Politics, policy, and a market trying to recalibrate after a burst of volatility were the names of the game this week. President Trump’s announcement that he intends to nominate former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh to succeed Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve Chair was the largest headline. While Warsh is a known quantity with prior Fed experience and deep ties to Wall Street, the nomination introduced renewed debate about Fed independence, especially as the Supreme Court considers

There’s a reason conversations about the Innovation Investment Fee (IIF) often start with confusion rather than conviction. One of the most common, and most honest, things I hear from executives is this: “I don’t really understand what MISMO does, let alone why I should care enough to pay.”  That observation sits at the root of the challenge. When standards work well, they’re invisible. They don’t show up in sales meetings or earnings calls. They don’t have a logo on the borr

Mortgage marketing has turned into a speed game. In a purchase market, the advantage goes to the loan officer who can ship helpful things fast. The LOs winning attention are not always the ones with the biggest budgets. They are the ones who can launch something useful quickly, test it in the real world, and improve it without waiting on a vendor queue. That is where “vibe coding” comes in. The label is new, but the idea is simple: you describe what you want in plain English,

The narrative this week was dominated by policy uncertainty rather than concrete action, beginning with President Trump’s long-teased $200 billion mortgage-backed securities purchase plan, which arrived at Davos with few details and little immediate market impact. Mortgage rates ended up less than 10-basis points from below pre-announcement levels, underscoring the growing consensus among economists and Fed officials that housing affordability is constrained by supply, not fi

For consumers paying attention to housing news lately, it probably feels like the industry and policymakers are throwing everything they have at the affordability problem. 50-year amortization mortgages. Penalty-free access to 401(k) funds for down payments. Prepayment penalties reintroduced as a way to lower interest rates. And now, proposals from the White House to ban large investors from purchasing homes. Each of these ideas has made headlines over the last several months

Last week, Donald Trump floated a proposal that immediately grabbed headlines: a one-year federal cap on credit card interest rates at 10%. Markets reacted quickly. Bank stocks sold off. Trade groups pushed back. And the debate over consumer affordability versus credit availability reignited almost overnight.(Source: CNBC – https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/10/trump-calls-for-one-year-cap-on-credit-card-interest-rates-at-10percent.html ) At first glance, this looks like a story sq

We're at quite the intersection of political rhetoric, market structure, and stubborn economic reality. The headline catalyst this week came from President Trump, who asserted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now worth “an absolute fortune” and directed his representatives to pursue $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) purchases to push mortgage rates lower. The announcement was light on details and heavy on uncertainty, raising immediate questions about legal

As we prepare to enter a new year, and a new era defined by artificial intelligence, interoperability, and accelerating change, it’s a privilege to welcome the 2026 MISMO Board of Directors . This Board reflects the depth, diversity, and leadership required at a pivotal moment for our industry. MISMO exists by the industry and for the industry . Its work quietly supports every loan, every day, across origination, servicing, capital markets, and the technology ecosystem that b

With little economic data on the calendar this week, and many people away from their desks, bond markets traded in a tight range absent any major headlines. The release of the December FOMC Minutes reinforced a familiar theme: most policymakers still expect rate cuts if inflation continues to cool, though a meaningful minority favors holding rates steady for longer. Markets barely reacted, with odds of no change at the late-January meeting still around 85 percent. President T

What this year actually taught us about mortgage, momentum, and what matters next. I’ve been around this industry long enough to know the difference between a “tough year” and a turning year. 2025 was the latter. Not because rates suddenly got friendly. Not because volume magically returned. But because the rules of engagement finally changed in plain sight. This was the year where pretending the old playbook still worked became harder than rewriting it. The year the middle d

If you spent 2025 waiting for the market to “come roaring back,” you probably left disappointed. This was not 2020 or 2021. It also was not 2022’s hangover. But it was not the free-fall mood of 2023, either. 2025 was the year the industry proved it can operate in a normal-rate environment, even if “normal” now means a 30-year fixed that starts with a 6. As of last week, Freddie Mac had the average 30-year fixed at 6.21% . ( AP News ) The market did not need a miracle to impro

This week marked another decisive step in the mortgage industry’s structural reset, led by United Wholesale Mortgage’s agreement to acquire Two Harbors in a $1.3 billion all-stock deal. While framed publicly as an MSR and portfolio-loan play, the transaction fits squarely into a broader consolidation wave reshaping the mortgage value chain. Following Rocket’s acquisition spree and Bayview’s combination of servicing, origination, and technology platforms, UWM’s move advances i

Then UAD 3.6 Should Already Be on Your Agenda. Do you want more appraisal waivers? Do you want appraisals completed faster, with better accuracy and quality? Do you want less liability and risk tied to appraisal data flowing through your organization? It’s hard to imagine anyone in mortgage answering “no” to any of those questions. And yet, many lenders are still treating the Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) 3.6 as something to deal with later. A future compliance task. A dist

Stop me when this sounds familiar: There's a disconnect between the Federal Reserve’s official projections and the economic signals policymakers themselves emphasized. Stop? Okay. Despite the Fed delivering a third consecutive 25-basis-point cut and launching $40 billion per month in T-bill purchases, investors largely ignored the near-term easing in favor of the 2026 “dot plot,” which predicts only one cut next year. That outlook looks increasingly fragile: Chair Powell open

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

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

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

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,

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

According to NAR’s 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers , first-time buyers now have a median age of 40 , and their share has fallen to 21% , a record low. That is a historic shift that changes how we coach renters and near-ready clients. Quick history for context. In the 1980s , the typical first-time buyer was in their late 20s . From the early 1990s through the late 2010s , the median age sat in the 30 to 32  range. Even in 2020  it was 33 . Then, in only a few years,