Apr. 26: New book on cap markets; Goldman Sachs on tariffs and a recession; Trump & disparate impact; SWBC Mortgage
Marriage may be about love, but for many newlyweds, it’s also a tug-of-war between paying for a wedding and affording a home. Among homeowners married in the past two years who made a down payment, 48 percent asked for financial help with it instead of traditional wedding gifts. Meanwhile, 35 percent said their wedding delayed home buying plans, and 36 percent put down less on a home because of their nuptials. In a sign of shifting priorities, 59 percent spent more on their down payment than their wedding, and 52 percent intentionally had a smaller wedding to afford a bigger home. As for stress, 36 percent found homebuying more nerve-wracking, while 33 percent gave that honor to wedding planning. But when it came to arguments? Wedding planning took the crown, with 36 percent saying it sparked more fights.
New position, new book on capital markets
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LeaderOne is making headlines with its latest bold move: the appointment of industry veteran Randell Gillespie as President. Amid a wave of “McMortgage” mergers, Gillespie sets a clear vision: “LeaderOne is hungry to be the best, not the biggest.” This commitment to excellence is further underscored by Capital Markets Chief Todd Leddon, whose new book, “Protect the House: A Comprehensive Mortgage - Capital Markets Strategy Guide”, offers actionable insights for today’s mortgage professionals. “We know that the best, most informed mortgage professional earns the client,” says Leddon. “I wanted to do my part for those who strive to be better equipped in this industry.” To celebrate these milestones, LeaderOne is giving away free copies of “Protect the House” to the first 25 readers who email Staci Ann Thompson with “Protect The House” in the subject line. Don’t miss your chance to learn from the best and help protect the houses of your clients and partners!
Saturday Spotlight: SWBC Mortgage
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In 3-5 sentences, describe your company (when was it founded and why, what it does, where, recent growth and plans for near-term future growth).
Founded in 1988, SWBC Mortgage is more than just a company—we’re a team of real, approachable people who genuinely care about the success of our employees. We retain the majority of servicing on our loans, giving our loan originators exclusive access to data that helps predict when clients are ready to buy or sell again. With cutting-edge tools and a focus on relationships, we make sure our team spends time where it matters most. Our leadership is hands-on, accessible, and invested in creating a collaborative environment where people can thrive.
As we continue to grow and expand our footprint, our focus remains on building stronger communities, enhancing our technology, and empowering our team for long-term success.
Tell us about what type of volunteer work employees are encouraged to engage in, or charities your company supports, and why.
Beyond mortgages, we are committed to giving back. SWBC Mortgage is a division of SWBC, and each year, through our SWBCares program, our employees contribute thousands of volunteer hours and donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to charities. Since 2013, the SWBC Foundation has donated more than $13.3 million to a variety of philanthropic efforts, including the MBA Opens Doors Foundation.
Aligned with SWBC’s priority programs—children and family services, education, health & wellness, quality of life, and safety net services—SWBC Mortgage has provided over $1.4 million in grant funds to assist first-time homebuyers. We also proudly support veteran services and homelessness prevention efforts both nationwide and locally.
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?
When you join SWBC Mortgage, you become part of a team that values leadership, mentorship, and professional development. We provide ongoing training, cutting-edge tools, and dedicated support to help you thrive in your career.
We develop programs like the SWBC Move Up Program™, which promotes home affordability in underserved communities. Whether through flexible and unique programs, sales coaching, marketing resources, or industry-leading training, we empower our loan officers to serve the neighborhoods where they live and lend. We also host weekly sales calls where our top performers, leadership team, and industry experts and realtors share their stories and best practices.
By working together, we can share ideas more freely, support each other more effectively, and celebrate our successes as a cohesive team.
Tell us how your company maintains its culture in a work-from-home environment, or how you plan on bringing employees back into the office, if applicable.
SWBC Mortgage supports flexible work arrangements that empower our team to succeed. While we have production employees all over the country, many of whom work remotely, we remain committed to maintaining strong connections and a dynamic company culture. We do so by fostering an environment where collaboration and camaraderie thrive. We believe that being in person, even occasionally, plays a crucial role in this. In 2024, we hosted sales rallies in San Antonio and Nashville to discuss staying in touch with current trends and best practices, ensuring we remain ahead of the competition in local markets.
Fun fact about your company.
SWBC Mortgage, a division of SWBC founded in San Antonio, Texas, by sports enthusiasts Charlie Amato and Gary Dudley, is the official mortgage provider of the Dallas Cowboys! SWBC has been a partner of the Dallas Cowboys, welcoming All-Pro linebacker Micah Parsons as the spokesperson and brand ambassador. In 1993, Amato and Dudley became minority owners of the San Antonio Spurs.
(For more information on having your firm’s extracurricular activities, employee growth, and your charitable side featured, contact Chrisman LLC’s Anjelica Nixt.)
