A correction to yesterday’s Commentary regarding the next holiday (Memorial Day) being two months out. Several emailed that Memorial Day is actually three months away! Overheard here in Texas the hallways at the TMBA Secondary Conference: “So if we don’t let athletes bet on games that they have the ability to influence, why do we allow Congress to invest in companies they regulate?” Here at the conference, the wise use of technology is definitely an important topic (today’s Mortgages With Millennials focuses on this), as are the desirability of better mortgage regulations rather than more regulations, how many politicians seem more focused on their reelection prospects rather than bettering things, and the role of Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac going forward. (Found here, this week’s podcast is brought to you by nCino, makers of the nCino Mortgage Suite for the modern mortgage lender. nCino Mortgage Suite's three core products
Sometimes there is no shortcut when you want to make a lot of money. Speaking of making money, and creating wealth for clients, owning real estate continues to be a good investment. The National Association of Realtors tells us that more than 85 percent of metro markets registered home price increases in the fourth quarter of 2023. Its latest quarterly report reports that fifteen percent of the 221 tracked metro areas experienced double-digit price gains over the same period, up from 11 percent in the third quarter. In the lending world, according to Curinos, January 2024 funded mortgage volume increased 3 percent year over year but decreased 4 percent versus the previous month. The average 30-year conforming retail funded rate in January was 6.86%, -39bps lower than December and 47bps higher than the same month last year. Curinos sources a statistically significant data set directly from lenders to produce these benchmark figures. (Today’s Commentary podcast can be found here a
“Yesterday I completed a chore I’ve been putting off for four months. It took me 20 minutes. I will learn nothing from this.” That sums up a lot of my tasks. But that was then, and today I head to Austin, the capital of Texas and where they just voted to approve a wide-ranging property tax reduction bill. Which is good, as Texas residents will need the money for air conditioning in the 106-degree heat forecast for today. What if you’re the owner of an office building with few tenants, absorbing that AC cost yourself? Say what you will about slow times in residential lending, commercial lenders are very anxious. Rumor has it there is 1 billion (with a “b”) square feet of empty space. That’s 4.44 million 15x15 square foot offices. Word has it that landlords are very concerned about when the leases are due in commercial real estate around the nation, and world, as some percentage of people have shifted from office to WFH (working from home)
“I am part of the 4 percent who want to ban the teaching of math. We are a quarter of the country, and we will not be ignored! And that number is growing; soon we will be a fifth of the country!” While we’re being quantitative… Everyone knows that there are 50 stars on the United States Flag. In 1945 there were 48, before Alaska and Hawai’i were granted statehood. Someone should have told the folks who filmed or fact checked “Oppenheimer.” Continuing with numbers, the South or Midwest, which also boast the highest U.S. homeownership rates, are also the regions that have the highest rental vacancies in the nation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Housing Vacancies and Homeownership data. The Midwest had the nation’s highest homeownership rate (70 percent) in the first quarter of 2023, followed by the South (67), Northeast (63) and West (62 percent). A bigger share of homeowners (41.6 percent) than renters (28.7 percent)