Today is not the Mexican equivalent of the 4th of July. Today celebrates Mexico’s victory over France in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. (In this country, Hispanic home ownership rates are north of 10 million, which includes, of course, Mexicans. What lender is going to ignore that? In Mexico itself, mortgage rates are north of 10 percent and homeownership is less than 60 percent.) Returning to the note about today, it was a relatively minor battle (and the French reclai

“People who cheat on their taxes disgust me. This is not the kind of world I want to raise my 23 dependents in.” While FHFA Director Pulte is caught up in another controversy , this time with Donald Trump’s Jesus meme, wanna know how much your state makes in taxes every year? Here you go. Mortgage loan originators are very concerned with fiscal issues, as well as who their clients are. What better way than… the Census Bureau! The U.S. Census Bureau released a downloadable fi

“I started hiding from my boss because I heard good employees are hard to find.” It’s not hard to find good conversations among mortgage professionals, and among the hot topics in the hallways of the ICE Experience is the evolution in data contained in each lien, along with massive appraisal change hitting our biz. I was chatting with Class Valuation’s Mark Walser yesterday about UAD 3.6. (If you’d like a primer on it, and you should, see this write up by Mike Simmons .) On

Here in New Orleans, the average rainfall is about 5 feet a year, much of it in the summer. Out west, most snow and rain occur in the winter. I mention this because, although being hit by a storm now including a deadly avalanche, until recently the Western U.S. was in a dire snow drought. What comes next is even scarier. Does the climate, and its impact on weather, impact lenders and servicers? Of course it does. But then again, in my 40+ years in capital markets, I’ve seen