Land… they’re not making any more of it. In fact, in one state’s case, it’s going away due to climate change, which, if you think it (natural or manmade) is a hoax, put your money where your mouth is and buy beach front land in Louisiana. Or buy a lot a mile inland and wait. A new study published in Nature Sustainability argues that, at this point, southern Louisiana will face three to seven meters of sea level rise as a result of warming global temperatures, which will result in the loss of three quarters of its remaining wetlands and push the shoreline as much as 100 kilometers (62 miles) inland. This is not all forecast; since the 1930s, Louisiana has lost 2,000 square miles to coastal erosion and at current rates, will lose another 3,000 square miles over the next 50 years. At that point, New Orleans, which is home to 360,000 people, might only be able to exist with a seawall and substantially upgraded levees, and at some point may not be viable. Who’s going to make my beignets?
Saturday Spotlight: Fairway Home Mortgage
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“Unlocking the doors to homeownership for EVERYONE.”
Built for Speed: Fairway Home Mortgage Aligns Technology, Support, and Culture for Today’s Loan Officer, a look at how an employee-owned lender structures its platform to reduce friction, strengthen relationships, and support long-term growth for Originators.
Fairway Home Mortgage is a private, employee-owned lender built for Loan Officers who want to scale their business without unnecessary friction.
Speed is the foundation of how Fairway operates. When issues or questions arise, they are handled with urgency. Calls, texts, and emails are answered typically within minutes, including early mornings, late nights, and weekends. That responsiveness creates a smoother experience for borrowers, referral partners, as well as Loan Officers, and is a key reason Fairway consistently ranks at the top of Customer Service and Employee Experience surveys.
Technology is also where that speed shows up. Fairway’s systems allow Loan Officers to take a pre-approval application in the morning and have the file fully underwritten with a money-back seller guarantee by that afternoon. With that level of certainty, closings can happen in as little as 10 days. Fairway’s tech stack includes tools such as Candor, AccountChek, Argyle, Finicity, etc., all designed to reduce friction, increase accuracy, and make the process easier for borrowers. Fairway also provides access to a secure Enterprise ChatGPT environment, allowing Loan Officers to safely and effectively use AI-driven scripts, document review, and prompts.
Fairway’s retained servicing model gives Loan Officers a long-term advantage. Because Fairway services most of its newly originated loans, clients maintain access to the Loan Officer who originated their mortgage. That means stronger relationships, better visibility leading to future opportunities, and more control over the database.
Loan Officers who want to create additional income without losing connection with their clients have multiple options inside the Fairway ecosystem. Programs such as the Made for Home credit card, Fairway Home Insurance, Fairway Home Connect, and Fairway Home Services allow Originators to add value for clients while building additional revenue streams.
What does your company do to help elevate your employees’ growth? Describe any mentoring programs, outside classes or training, in-house training. How does the company help people develop?
Growth is supported through Fairway’s internal coaching platform, Ignite. Loan Officers participating in Ignite average roughly double the production of those outside the program. Ignite coaches are Fairway teammates, and the level-up pairing process ensures each Originator is matched with a coach who fits their goals and working style. Fairway also hosts focused growth groups, weekly and monthly workshops on timely topics, and a weekly National Sales Call where top producers openly share the exact strategies, tools, and programs they are using to win right now.
Tell us about what type of volunteer work employees are encouraged to engage in, or charities your company supports, and why?
Fairway’s culture is grounded in a simple belief: “Mortgages are what we do, not who we are.” The company actively gives back through the American Warrior Initiative, which has provided more than 430 service dogs to military veterans, and Fairway Cares, which supports teammates facing critical illness, trauma, or loss. Fairway also donates disaster relief funds to families in need across the country.
Fairway is built for Loan Officers who care about how their business runs day to day. Speed, access, accountability, and long-term client relationships are not layered later; they are embedded in how the company operates. For Originators who want a platform that supports growth without adding complexity or distance from their clients, Fairway provides a structure designed to keep the focus where it belongs: serving borrowers well and running a growing, strong, sustainable mortgage business.
(For more information on having your firm’s extracurricular activities, employee growth, and your charitable side featured, contact Chrisman LLC’s Anjelica Nixt.)
Thoughts on Friday’s job data
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Historically, jobs and housing drive the U.S. economy. MBA SVP and Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni had some thoughts about yesterday’s U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report on employment conditions in April.
“The April employment report showed positive trends, with the unemployment rate steady at 4.3 percent, employment growth at a solid 115,000, and wage growth picking up to 3.6 percent at an annual rate. However, the three-month trend is not quite as strong, with job growth averaging only 48,000, including the net downward revisions to the job counts for the prior two months. And the job growth was concentrated in just a few sectors, including health care, social assistance, retail trade, and transportation.
