As the nation ruminates on the court ruling on the mandatory mask mandate, remember, “You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.” It is a safe bet that the Federal Reserve will raise short term rates more than twice before summer. This month’s STRATMOR blog is titled, “A Primer on the Federal Reserve and Mortgage Rates.” Here in Atlanta, in the MBA-STRATMOR Peer Group Roundtable meetings, much of the conversation revolves around interest rates, as one can imagine. The Federal Reserve is going to have a hard time bringing down inflation without triggering a recession, according to Goldman Sachs Group who believes that there is about a 35 percent chance the U.S. will fall into a recession over the next two years. Another topic is the population migrating due to tax reasons. Property taxes aren’t good, but fall into the “interesting” category as some states’ taxes have been rising while
This isn’t a commentary. It’s a “next level experience!” How are we in the week ending the first quarter already? Here’s some news that will be greeted with glee by every independent mortgage banker in the nation, whether they do business in California or not. The California MBA and national MBA, and constituents across the state, have defeated the CRA requirement for non-depository institutions in that CA. Given that 20-25 percent of residential production comes from the Golden State, it has wide ramifications. CEO Susan Milazzo tells me that the author of SB 1176 is removing all current CRA language. (Proponents of CRA requirements for IMBs relied, in part on a Greenlining Institute report.) What else are independents watching? A recent STRATMOR workshop indicated that the technology dollars spent is down for some large banks, but appears to have increased for some large IMBs as they are more likely to have transaction-based pricing than large bank
As packages of mortgage servicing rights continue to hit the market, and some wonder at the high multiples, know that the percentage of borrowers current on their mortgage payments increased to almost 95 percent, 350 basis points higher than one year ago. Other stats show that foreclosure starts jumped in February. The MBA’s monthly Loan Monitoring Survey also revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 12 basis points to 1.18 percent of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior month as of February 28, leaving 590k homeowners in forbearance plans. That marks the 21st consecutive month that percentage of borrowers in forbearance has declined. Finally, the percentage of borrowers with existing loan workouts who were current on their mortgage payments improved for the first time since June 2021. Marina Walsh, MBA’s VP of Industry Analysis, said, “These three results (the lower forbearance rates and higher performance rates for bo
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