I am in Reno today, Spokane tomorrow, but I spent much of last week in Chicago which is very much a melting pot of languages. One can walk down the street and hear similar words for the same thing: Hypothèque (French), hipoteca (Spanish), hipotēka (Latvian), hypotheek (Dutch), and hypothek (German). You’ll have to figure out the word on your own. Renovation there is indicative of what is happening in many other cities: Developers and city agencies in Chicago are working together on the LaSalle Street initiative, which seeks to bring 1,000 homes (including 300 affordable ones) to a mostly shuttered stretch of the city’s financial district. With plenty of people still content to work from home, living in a converted empty office may be the answer to the housing crisis in many areas. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s is sponsored by the STRATMOR Group, the data-driven mortgage advisory. At STRATMOR, insights and knowledge are app
I travel a fair amount via commercial airplane. (Greetings today from Ft. Lauderdale; this afternoon it’ll be Chicago.) But forget traveling in heavier-than-air-craft: there are people who live in airplanes! Meet Jo Ann, a beautician. Let’s see this baby appraise out for a refi! But the price is right for anyone willing to make the effort, as airplane carcasses are very affordable. One big topic at the Bank of England Mortgage event going on here is how interest rates impact affordability. Last week the Commentary included a link to a “handy-dandy chart for LOs to help borrowers to see how rates impact affordability.” I received several emails pointing something out, succinctly summed up by Fairway’s Mike S. “A quick glance shows that only 20% of the population’s affordability is determined by interest rates. At 3%, 65% of the country is already priced out. At 9%, that number is 85%. That means for 80% of the population, the interest rat
Does technology always trump personal skills? Sometimes. But not all the time. Good LOs use the technology that best suits them in combination with their personal attributes to help borrowers every day. “In space, no one can hear you scream. In cyberspace, no one can shut you up.” How ‘bout some IT-related stuff? Here’s a softball: did you know that “Bluetooth” was named after Harald Bluetooth? The Bluetooth wireless specification design was named after the king in 1997, based on an analogy that the technology would unite devices the way Harald Bluetooth united the tribes of Denmark into a single kingdom. Another good use of technology is exhibited by Tim Lucas who writes, “There are more than 5 million Native Americans in the U.S. but only about 140 approved lenders. I created a Section 184 calculator that shows the required down payment, MI costs, and more. There's also a flowchart and a ton of info about the program.” T
Ad marketplace is first to implement Optimal Blue's new lead-quoting application programming interface, allowing ads to display rates from multiple lenders.
My cat Myrtle (she/her/hers) doesn’t have a lot of financial savvy, and to the best of my knowledge has no 401(k). In another reminder not to put all of your net worth, or retirement money, in one place, Tesla has seen around $720B of shareholder value vaporize this year. Rivian truck stock, generally viewed as over-valued when it went public (sound familiar?), is down 89 percent. Rivian had a goal of manufacturing 50,000 electric pickup trucks this year, maybe hitting 25,000. Speaking of manufacturing, in our biz, a few times a year someone wakes up to the fact that manufactured housing, like that built in a factory under controlled conditions and a stable workforce, is a viable alternative to “regular” onsite construction. This time around it was Time Magazine to highlight this, a method that makes so much sense. (Ken S. reports that “We finance Modulars, but it is very tricky with the factory to foundation process. We only fund after installation whereas