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
What does someone look like when they started working in our business at age 15? Well, there’s always this interview last week with Robbie Chrisman (yes, RCIII) about how he started his mortgage podcast and the potential influx of youth versus the 60- to 70-somethings. Yes, the industry continues to evolve, and not always in good ways. Every lender out there is coming to grips with the upcoming conventional conforming loan-level pricing adjustments hitting cash out refis. (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac.) Those who take the time to compare have noticed that the cost of a cash out refi is increasing, except for credit scores of 640 and below with an 80% LTV and any LTV with a score of 620<. Put another way, the FHFA is rewarding low credit score borrowers that need cash out. Cash out LLPAs are worsening depending on the LTV/FICO but there are some categories that are improving, but those are generally lower FICO and higher LTV and represent a small percentage of cash out busi
Have you ever heard the term “scuddle”? It’s an English term from the 1500’s meaning “to wash dishes,” something many of us did plenty of over Christmas. I bring this up because on this date in 1886 Josephine Garis Cochrane patented the world’s first dishwasher! Where would we be without women in schools or the workplace or being educated… Or thinking? (Let’s ask the Taliban in Afghanistan: hopefully you’re following this nightmare.) The United States is nowhere near that, but we have a gender pay gap that has remained relatively stable over the past 15 years or so. In 2020, women earned 84 percent of what men earned, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of median hourly earnings of both full- and part-time workers. Common explanations of this disparity, present across most industries and professions, include the perception that women are less likely than men to negotiate raises and promotions, women’s
Tired of playing Rummikub with the fam? (Why are those red 11’s always in short supply?) Let’s divert your attention and ease back into residential mortgages with a news story from the Census Bureau. Sorry California: for the first time since 1957 Florida is the fastest growing state. Sure, in “God’s waiting room” there are hurricanes, and the place is as flat as a pancake, but a 0 percent state income rate versus California’s 12 percent may have something to do with it. And then we have those winter temperatures to help one forget about the palmetto bugs (aka, wood cockroaches). Returning to the numbers, Florida has no state income tax, no tax on retirement income, no inheritance or estate taxes, has homestead exemptions for permanent residents, property tax cuts for anyone over 65 and for older veterans. Florida is certainly not broke but where do to ducats come from? Florida’s state government generates the bulk of general revenue (75
Robert K. writes, “My Mom always said, ‘Work until your bank account looks like a phone number. Well, I did it! ‘Available balance: $911.’” Speaking of numbers, thank you to those who wrote to me correcting the GDP of Mexico here as being $1.4 trillion and not $1.4 billion. Numbers certainly tell the story with vendors and lenders. Owners of vendors and third-party providers are looking at middle layers of management, cutting back, certainly cutting salaries, or ridding themselves of unproductive salespeople. Lenders continue to cut staff (Wells Fargo being the latest example) or furlough employees for a portion of their workweeks and implementing salary cuts. Meanwhile, managers report that end-of-year reviews are resulting in employees asking for raises due to inflation. On a lager scale, uh, larger scale, mergers and acquisitions continue. The latest to cross the tape is that "Guild Mortgage is excited to announce the acquisition of Inlant