Sure, Fannie had $5.2 billion of net income in the fourth quarter of 2021, but money can’t buy you love. Love is more of a chemical reaction than a statistical study, but computers don’t deal so well with that. But stats will tell you that apparently the best place to find love is Buffalo, New York. Lending Tree released a report considering seven variables, including median single-person household income as well as the percentage of the population that isn’t married, or lives alone, to help determine which of the nation’s 50 largest metros are the best for single people. Rounding out the top five were Cleveland, Louisville, Detroit, and a tie between St. Louis and New Orleans. MLOs know that because single people often can’t rely on a “significant other” to bring in extra income, they need to take extra care that they’ve got enough money to make ends meet… or make a mortgage payment so areas with low costs of living can b
America's national debt topped $30 trillion for the first time, according to figures from the Treasury Department on Tuesday. Why might it matter for mortgage rates? When one combines a record amount of red ink, an aging population, elevated healthcare costs, and a tax system that doesn’t bring in enough revenue to cover spending, and a government that has become known for kicking fiscal cans down the road, well, you can see why there are worries about the long-term economic health of the country. Ignore at your own peril. Something else plenty of people ignore is climate change, natural or manmade, until it impacts their business model and profits. Mortgage analytics firm RiskSpan has collaborated with Verisk to create a first-of-its-kind solution for measuring and mitigating the risks of climate change to the housing finance industry. Dismiss the impact of climate if you like, but when leading insurance, re-insurance, corporate and government entities, and investors i
Andy Rooney died over ten years ago. Many will say that Bill Mahr has taken his place, albeit with saltier language and a political bent. In this piece, Mahr discusses his thoughts on young people in “Gen Z” and “van life” which I found humorous. It reminds us that we are made up of different generations, and given the snow hitting much of the U.S. it isn’t only your parents that walked through the snow uphill both ways to school. The U.S. Census Bureau has not defined “millennials” but most groups tend to group them into those born between 1981 and 1996, which means the 72 million of them have begun turning 41. By the time 2030 rolls around, all “baby boomers” will be older than 65. It should be of no surprise that reverse mortgages, basically available to homeowners with equity who are 62 and older, are a fast-growing piece of the mortgage landscape. Lenders can’t do anything about an environment where higher mortg