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“Who closes the door when the bus driver gets off? The world is full of questions. “Why have all the predictions of lower rates been wrong?” Yesterday I was in the SF Bay Area giving a speech to a group of LOs and management and was asked, “Rob, are you hearing that lenders are requesting clients pay for the credit report(s) up front?” Absolutely I am. Lenders have grown weary of paying for the credit reports of loans that don’t fund and heaping those rising costs on the loans that do. “Rob, are mergers and acquisitions going to pick up?” Yes. We had one recent depository bank deal (Mississippi’s Guaranty Capital Corporation will acquire Lafayette Bancorp, Inc.), but we can expect continued deals in an 8 percent mortgage rate world as lenders and vendors, big and small, re-evaluate either their position in the market or even if they want to continue to exist. (Today’s podcast can be found here: Sponsored by nCino, ma ....
Today is World Breast Cancer Research Day, a global recognition of the life-changing research (past, present, and future) to end breast cancer. That would be nice. What is also nice, so far, is the lack of named storms in the Southeast. Lenders, and servicers, and of course homeowners, in the Southeast dread “hurricane season.” Back in May, NOAA's outlook for the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season (June 1 to November 30) called for “above normal” storm activity. But the prediction, like interest rate predictions, has so far been wrong, and it has been surprisingly quiet to date, thankfully. In the housing market, things are also quieting down somewhat as the summer season winds down. Or is it due to recession fears? Time will tell. Meanwhile, every week I receive questions about market dynamics and individual lender performance. How much did “X” produce last year? In which states? What is their product mix? What was their growth YoY? Where ....