“Other trends over the past year also paint a different picture. The labor force participation rate has declined from 62.6 to 61.8 percent. The labor force, the total number of people either employed or actively looking for work and counted as unemployed, has declined by more than 1 million. And the number of people employed has declined by more than 1.2 million. The U-6 measure, now at 8.2 percent, captures some of this shift in individuals leaving the labor force.
“All in, the job market is holding together reasonably well, but it is not as strong as the April headline would suggest. The implications are that there is not enough job market weakness to change the direction of Fed policy. The MBA expects that the Fed will hold off on rate cuts for the foreseeable future, and there is enough concern about the labor market to keep at least some potential homebuyers hesitant about their own job situation.”
The NAR’s Lawrence Yun had a slightly different take, looking at jobs at a state level. “The national economy is not in a recession, nor is it about to fall into one. The latest job market is showing more net new job additions and low unemployment of only 4.3 percent. The wage growth of 3.6 percent to an average hourly rate of $37.41 in April is modestly outpacing the latest available consumer price inflation in March. Moreover, income growth is easily outpacing national home price growth and, therefore, helping to improve housing affordability.
“Over the past year, only 251,000 net new jobs were added to the economy, with around half of the states losing jobs. The large reduction in federal government staffing has particularly hurt D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Job growth rates have been consistently solid in North and South Carolina, Texas in the South, and in Idaho, Nevada, and Utah. Florida has lost jobs in the past year, though it has been one of the top performers over the past five years. Any home price declines in fast job-creating areas should be viewed as short-term before the inevitable pickup in housing demand. Alaska, Louisiana, and North Dakota had been slow in job creation but could see a meaningful rise due to the energy production boom.”
Down payment assistance, MLOs, and borrowers
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“Down payment assistance usage among FHA borrowers has surged dramatically, bringing lower FICO scores, higher debt-to-income ratios, and materially higher delinquency rates with it. That’s where the real concern sits because affordability has been pushed to uncomfortable extremes. Housing itself has become a tale of two markets: Existing home sales remain severely constrained by inventory lock-in while builders have managed to keep new home sales moving through incentives, giveaways, and price cuts. In many parts of the country prices are finally beginning to soften, especially in formerly red-hot states like Texas, Florida, and Colorado, and while people instinctively fear falling home prices, price corrections are often what restore balance to a distorted market.”
Ira Selwin, VP of Capital Markets with US Mortgage Corporation, was quick to astutely point out that, “Many Down Payment Assistance options don’t allow the ‘second’ to be resubordinated. To start, I wonder how many are informing the borrowers of this and letting them know that if/when rates do in fact drop, that they may not just be able to suddenly refinance. Especially in areas where there is depreciation, borrowers may find themselves underwater. DQs on top of this could be increasingly problematic. Just using Florida as an example, one of the state’s Housing DPA programs is so popular that it runs out of funds very quickly. Combine this with the decrease in values, and you can see where this could become an issue.” Thank you, Ira.
Sean Moss, Down Payment Resource’s EVP of Product and Operations, also had some thoughts. “There are those who have fair concerns about borrower education, resubordination, and affordability pressure. Those issues deserve attention. But the data do not support the broader conclusion that down payment assistance itself is driving weaker FHA credit quality or creating the risk.
“The key distinction is that ‘DPA’ is often discussed as one large category, when it is not. In FY2025, HUD reported that 42.31 percent of FHA purchase borrowers used some form of down payment assistance. But more than half of that was not government or HFA assistance at all. 23.16 percent came from eligible family-member gifts, while only 17.74 percent came from government sources, the segment most closely aligned with the programs tracked by Down Payment Resource. HUD also notes that although the FY2025 mix reached a 16-year high, DPA usage has been ‘relatively stable’ over the past ten years.
“That matters because the criticism appears to treat all assistance as though it carries the same risk profile. A gift from ‘mom and dad,’ a repayable second mortgage, a deferred HFA loan, a forgivable grant, and a local employer-assisted program are very different tools. They should not be collapsed into a single negative conclusion.
“The FHA credit data also point in the opposite direction of the claim that DPA is bringing weaker credit with it. HUD’s FY2025 report states that credit scores are the most predictive factor for FHA losses, and that FHA borrower credit scores have increased for four consecutive years, reaching a 10-year high average of 679. HUD further states that this lowers the MMI Fund’s risk exposure because higher-score borrowers are less likely to default. Down Payment Resource's (DPR’s) HFA Advisory Group members likewise report average borrower credit scores exceeding 700 in recent production.
