Aug. 15: Homeowners’ insurance news Build-to-rent status; Prepay stats; vendor products; Saturday Spotlight: Flyhomes

Remember in 2020 and 2021 when our industry was grappling with appraiser and underwriter shortages, raising margins to slow volumes, crazy-low rates, and moving overnight to a “work from home” environment? Lending is not alone in facing adverse conditions. In warfare it’s important to have lots and lots of ammunition to shoot your adversary, right? But a project lasting several years to shore up the United States’ stock of 155 mm artillery shells has turned into a huge mess. General Dynamics was, by 2022, the only producer of the shell bodies in the United States, operating a factory in Scranton that had been producing with the same methods since the Korean War. An Army project to revolutionize the production line has gone very badly, as a $533 million project (that led General Dynamics to employ a Turkish subcontractor!) has produced not a single shell. I am sure they’ll figure it out.

Saturday Spotlight: Flyhomes

_________________________________________________

Buy the next home before selling. No home sale contingency, ever.

70 percent of the homeowners in your pipeline are stuck, not gone. They have the equity to move. They just won’t touch their rate. Here’s the shift: don’t just talk about rates anymore. When the rate conversation is dead, the equity conversation is just getting started.

Flyhomes, the leading Buy Before You Sell platform in the US, lets your borrowers tap the equity in their current home to buy the next one, before they sell. That turns a stalled “someday” client into a deal you can close now.

We’re wholesale-only, so we never compete with you or your agents. Our solutions are available in all 50 states.

Next Tuesday, Aug 18, we’re hosting a live session. Ryan Grant, President and Co-Founder of NEO Home Loans, joins Kaitlyn Miller, Flyhomes’ Head of National Accounts & Partner Growth, to talk about how he grew his own production from $11M to $3.2B and became the LO every agent wants to partner with.

We’ll also show how Flyhomes Buy Before You Sell DREAM Solutions can become the new talking points with your agent partners and clients. Our products give borrowers real advantages: buy with $0 down, reduce their DTI by up to 50 percent, and make cash-equivalent offers that close in as little as 10 days. We exist to help everyone win more deals and build stronger client relationships.

Save your seat for Aug 18 or book a Call to see how Flyhomes can help you close more deals today.

(For more information on having your firm’s extracurricular activities, employee growth, and your charitable side featured, contact Chrisman LLC’s Anjelica Nixt.) 

Homeowner’s insurance premiums’ impact on affordability

_________________________________________________

Who you gonna believe? Kinder Institute report shows homeowners insurance has become a growing barrier to housing affordability across Texas. But Matic has a newly released U.S. home insurance premium trends report where the findings suggest the market is beginning to turn a corner as premium growth slows and competition among insurers returns. Based on an analysis of 3 million Matic quotes and policies, the report found that a record 11.7 percent of homeowners renewing their insurance policy saw their premium decrease during the first half of 2026, up from 7.4 percent in 2025 and 4.9 percent in 2024, the highest share Matic has recorded since tracking this data.

Premium growth continued to moderate, with premiums for new home insurance policies increasing 5.9 percent year over year, down from a peak of 18.7 percent in 2024. Homeowners had more insurance options available, with the average number of quotes per person increasing 27 percent from 2025 as more carriers returned to the market. The recovery remains uneven, with states including California, Florida, and New Jersey continuing to experience double-digit premium increases. Despite improving market conditions, insurance continues to account for a growing share of the cost of homeownership. You can read the full report here, and commentary from Matic CEO and Co-founder Ben Madick is available in the accompanying press release.

Build-to-rent: wave it on in for the big guys

_________________________________________________

President Trump famously did not actually sign the housing bill that Congress recently passed, but it went into effect anyway after 10 days. Critics say that it didn’t really do much to help housing or affordability. Proponents say that it has steps in the right direction. Carol Ryan of The WSJ suggests that any law restricting activities of big investors in residential real estate could mean less cash to build new supply. The new law aims to make Wall Street investors feel unwelcome in the market for existing homes, while at the same time urging them to build more supply. It is a tricky balancing act, and failure would push up rents. 

“Under the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, investors who already own more than 350 family homes can’t buy any more from the existing housing stock. Any landlords that don’t already have scale will find it hard to expand their portfolios through the exemptions.

Put another way, investors who already own more than 350 family homes can’t buy any more from the existing housing stock. There are a couple of exceptions, however. One is to buy homes that need so much renovation that regular buyers don’t want them. Another is when the tenant is offered the right to eventually own the house.

