The mortgage talk here in Cleveland is how, “Tough times never last but tough people do.” Many estimates have residential production hitting $4.8 trillion in 2021, so is there anyone left to refinance? Of course there is, and in many conversations with lenders, rate & term refis have been replaced by cash out. Black Knight, a mortgage technology and data provider, says there are still 3.8 million people who would benefit from refinancing (30-year fixed-rate mortgage holder with a maximum 80% loan-to-value ratio, a credit score of 720 or more, and a likelihood of reducing their current first lien rate by at least 0.75%) and potentially save $1 billion per month. But many MLOs and lenders have turned their attention to the purchase biz, so what are they doing? The current STRATMOR blog is, “What’s Next” about how lenders and MLOs are shifting to a purchase-centric focus. And unfortunately, even “purchase business” has a solid percentage being done by investors, and thank you to Pam B. for forwarding Redfin’s numbers on how nearly 20 percent of buyers are investors. Lastly, you’d have to go far to find anyone predicting lower rates are ahead of us in 2022. Certainly they’ve gone up, and the recent Freddie Mac PMMS showed the average 30-year rate at 3.92 percent. (Today’s audio version of the commentary is taking today off for the President’s Day Holiday but is normally available here . This week’s is brought to you by Sagent, bringing the modern experience customers expect from loan originations to servicing with platforms that let consumers manage their home-owning lives from anywhere.)