As servicing rights continue to be sold, and residential lender layoffs are rampant, here’s a quick reminder that anyone displaced can post their resume for free here; employers can view all resumes for a flat $75 for several months. Today I am passing through Chicago to the Indiana MBA conference. Unfortunately Chicago has the dubious distinction of being on the List of Top 10 Metro Areas where home prices are down the most. (Toledo, Rochester, and Detroit make up the top three.) Did you know that in 2020, there were the most first-time home buyers ever in history at 2.38 million? Interestingly the average age for a first-time homebuyer is 36 years old. What kind of customer experience are lenders offering these borrowers? In turbulent times like these, employees’ eyes and ears are tuned into what their leadership says and does. Research consistently shows that a focus on the employee experience (EX) and employee engagement results in higher revenues and productivity, be
I recently opened my slang dictionary to the page that defined the origin of, “Different ways to skin a cat” and left it near my cat Myrtle’s water bowl. She didn’t seem interested. Which is fine. Lenders probably interested in that either, instead more intent on programs, pricing, and the general movement of interest rates. The Federal Reserve is interested in global events, and global events have been important to our economy. The war in Ukraine is something that has upset the global commodity picture, while also threatening the global world more broadly. Fed Chair Powell gave us the roadmap last week. “We are raising rates expeditiously to what we have been seeing is a more normal level, which is something that we will reach maybe in the fourth quarter. But it is not a stopping point… Monetary policy works through expectations." There is a growing belief, however, that despite what happens with the overnight Fed Funds rate, 30-year