“Big landlords are being nudged to pour cash into the build-to-rent sector instead. This means taking on development risk and constructing entire rental neighborhoods from scratch. The benefit of constructing whole rental communities in one area is that they are much cheaper to maintain than homes that are scattered across dispersed neighborhoods. Build-to-rent is exempt from restrictions under the new law. Like multifamily apartment buildings, it is an area of the housing market in which large investors can continue to operate freely.

“Anyone considering putting money into the housing market must now weigh the risk that future administrations could tighten the rules further. Returns on build-to-to-rent investments don’t look high enough to compensate for the risk. Build-to-rent communities are hard, or impossible under some zoning rules, to sell off individually to consumers. Eight large institutional investors were net sellers of more than 3,000 homes in the second quarter of this year, a fivefold increase in net-selling activity from the same period of last year… Some smaller investors plan to cash out permanently by selling homes to individual home buyers over time.”

The new rules effectively end the so-called scattered-site strategy that powerful investors used to accumulate large portfolios of family homes over the last 15 years. Any landlords that don’t already have scale will find it hard to expand their portfolios through the exemptions. Tenants in these communities tend to stay longer than people who rent apartments. Corporate landlords have always had to tolerate a level of political risk as their presence in the housing market is unpopular. But support for the restrictions in Congress was almost unanimous across the political spectrum, which has spooked investors.

But perhaps the trend could boost the largest listed landlords like American Homes 4 Rent and Invitation Homes, which have deep pockets to buy the portfolios of smaller rivals. Shares in both companies are up about a fifth from lows seen earlier this year, when a more punishing version of the bill that ultimately passed was circulating. 

Corporate landlords owned by private-equity giants could also pick up assets if smaller investors decide to sell. Blackstone owns Home Partners of America, which has around 20,000 family houses, while Cerberus Capital Management owns FirstKey Homes. 

“More general investors like pension funds and diversified commercial real-estate funds can move their cash into less politically touchy assets like logistics warehouses or private credit. The recent performance of build-to-rent makes it easier for them to take a pass. Rents were flat in May compared with a year ago, data from CBRE shows. With less capital to go around, the supply of rental housing could tighten and push up rents. That would ultimately hurt a group of people the new law is trying to help: renters trying to get onto the housing ladder.”

Whose loans, and which kinds, are prepaying the fastest?

_________________________________________________

If an investor buys a loan, or pool of loans, at any price above par, the investor is calculating that those loans are going to stick around for a while to make it worth their while. When loans pay off earlier than anticipated, whoever owns the servicing rights is typically viewed as the loser.

The July prepayment report showed continued moderation in Fannie Mae speeds, with aggregate 30-year CPR falling 3 percent from June to 8.1, marking the third decline in four months as mortgage rates rose 19- to 29-basis points and the share of borrowers with refinancing incentive fell to just 3.6 percent of UPB, the lowest level since at least November.

In this increasingly rate-driven environment, servicer behavior remains a critical differentiator, with meaningful dispersion across both coupons and loan age. In 30-year UMBS, Freedom and Rocket/Quicken consistently ranked among the fastest servicers, while PHH also showed strong performance; at the other end, Bank of America remained notably slow, joined by Citi and Provident.

On the front end of the aging curve, Freedom, AmeriHome, and Rocket/Quicken again led, with the fastest speeds concentrated in the 24–36 WALA buckets and AmeriHome particularly strong, while Idaho HFA remained persistently among the slowest. The 15-year universe showed a similar degree of servicer dispersion, with United Shore leading the fast cohort and Lakeview, Citi, and Wells Fargo among the slowest. Overall, the report reinforces that with broad refinancing incentives increasingly constrained by higher rates, pool-level prepayment outcomes are becoming even more dependent on servicer-specific behavior and loan seasoning, making servicer selection a paramount component of MBS relative-value analysis.

The August 2026 Ginnie Mae II prepayment report showed aggregate 30-year speeds falling 6 percent to 10.2 CPR, the slowest pace since last September, as most coupons remained stable while 1.5 percent, 5.5 percent, and 6.0 percent coupons posted notable declines as refinance incentives faded; importantly, VA and FHA performance continues to diverge, with VA loans paying materially faster in higher coupons thanks in part to the VA streamline refinance program, creating significant servicer-level differentiation within the $2.5 trillion Ginnie II universe.

Among VA servicers, Carrington, Lakeview, and loanDepot consistently ranked among the fastest, while Freedom and Navy Federal were among the slowest; in FHA, Quicken/Rocket and Sun West led the fast-pay group while Colorado HFA, Cornerstone, and Idaho HFA were consistently slower, showing that Ginnie performance is increasingly a function not just of coupon and borrower characteristics, but of who is servicing the loans and how effectively they are driving prepayments.

