Talk can be humorous. "That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it." (Attributed to a congressional candidate in Texas.) Here in Dallas, mortgage talk is certainly wide-ranging and varied as there’s a lot going on out there as we head toward Thanksgiving week, including cost cutting, M&A, and Fair Lending. Today’s Rundown features Feliks Viner, VP of Capital Markets with First World Mortgage discussing rate volatility at 3PM ET. We have the Wall Street Journal story about the union between hoops and loans: “Mortgage King Wants the NBA Crown, Too.” Some housing industry observers may only think it was “only a flesh wound,” but the Realtors™ antitrust case decision in Missouri, coupled with other recent settlements and an onslaught of new cases, likely portend real changes for how homes are bought and sold in the US with the assistance of real estat
As Wells Fargo was smacked upside the head with a $3.7 billion fine by the CFPB, sports news included Mat Ishbia and the Phoenix Suns, and the Senate passed the Improving Access to the VA Home Loan Benefit Act of 2022, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Office of Inspector General released a report with a really long name because that is what bureaucrats do (FHFA Could Further Combat Appraisal Bias by Ensuring That Complaints Are Filed with State Authorities and Ensuring the Enterprises Use Appraisals That Comply with Federal Law), the industry is grappling with continued higher rates. Not that lower rates would release the unicorns from their pens and spread rainbows through the industry, mind you, but they might help. The economists from Redfin (who have seen their stock plunge 94 percent in less than two years) believe that there is a decent chance rates gradually going down to 5.7% by the end of next year. Q1 will be ugly. Seems like after a year of losses in 2022 next y