Today I am in San Diego for the SD CAMP event. At the same latitude, a poll was taken by Texas Governor Greg Abbott's office which asked whether people who live in Texas think illegal immigration is a serious problem. 29 percent of respondents answered: "Yes, it is a serious problem." 71 percent of respondents answered: "No es una problema seriosa." (Did you know that Texas even has its own pledge of allegiance?) Politics aside, Texas is home to many lenders. And many hotels. Marriott certainly has the business travel market dialed in, but just six companies in the United States control 80 percent of branded hotels, and two companies (Choice Hotels and Wyndham) may merge giving us five. Choice owns Radisson, Quality Inn and Econolodge brands; Wyndham owns Ramada, La Quinta, Days Inn, Super 8, and Howard Johnson. If a takeover/merger occurs, 16,500 hotels and 46 brands will be run by a single entity. Yikes! Today’s podcast can be found
“I’m supposed to respect my elders, but now it’s getting harder and harder for me to find one.” Gradually it’s becoming harder and harder to find a bank that does loans outside of its footprint. Finding people in their late 30s or 40’s is not hard: The median age in the United States is 38. There are plenty of people in our industry in their 40s. You know, the 40s… when you’re like an iPhone 6: you don’t have all the features of the newer models but you’re dependable and affordable. While we’re on ages, yesterday a few folks pointed out that Happy Days first aired on ABC (remember network TV?) fifty years ago yesterday. (It went for 10 years until July 1984.) The show was “set” in Milwaukee but filmed in California which accounts for 20-25 percent of residential loan production and is in the news for its ADU policy. (More below.) Today’s podcast can be found here, and this week’s is
Since acquiring SimpleNexus for $933.6 million and rebranding the company, nCino has been signing new clients and cross-selling its new mortgage capabilities to existing customers.
If olive oil is made from olives, what is baby oil made from? The regulatory framework, some would say “tangled web,” facing lenders is made from hundreds of federal, state, state, local, and quasi-governmental bodies. Analogies aside, near the top of the heap is the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. The CFPB makes its priorities known and is concerned with redlining among other things. The CFPB can’t do anything about rising credit score costs, but for some reason people think it can. On Wednesday at 2PM ET, 9AM HT, the CFPB’s Mark McArdle will be educating us in a session sponsored by L1. (If you have questions you’d like asked, submit them to Robbie Chrisman.) The show will not be recorded, so tune in. Today’s podcast can be found here, and this week’s is sponsored by Richey May, a recognized leader in providing specialized advisory, audit, tax, technology and other services to the mortgage industry for almost four decades. Today&#x
“What do you call James Bond having a bath? Bubble 07.” In different bond matters, mortgage rates will always be higher than Treasury rates, in part because of the prepayment risk in mortgages that doesn’t exist with Treasury bonds. With the drop in rates, sales management personnel at lenders are busy figuring out how best to remind the staff about EPO (early payoff) penalties levied by investors while at the same time working on ways to save money besides furloughing, cutting staff, outsourcing, and re-doing vendor contracts. The recent decline in rates and increase in applications is welcome: According to Curinos, November 2023 funded mortgage volume decreased 11 percent YoY and 10 percent MoM. In the Retail channel, funded volume was down 22 percent YoY and 10% MoM. The average 30-year conforming retail funded rate in November was 7.45 percent, 25bps higher than October and 85bps higher than the same month last year. (Curinos sources a statistically significant