Not all, but many, capital markets folks spent their college years rolling up their sleeves. Some not so much. When originators are asked about interest rates, some LOs may use the line in the clip above: “Oh, man. I only ride them; I don't know what makes them work.” (The current STRATMOR blog is titled, “Relying on the Fed: How Did This Happen?”) Yesterday the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) grabbed the headlines, despite doing exactly what everybody expected them to do: leave rates unchanged. Inflation is still higher than the FOMC would like. Certainly, insurance costs, whether they be homeowner or car, are inflationary. It would be foolish to blame the Biden Administration, or any administration, for things like insurance costs, ships running aground in the Suez Canal, a drought in Africa, or what OPEC does. Such is life, and one needs to ask how much more government interference we need or want. In my opinion, a president consultin
Two vultures are in a field, eating a dead clown. One vulture says to the other, "Does this taste funny to you?" The last thing you want to hear about your company is that it “preyed upon” customers, which is the opposite of funny. “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time”: A federal court has issued an order banning the operators of the Home Matters USA mortgage relief scam from the telemarketing and debt relief businesses and requiring them to turn over $19 million as a result of a lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission and the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. Named were Home Matters USA, Academy Home Services, Atlantic Pacific Service Group, and Golden Home Services America, and the owners of the companies, Michael R. Nabati, Armando Solis Barron, Dominic Ahiga (also known as Michael D. Grinnell), and Roger S. Dyer… taking millions of dollars from thousands of struggling homeowners s
I’m so tired of the mainstream press talking about the 2024 election, 10 months out. Given that the median age of U.S. citizens is about 38 years, one would think we could find someone under the age of 75 to be president, regardless of party affiliation. On the other end of the age spectrum, at age 34, Gabriel Attal became France’s youngest prime minister. France’s inflation rate is running at 3.7 percent, which I mention because inflation and the actions of central banks are linked, and the inflation rate and the CFPB are linked. (Whenever I mention the CFPB to my cat Myrtle she feigns indifference. Sometimes she even saunters away.) The CFPB announced the annual adjustments for inflation to the CFPB’s civil penalty amounts, as required by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act, as amended. This final rule is effective on January 15, 2024. Tomorrow we will have the Consumer Price Index, meant to broadly capture changes in the prices of goods a
Yesterday, a clown held the door open for me. It was such a nice jester. On the flip side, it’s not nice being taken advantage of and lenders are feeling Thunderstruck about, as this Commentary has mentioned several times, credit costs being jacked (more below). On the inflation theme and a little more mainstream, for me and plenty of people who read this Commentary every day, is the egg price fixing that has been occurring. (Remember when prices were way up around Easter?) Although inflation has been slowing, we don’t need this stuff. And the price of the twelve gifts described in the classic song “The 12 Days of Christmas” is at a record high of $46,730, according to PNC’s 2023 Christmas Price Index. At the other end of the cost spectrum, how’d you like to live like Martha Stewart (for a night) for $11.23? Rent her place! (Today’s podcast can be found here, and this week’s is sponsored by MCT. MCT’s technology and know-ho
Here in the Milwaukee area (yes, the autumn colors are stellar), I attended a Newrez joint venture event and one of the conversation topics (besides lenders either saying “no mas” and exiting or being purchased, more below, or NAR’s legal events, more below) is the changing landscape of down payments and down payment assistance programs. STRATMOR’s current blog is titled, “Mind the Down Payment”. Despite high mortgage rates and low buyer demand, home prices are still at record highs in many parts of the country leading to higher down payments. LendingTree analyzed data from more than 580,000 users of our platform who lived in one of the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas. A down payment on a home across the nation’s 50 largest metros averages $84,499. While down payments vary significantly by location, no metro in this year’s study has an average of less than $47,900. California is home to the three metros where down pa