While the industry digests Freddie Mac’s first quarter earnings (47 percent purchase, 53 percent refi), if you try to correct my grammar, I will think fewer of you. Speaking of language, did you know that the alphabet in Hawai’i only contains 12 letters: a, e, i, o, u, h, k, l, m, n, p, and w. Every word ends with a vowel. (Sticklers may include an apostrophe – okina - as a separate letter.) I am spending some time in this marvelous area of the world, although a cynic would say, for me, it is merely working from a different place and waking up at 1AM instead of 4AM to send out the commentary. It is 2,500 miles Los Angeles to Honolulu (site of the annual MBAH conference in June), almost half of LA to Tokyo’s 5,500 miles. I mention this because Japan owns $1.3 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities. And some of those have dropped as much as ten points in value since late December. YIKES. But wait… if an investor buys an older pool of mortgages at a price
Happy 420 Day. (Tomorrow, by the way, is Happy Surprise Drug Test Day.) Another day, another layoff story from Better.com. The human tragedy in Ukraine continues, but the world financial markets seem to be concentrated on the mounting inflation numbers. Our Federal Reserve is viewed as playing catch up, and we are reminded of its mandate of “maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.” Here in Atlanta, in the MBA and STRATMOR Peer Group Roundtable meetings, much of the conversation revolves around bank and non-bank lending. Banks and credit unions are interested in shifting to HELOCs, construction lending issues, and more portfolio lending due to excess cash and deposits, all the while trying to keep trained staff on board. For independent mortgage bankers, the attention is on reducing costs, adjusting staff levels, and how to work preapprovals and enable cash buyers. Indeed, IMBs need to hunker down to outlast their competitors. The human el
My friend David had his id stolen and now he’s just Dav. Having anything stolen is not a laughing matter, and since we’re in the money business, lenders and vendors are often the target of cyber-attacks. If you want the FBI’s take on them, the Texas MBA is hosting the “Anatomy of Cyber Attacks” webinar next Wednesday, April 13th. (More upcoming events below.) Some MLOs think that interest rates have stolen their livelihoods, but really, did you think 30-year mortgage rates were going to stay in the 2s forever? Or overnight fed funds near 0 percent? As of Friday’s close, the market has priced in a 70 percent likelihood of a 50-basis point hike versus 30 percent for a 25-basis point hike. The question remains whether the Fed will be able to achieve its desired soft landing whereby inflation eases back towards their target without impeding economic growth. Rising prices continue to put pressure on all areas of the supply chain which will likely me