never seen the show, run a quick Google search and you’ll get the idea. And that’s where we s

Think back 10 years ago to March 2008 (yeah I know, it’s March already?!). I was in college getting pumped for spring break in Florida and not caring too much about what was going on in the world around me. Little did I know that I would eventually have a career in an industry that at that time in 2008, was triggering the Great Recession that would cause American households to lose over $16 trillion in net worth. Not many people outside of the mortgage industry understand the

The MBA has announced that mortgage applications have dropped at the beginning of February, which appears to be the opposite of what we saw when we looked this time last month. Purchase applications decreased while ARMs increased, drawing a sensible conclusion that this is a direct result of the rising interest rates. As rates continue to rise, some are starting to ask what a 5% interest rate would bring to the housing market. Has creeping over the 4.5% mark for the first tim

Have you been following the PHH v. CFPB case? No? Me either, but I did find the most recent ruling in the case very interesting… so we’re going to talk about it today. To give you some background PHH (a big player in the non-bank mortgage lender/loan servicing space) filed an appeal against the CFPB in 2014 after the agency slapped a $109 million fine against them for taking kickbacks for mortgage referrals. The case called into question the constitutionality of the governmen

Yesterday, we saw a huge sell off in the bond market that led to… quite honestly, scary looking rate sheets. Mortgage rates aren’t entirely dependent on the 10-year Treasury note, but for the most part it’s the best barometer we (the mortgage industry) have to anticipate where rates are going to be… after yesterday we saw the 10-year at it’s highest since 2014 at 2.727. Long gone are the days of the sleek 3.5% rate… the reality is that we’re living in the 4% bucket now, so hu

It seems as if everyone is paying a LOT of attention to rates, the bond market, housing prices etc. That makes sense though… right? If you sit back and consider everything in play right now… then it really makes sense. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that the Republican tax plan is now in place. Experts believe that the new law will send home prices up as much as $20k thus, making renting more attractive. However, some other experts (who are these experts by