“What do hospital gowns and insurance policies have in common? You’re never covered as much as you think you are.” Although loan officers are not insurance experts, they are seeing the escalating cost of homeowner’s insurance impact affordability. (Last Friday’s TMC show focused on why insurance costs are rising.) Insuring homes is not the only issue, however. The average bill for the repair of an American vehicle is $4,437, and for an electric vehicle that is up to $6,618, about 49 percent higher. Collision insurance claims have increased 64 percent between 2018 and 2022, fueled by increasingly sophisticated cars and more complicated things that need to get fixed when they get broken. No longer are we just hammering out dents, but rather we’re taking computers out of the car and fixing it. Insurance costs may be on the agenda (the why’s mortgage rates certainly will be) when the California Association of Mortgage Professionals (CAMP) pr
Today I head to Phoenix area for the AzAMP annual conference, and am reminded that, “Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.” The mortgage industry is constantly changing, although Freddie and Fannie have been a somewhat stabilizing influence. But explaining to someone not in the mortgage business what they, the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) do, is not easy, but in another one of his Mortgage Musings, attorney Brian Levy offers his thoughts on 15 years of being in conservatorship and whether that means it’s time to drop the “S” in GSE. Let’s just hope they don’t become another Amtrak. (Sign up for Musings here.) One topic that has come up at a few conferences, besides Agency buybacks, is demand for “LIP” and “VLIP” borrowers. Are F&F pushing hard for Low Income Purchase and Very Low Income Purchase business, and requesting high percentages of those products with the “t
Amidst the seemingly week mass shootings and violence, individual deaths stand out. Heartfelt condolences go out to Jennifer and Dan Gilbert, of Rocket Mortgage, over the death of their 26 year old son Nick. No parent should have to deal with the death of their child and going through the grieving process. Meanwhile, UWM’s Mat Ishbia was involved in a play during the NBA playoffs. When I was a kid, my grandmother (Edna, and the source of several of my passwords) came to live with us. When you’re 10, sharing a bathroom with an 80-year-old is, uh, memorable, for lack of a better term. But I survived, and so did she (for several years, at least) after the arrangement had ended and she moved to a retirement home. Now, many years later, the dynamics of multigenerational households are shifting. “Historically, these households entailed young adults moving back in with their parents, or aging parents moving in with their adult children. Now, a growing number of parents ar
Parts of Turkey and Syria were decimated by a strong quake and aftershocks. More than 7,500 people have died. Coloradans can donate supplies at multiple locations.