“Affordability pressure is real, but HUD’s own explanation points to home prices, wages, rates, and payment burden, not DPA as the cause. HUD notes that home prices have grown more than twice as fast as wages over the last decade, requiring borrowers to take on more debt relative to income for the same home. HUD also reports that average FHA DTIs have remained stable over the past three years and decreased slightly in the most recent fiscal year.
“Contractual issues regarding resubordination are valid and important. MLS should educate borrowers whether a DPA second can be subordinated in a future refinance. But that is a program-disclosure and policy-design issue, not proof that DPA itself is unsafe. As refinance opportunities return, many DPA providers are already evaluating or implementing solutions to address resubordination more clearly.
“The fair conclusion is this: properly structured down payment assistance helps qualified borrowers bridge the cash-to-close gap, preserve liquidity, and access homeownership in an affordability-constrained market. The right response is better transparency and borrower education, not treating DPA as the source of FHA risk.” Thank you, Sean.
Capital markets, rates, and volatility
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Mortgage markets are no longer moving on one story at a time. Oil shocks, Fed speculation, specified pool volatility, investor pay-ups, and loan-level pricing are all hitting at once, turning mortgage execution into a daily exercise in risk management. What used to be a 25-basis-point pricing advantage can now swing by 200+, while capital markets teams are forced to price loans today based on where demand might be over a month from now. The result is a market that’s faster, more fragmented, and far less forgiving. The biggest question now is whether lenders are adapting fast enough and what happens to the ones that aren’t.
Vice Capital’s Chris Bennett had some thoughts on the current bond market. “When volatility increases, the instinct is to ask what needs to change. But the better question is whether the strategy was built to handle this kind of environment in the first place. If a business model only works under a narrow set of conditions, it is not a strategy. It is a bet. And bets eventually get exposed.
“A durable capital markets strategy should not require constant reinvention. It should already account for uncertainty and volatility. That means operating with a mindset that is fundamentally risk neutral, not trying to predict the next move in rates, but ensuring consistent performance regardless of direction. Markets will shift. Spreads will widen and tighten. Unexpected events will occur. The goal is not to outguess them, but to be prepared for them.
“Even in a challenging environment, opportunities emerge. The renewed relevance of adjustable-rate mortgages is one example. For years, ARMs struggled because fixed rates were low enough to make the tradeoff unattractive. That dynamic has shifted. The spread between fixed and adjustable products has widened, creating real value for certain borrowers, particularly those with shorter time horizons. It also reflects a broader market view. Investors are more willing to engage with ARMs when they are less concerned about near-term refinancing risk, which suggests an expectation that rates will remain elevated for some time.
“But the most important shift required right now has less to do with products and more to do with mindset. Too many decisions are still being driven by marginal gains. A few basis points on execution. A slightly better price on a given day. Those factors matter, but they do not define long-term success. What matters is what happens after the loan is sold.
Every loan represents a customer relationship, and every sale of servicing is a decision about the future of that relationship. Many lenders optimize for immediate economics without fully accounting for what they are giving up. When servicing is transferred, so is the opportunity to retain that borrower. The best servicers retain a significant portion of their customers, while industry averages remain far lower. That gap represents future production, and in many cases, it is being handed away in exchange for short-term gains.
“This is the tradeoff most lenders fail to measure. The incremental benefit realized today often comes at the expense of a much larger opportunity tomorrow. Over time, that missed opportunity compounds. It shows up in weaker pipelines, higher acquisition costs, and reduced lifetime customer value.
“This market is not easy. Rates are elevated, margins are tight, and uncertainty is constant. But the fundamentals of success have not changed. The lenders who will outperform are not the ones who correctly predict where rates are headed. They are the ones who build strategies that endure across cycles, remain disciplined in execution, think beyond the immediate transaction, and protect long-term customer relationships. Because in the end, this business is not just about pricing a loan. It is about owning the next one, and the one after that.” Thank you, Chris.
President Donald Trump is becoming worried about his future as President after the midterms. He decides to call certain world leaders, and makes a conference call to Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, and Xi Jinping.
"Guys, next to me, you are the greatest leaders in the world. What can I do to stop from getting impeached?"
There is a lot of talking between them and then Vlad says, "President Trump, we know this is very important. We need to discuss it for a while. We will call you back."
Half an hour later, the President’s phone rings and its Vlad, Kim, and Xi back on the phone.
Vladimir speaks. "We've thought it over and decided that there are two things that you must do. First, gather up all the Democrat politicians and have them shot. Second, paint the outside of the White House blue."
"Blue?! Why would I paint the White House blue?"
A howl of laughter comes out of the speaker phone. Putin says, "See? I told you he wouldn't ask about the first one!"
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. This month’s piece is titled, “Mortgage Rates Are Not Random.” The Commentary’s podcast is available on all major platforms, including Apple and Spotify.
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(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.)
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