Somewhere, in a parallel universe, Mariah Carey is walking around some supermarket, sick of listening to me sing Christmas carols. This is, of course, a humorous assumption, but what isn’t so humorous is the discussion begun by the Trump Administration about assumable mortgages, arguably the bane of MBS investors. Locked-in mortgage rates and frozen inventory have pushed an old idea back into the spotlight: the assumable mortgage, a feature long limited to FHA and VA loans bu

“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 S

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 t

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

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  all

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

“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

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, trip

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 vola

“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

Both Dick Van Dyke and Mel Brooks turn 100, Dick in less than two weeks and Mel next summer. 100 years is a long time, and it’s a big number. Despite faster economic growth than peers, the U.S. faces rising deficits and debt levels above 100 percent of GDP . If this impacts our debt ratings further, look out. Political gridlock and reluctance to enact meaningful tax increases or spending cuts echo challenges seen in the UK and France, where governments struggle to satisfy vot

It’s the final month of the year… whew, where did the time go? Funny thing is, science tells us that you aren’t just imagining it… time is indeed passing faster, not physically, but relatively. Why? If you think back to childhood, we were hyper-focused on the present moment. With every event seeming like the MAIN event, time felt slower. Today, as adults, we are instead focused on what’s happening beyond this moment, often multitasking, planning, and constantly thinking ahead

The mortgage industry has been embracing the concept of speed as a marketing feature in the past several years. The idea that a mortgage loan can transition from application to closing in a flash is something that loan officers and business owners have become convinced will make them more attractive to clients. Hey, who doesn't want to apply for a loan while making their morning coffee and get approved before they have finished their bowl of cereal, right? Maybe not. About tw

I don’t know about you, but a hot shower or bath always sounds good. Tech wizards, however, have created a human washing machine . I’ll pass. At this point it would be impossible to do a home loan without “technology,” and AI is all the rage. For those trying to figure out how to think about AI, or even where to start, this month’s STRATMOR piece is titled, “Artificial Intelligence in Mortgage Lending.” Should an AI loan officer be licensed? In artificial intelligence, “age

Every industry has its invisible infrastructure, the stuff that quietly works in the background but keeps everything running. In retail, it’s the barcode. In utilities, it’s the grid. In financial services, it’s the payment rails. In mortgage?That quiet, essential infrastructure is MISMO . And at the heart of MISMO’s infrastructure there are two concepts that sound similar but operate very differently: The MISMO Model MISMO Standards In conversations with lenders, investors,

A buddy from Kentucky wrote to me, saying, “Statistics show that the average person has sex 89 times per year. Looks like I'm in for a pretty wild December.” November is behind us, and with it all the noise about President Trump’s 50-year mortgage proposal . Capital markets personnel in the mortgage biz don’t like thinking about how long it would take to create a market for 50-year mortgages, nor do they like volatility, but traders do. The mood among traders has swiftly impr

When did our business start with the catchy slogans? Stay alive in ’25? Stay in the mix in ’26. It’ll be heaven in ’27. How about, “Try to earn a little revenue every day, day after day.”? Smart mortgage bankers look at units, not dollar volumes. If an LO does $5 million in a month, is that one $5 million loan or ten $500,000 loans? And if your cost per loan is $11,000, on a $5 million loan that is good, since the monthly hit is $11,000, but on the ten loans it would be $110,

The new phone books are here, the new phone books are here! Oh, wait a minute. The new conventional conforming loan limits are here! The new conventional conforming loan limits are here! True, lenders that are entirely focused on non-Agency products like non-QM (without many of the loan level price adjustments or gfees) may not care too much, but for most, Freddie Mac’s and Fannie Mae’s changes are followed closely. For 2026 we’re up from 2025’s $806,500 to $832,750. This

Want better affordability? Lower house prices certainly helps, and this article states that more than half of homes in the United States have fallen in price in the last year. Forget interest rates: Certainly, there are fewer willing buyers when they know ahead of time that they may face increasing insurance, tax, or condo fees. (Lenders are doing what they can to control costs, and a recent STRATMOR piece is titled, “Rates Drop, Pipelines Pop: Don’t Let Fulfillment Flop.” )

It’s Thanksgiving week where many of us will get ready for family members will converge under one roof… This year, that roof will be mine…  Some may come packing rolls and green bean casserole… others will come packing fridge opinions, poorly timed critiques, and unfilled thoughts… but hey, what’s a family Thanksgiving without a little drama… and I don’t know about you, but I personally look forward to Uncle Joe telling the same story over and over about how kids these days a