Third-party providers, aka vendors, products don’t stop

_________________________________________________

There’s a free (for both viewers and vendors) monthly Chrisman Demo Day that kicks off August 20, built for people who want to see how new technology actually works, not just hear about it. (If you’re a technology or service provider interested in participating, reach out to Jake Perkins to learn about the Chrisman Marketplace and member perks.) Who’s doing what out there for products?

Friday Harbor announced support for USDA loans. The new capability enables lenders to identify documentation gaps, eligibility issues and changes that require updated Guaranteed Underwriting System (GUS) findings before loan files reach underwriting, helping reduce rework and deliver a more predictable path to closing for both lending teams and borrowers.

BSI Financial Services, a national mortgage fintech platform, announced that Ginnie Mae has approved the company as both an eIssuer and eSubservicer under its Digital Collateral Program. The approvals expand BSI’s ability to support Ginnie Mae-backed digital mortgage assets across both securitization and servicing, reinforcing the company’s ongoing commitment to technology-driven mortgage operations. 

SettlementOne, a leading provider of credit reporting, data, and verification solutions, and Secure Insight, the first-to-market closing table vendor management and wire fraud solution provider, announced a strategic partnership offering instant verification of settlement agent risk assessment together with verified wire instructions. Under the terms of the deal, Secure Insight’s Closing Guard solution will become a new product offering within SettlementOne’s software platform for mortgage lenders.

Since its founding in 2012, Secure Insight has been successfully vetting and monitoring the risk of over 95,000 mortgage industry settlement professionals (attorneys, title agents and escrow officers) while verifying more than 125,000 trust accounts and protecting trillions of dollars of funding wires across more than 55 million residential loan transactions nationwide with its Closing Guard product. Through this partnership, Closing Guard will be integrated into SettlementOne’s software offering and available to all their clients. This partnership will allow SettlementOne’s Encompass lenders to access Secure Insight’s Closing Guard directly through their existing SettlementOne integration, with activity automatically reported back to the SettlementOne platform for unified tracking and billing under a single account. For SettlementOne’s mutual clients, the partnership adds another layer of protection through the platform they already know, use, and trust.

OptifiNow, a provider of customized CRM and sales automation solutions for the mortgage, insurance and consumer finance industries, today announced an integration with Meera AI, an AI-powered engagement platform that uses SMS and voice communications to qualify prospects and connect them with live sales representatives. The integration allows OptifiNow clients to automatically send leads to Meera based on CRM data, status changes and engagement signals. When OptifiNow identifies that a prospect has shown interest, Meera can immediately begin a personalized SMS conversation and, when appropriate, initiate an automated outbound phone call.

County Assessments

To the County Assessor: Hypothetically, I’m being taxed on money I never made. Let that sink in.

I bought my property outright for $210,00 in 2005.  Now the county says it’s worth $500,000.

Did I sell it? No.

Did I make a profit? No.

Did I get a check for $500,000? No.

But my taxes jumped like I did.

That’s the problem.

This isn’t income.

This isn’t cash.

This is a number someone decided on paper, and now I’m being billed for it.

If my stock portfolio doubles, I don’t pay taxes until I sell.

If my income doesn’t increase, I don’t magically owe more income tax.

So why does owning a home work differently?

Why am I being taxed on unrealized gains?

A house isn’t just an investment. It’s where people live. And this system means you can do everything right… Pay off your home and still get squeezed harder every year because of a number you never turned into money.

You don’t truly own something if you can be taxed out of it.

This isn’t about “services” or “inflation.”

It’s about being charged for value you never received.

And people are starting to notice. 

Visit www.ChrismanCommentary.com for more information on our industry partners, access archived commentaries, or subscribe to the Daily Mortgage News and Commentary. You can also explore the Chrisman Marketplace, a centralized hub connecting mortgage professionals with trusted vendors and solutions. If you’re interested, check out my periodic blog on the STRATMOR Group website. STRATMOR’s current blog is “Pricing That Can Help Borrowers.” The Commentary’s podcast is available on all major platforms, including Apple and Spotify.

qoɹ

(Market data provided in partnership with MBS Live. For free job postings and to view candidate resumes, visit the Chrisman Job Board. This newsletter is intended for sophisticated mortgage professionals only. There are no paid endorsements by me. For the latest mortgage news, visit Mortgage News Daily. For archived commentaries, or to subscribe, go to www.ChrismanCommentary.com. Copyright 2026 Chrisman LLC. All rights reserved. Paid job & product listings do appear. This report or any portion hereof may not be reprinted, sold, or redistributed without the written consent of Rob Chrisman. The views and opinions in this newsletter are mine alone unless otherwise specifically stated herein.)