Tariffs, Trump, and the Economic Fallout: A Condensed Analysis
President Trump unveiled sweeping new tariffs last week, but the financial markets weren’t impressed—stocks dropped roughly 5 percent,…
Month: April 2025
The Increasing Cost of Efficiency
Capacity planning is one of those things you learn through experience—sometimes the hard way. Back in college, when one of my roommates…
Apr. 7: Credit Policy VP job; valuation, price specials, referral tools; in-person events to plan on; slow economy = low rates
“Many people told Beethoven that he would never be a musician because he was deaf. Did he listen?” This week hundreds of mortgage bankers…
Apr. 5: Builder’s tariff win; risks and rewards in GSE privatization; vendor news; states take up abusive trigger leads; portable mortgages
Honeybees in the US may have just experienced their most severe die-off on record , and we don’t know exactly why. The price of honey…
Apr. 4: LO jobs, industry vet moves; subservicer, non-Agency products; trigger leads, HECM, FHA news; slow economy = low rates
Ahead of next week’s MBA Advocacy event in Washington DC, I received this note from an industry vet. “With the continued consolidation…
Apr. 3: LO jobs; hedging, HMDA dashboard, verification tools; correspondent & wholesale news: battle of the titans
The Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times” can easily be applied to the residential mortgage business in the last month or…
Apr. 2: Reverse, AE, housing dir. jobs; HELOC, credit union, non-QM products; wholesale, reverse, vendor partnership news
Does anyone use the term “elderly” anymore? Websters defines elderly as “anyone past middle age,” “middle age” being 45-64. Prepare for a…
The Interest Rate Guessing Game
I am asked all the time where I think rates will be in six months. My answer, after I say that I can’t even predict where I’m going to…
Apr. 1: Angel Oak/Brookfield deal and more mergers; audit, POS, non-QM, automation tools ; webcasts & training this week
This ain’t no April Fools economic news: not only has Hooters declared bankruptcy, but apparently there is yet another push to have…
The Power of Third-Party Vendor Relationships in Mortgage Lending
Third-party vendors have become essential to mortgage lending, supporting everything from loan origination to post-close servicing. As…