Dang there’s a lot going on in Texas. One week it’s raining “hail the size of goat balls” (not my term; it was the phrase used by the woman mortgage banker who wrote me), the next week the state is experiencing a heat “dome” while malaria is in the headlines and a San Antonio airport ramp worker was sucked into a jet engine (ruled a suicide). Meanwhile, per the latest report from the Dallas Fed, “Texas home prices have headed steadily higher, a byproduct of rising housing demand and pandemic-related supply shortages.” For any originator interested in demographics like that, on a national scale, in doing some work for The STRATMOR Group I came across the article, “The Racial Segregation of American Cities Was Anything but Accidental.” And in the capital markets, mortgage rates have gone up faster than the 10-year. The spread between the 30-year fixed rate mortgage and the 10-year bond yield has surpassed the highs of last year and the 2008 financial crisis and is back at levels last seen when I graduated from Cal with an MBA in 1986. (Today’s podcast can be found here and is sponsored by Visio Lending. Visio is the nation's premier lender for buy and hold investors with over 2.5 billion closed loans for single-family rental properties, including vacation rentals. Through its top-rated Broker Program, Visio brokers can earn up to 5 percent. Hear an Interview with CHLA and Absolute Home Mortgage Corporation’s Matt VanFossen on issues being discussed in Washington D.C. such as MLO compensation, realtor dual licensing, and the digital mortgage initiative.)