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Month: December 2025

Dec. 9: Home equity, borrower mining, Buy before you sell, flood tools; Milliman/MorVest deal; credit cost news; prepayments slowing

Posted on by Rob Chrisman

“Seminar ‘How to avoid frauds’ is canceled. Tickets are non-refundable.” Collectively, we don’t want mortgage fraud, right? It’s a non-partisan issue. A grand jury rejected a new mortgage fraud indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James . Meanwhile, it must be difficult living under a constant microscope, and yesterday a story broke that “ Trump’s Own Mortgages Match His Description of Mortgage Fraud .” (Government watchers also noted that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent…

A Cautiously Optimistic Turn in the Mortgage Cycle

Posted on by Joel Kan

After several years defined by volatility, scarcity, and historically high borrowing costs, the mortgage industry enters 2026 with something it hasn’t had in a while: a cautious, but genuine, sense of optimism. That sentiment was palpable at the MBA Annual conference, where the collective mood reflected a meaningful shift from the exhaustion of 2023 and the grinding uncertainty that clouded 2024. Lenders, economists, and market participants seemed aligned in a shared belief that the worst is…

What the Old “Assumable Mortgage” Idea Reveals About Today’s Broken Housing Market

Posted on by Robbie Chrisman

In an era defined by locked-in mortgage rates and frozen inventory, an old mechanism in American housing finance has suddenly reentered the conversation: the assumable mortgage. It is an idea that feels almost quaint, yet it sits at the center of some of the current debates about affordability, consumer rights, and the role of government in modern housing markets. To understand why assumability is back in the spotlight, it helps to start with what the feature actually is. At its core, an…

Make it up in Volume?

Posted on by Brian S. Levy

Photo by Emilie on Unsplash After my recent edition in which I expressly desired to appeal to a wider audience by, among other things, eschewing the use of acronyms (unsuccessfully), I am now going to offer much more parochial industry commentary on what I think should be the biggest focus for the mortgage origination business in the coming year; specifically, the costs of loan production. So why the picture of a shovel in a ditch above? One, it’s a reminder about an alleged Milton…

When Credit Reports Become a Strategy Call, Not a Line Item

Posted on by Ethan Vieaux

In HousingWire, Flávia Furlan Nunes described what originators have been feeling in their P&Ls: the math on credit reporting is breaking. Credit report prices have been rising sharply, and resellers are signaling as much as another 50 percent increase in 2026, which would mark the fourth straight year of higher costs. That spike lands on top of an already expensive production base. Freddie Mac’s latest Cost to Originate study, reported by National Mortgage Professional, shows it now costs…

Dec. 8: LO jobs, CD lender wanted; Non-Agency, DSCR, eSignature, data analysis tools; deep dive on & about “Fed Week”

Posted on by Rob Chrisman

“Blimps are one of the only forms of advertisement people are actually excited to see.” “Rob, we see all kinds of companies advertising at conferences. We are trying to lower our cost per loan, and I am doing a more formal review of third-party providers. I am wondering if there is a list of vendors who focus on certain areas out there?” Yup: a very good place to start is The Marketplace . Page down to look at the categories. (If your company isn’t on there yet, contact Jake Perkins .)…

Dec. 5: Partnerships sought, LO jobs; earned equity, HELOC, CRM, AI agent, DSCR hedging products; conventional conforming changes

Posted on by Rob Chrisman

Recently I paid over $10 for a simple Oscar Mayer 12-ounce package of bacon. Jerome Powell, help me! Well, the U.S. Federal Reserve doesn’t set bacon prices, or things that come from China like rare earth metals, most of which I’ve never heard of but are apparently in my phone and car’s dashboard. Geopolitical tensions and export restrictions in China sending the prices of crucial metal components in electronics way up. The price of dysprosium is up to $910 per kilogram, triple the pre-export…

Capital Markets Recap: December 5, 2025

Posted on by Robbie Chrisman

Investors continued rotating into MBS as an alternative to increasingly expensive corporate debt, especially with tech firms gearing up for another wave of bond issuance to fund AI infrastructure. With investment-grade supply projected to top $800 billion in 2026, mortgage bonds look comparatively attractive, and analysts expect the sector to post its best returns in twenty years. These demand dynamics, combined with stable issuance, kept spreads firm even as global rate volatility picked up….

Dec. 4: Education sales, LO jobs; Home value, due diligence, AVM, refi mining products; extensive HELOC, DSCR, non-QM product changes

Posted on by Rob Chrisman

“No plan survives contact with the enemy.” While Freddie rolled out its AI plans , for some lenders, mortgage companies owned by builders, and the builders themselves, can sometimes be viewed as adversaries. In dealing with buyers of new homes, builders and their lender arm often adjust seller credits, par rates, and buy down programs. Builders, of course, don’t want to actually lower their prices since they want high comp prices for appraisals going forward. According to the Wall Street…