Market Update – Meat Market

To paraphrase one of my favorite movie quotes (from Tommy Boy): There are less orthodox ways to get a good look at a T-bone, but I’d rather take a butcher’s word for it… Over the past month, we’ve been given the daunting task of deciphering employment and inflationary data points through less conventional sources. Now that the government has reopened, we’ll soon get the opportunity to hear about the T-bone straight from the butcher’s mouth. This Thursday, we’ll finally receive a review of…

Rethinking Risk, Pricing, and Credit in a Changing Mortgage Market

The mortgage industry is once again revisiting products and practices that many thought had been relegated to the past. Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), for example, are resurfacing…not because they are “evil,” as some headlines teasingly suggest, but because the yield-curve dynamics and affordability challenges of this cycle naturally push them back into relevance. When recessionary pressures build, the curve steepens, short-term rates ease, and borrowers begin re-examining structures…

Nov. 18: IMB wanted, AE jobs, recruiter, cap mkts execs available; AVM, marketing, tax service, block chain tools; Deep dive on Lisa Cook & alleged fraud

Supposedly commercial air travel is back to normal, good for anyone coming in for the Mortgage Bankers Association of St. Louis event tomorrow and Thursday’s Mortgage Bankers Association of Kansas City annual luncheon. Speaking of Missouri, the Pony Express ran between St. Joseph and Sacramento for 18 months in 1860–1861, put out of business by the telegraph. (I had an ancestor, Frank “Deafy” Derrick, who rode for the Pony Express.) The telegraph was a great example of “better, faster,…

Credit Data Is No Longer Static: How Dynamic Insights Are Redefining Mortgage Lending

For decades, credit reports were treated as snapshots – a fixed moment in time meant to summarize a borrower’s financial history. That view no longer fits today’s reality. Credit data has evolved into a living, dynamic asset that tells a story not just about who a consumer was, but how they are behaving right now and where their financial trajectory is heading. This shift is more than technical, it’s strategic – driving smarter decisions and better outcomes across the mortgage industry. This…

MISMO at 25 — The Backbone You Don’t See, But Feel Every Day

When I stepped into the role of MISMO President just ahead of the 2025 MBA Annual Convention, I already understood MISMO’s reputation. But it wasn’t until I got behind the curtain that I truly appreciated the depth of collaboration, volunteer leadership, and shared purpose that has kept this organization going strong for more than 25 years. And if there’s a single theme that stands out from my early weeks in the role, it’s this: MISMO’s impact is everywhere, especially in the places most…

Nov. 17: AI outreach, loan loss, credit, reverse tools; STRATMOR on LO gratitude; Portable mortgages? Nope; MBA’s Joel Kan interview

Today’s trivia: Missouri and Tennessee are tied for bordering the most states: eight. This week I head to Missouri, the jumping off point for thousands of wagon trains heading west in the mid-1800s. Back then, land grants were relatively common but home loans weren’t, LTVs were high, and repayment was usually within five years. Deals were done with a handshake. Fast forward to today, and we have Fannie Mae dropping its minimum credit score requirements and relying more on DU to assess…

Nov. 15: The uneven cost of compliance; delinquency figures; thoughts on GSE MBS purchases; Third party provider news

The U.S. Federal Reserve doesn’t set mortgage rates, the market does. People in our biz know that mortgage rates and pricing are a function of supply and demand, not from some Administration decree for a 50-year mortgage, assumability, or portability. The same can be said of food, hence President Trump changing his tariff policy again given higher prices due to those tariffs, and precious metals, with some twists. Gold is a traditional gift in Vietnam (connoting luck), so at a record $4,380…