Racial homeownership differences persist
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Earlier this week Bernard Nossuli with iEmergent, a company focused on mortgage business intelligence, mentioned that home ownership percentages have not changed, or may even be worse, despite 1968’s Fair Housing Act. I was incredulous. Sure enough…
As a refresher, the Fair Housing Act was signed 57 years ago and outlawed housing discrimination based on race, color, religion, and national origin. But several years ago analysts began noticing, using Treasury and Census data, that the percentage of U.S. blacks who own their own homes is essentially the same as when housing discrimination was outlawed in 1968. The 1970 census found 42% of black households owned their own homes. In 2017, the number was 41%.
Compared to previous decades, the number was worse. From 1950 to 1970 (despite housing discrimination in the U.S. being legal for most of that time) American blacks were able to increase their homeownership rate from 35% in 1950 to 42% in 1970. That 1970 number is 20% higher than that 1950 number.
For those who enjoy numbers, the Treasury, Census Bureau, and Forbes have all published information documenting the persistent differences. Unfortunately things probably may very well worsen during Trump II, and this piece came out yesterday.
“Presidential Action Enables Discrimination in Housing and Lending: Order Threatens to Widen Racial Wealth Gap. This week, President Trump attempted to rewrite settled Supreme Court precedent to make it easier for lenders and others to discriminate without fear of prosecution. The order calls for federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), to stop using data to identify discriminatory policies and practices that disproportionately harm certain groups, known as ‘disparate impact.’ Instead, the government will only address illegal discrimination in the rare instances when the bad actor is caught red-handed.
“’Disparate impact liability is a bedrock principle in ensuring fair and equal access to safe housing and affordable credit. Eliminating this standard in the federal agencies is a continuation of the Trump Administration’s all-out assault on equity, civil rights, racial justice, and the rule of law,’ said Odette Williamson, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center and director of NCLC’s Racial Justice and Equal Opportunity Project. ‘This executive order marks a sad day in the struggle for racial and economic justice.’
“Disparate impact claims allow consumers to challenge a wide variety of discriminatory practices aimed at people of color, people with disabilities, families with young children, and women, among others. These discriminatory practices would otherwise, even when identified, go unaddressed. Lawsuits bringing disparate impact claims have exposed and remedied longstanding patterns of discrimination and brought relief to thousands of consumers.
“During the subprime lending boom that led to the Great Recession of 2008, communities of color were targeted for high-risk, high interest rate loans, and they were hit especially hard by the financial crisis. Dozens of lawsuits bringing disparate impact claims were filed in an attempt to alter this toxic reality and bring relief to individual consumers. These lawsuits unmasked widespread discriminatory lending practices.
“’The Administration’s claim that this order to end disparate impact liability promotes ‘meritocracy and a colorblind society’ is grossly out-of-touch with the reality for people of color, women, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities,’ said Williamson. ‘Whether intentional or not, discrimination in housing, lending, and credit reporting is a reality for millions of people, and government oversight and regulation is an essential weapon in the ongoing work of dismantling deeply entrenched problems. Disparate impact liability allows the government to address this type of systemic discrimination that has put generations in harm’s way and eroded their civil rights.’
“Congress needs to act to ensure that disparate impact remains a robust enforcement tool to hold discriminatory actors accountable and address longstanding systemic harms. States need to act to protect their residents from discriminatory lending and housing practices and push back on the Administration’s attempt to eviscerate civil rights protections.”
The piece listed related resources: Issue Brief: Urgent Action Needed to Preserve Racial Equity and Economic Justice, March 18, 2025; Letter: Environmental Justice and Civil Rights Advocates’ Response to Petition For Rulemaking to Rescind EPA’s Title VI Disparate Impact Regulations, Sept. 4, 2024; Amicus Brief: National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) v. HUD, July 10, 2024; Comments on HUD’s Implementation of the Fair Housing Act’s Disparate Impact Standard, Oct. 18, 2019; and The Hill: Ensuring equal access to credit for all Americans, op-ed by Odette Williamson, July 21, 2015.
Goldman Sachs on the tariffs: the waffling is the problem
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Goldman Sachs weighed in on whether tariffs would cause a recession. “The Trump administration's tariffs have upended decades of US trade policy, sparking a rapid reassessment of the economic outlook in the U.S. and beyond. Goldman Sachs Research's Top of Mind report examines what lies ahead for the US economy amid this radical shift in trade policy.
“Paul Krugman, the Nobel-winning economist, explains that the size and speed of the rise in tariff rates makes this ‘the biggest trade shock in history.’ But he's more concerned about the uncertainty created by the trade policy shift than the scale of the shift itself when it comes to U.S. recession risk. Even high tariffs don't normally cause recessions, he says, but unpredictable tariffs that leave businesses hesitant to make long-term investment decisions very well might. As a result, Krugman says ‘a recession seems likely,’ and argues that policy reversals may actually hurt rather than help, given that the reversals themselves may be reversed at a moment's notice, which only increases uncertainty.
“Jan Hatzius, Goldman Sachs Research's chief economist, also expects a sizable tariff-induced hit to U.S. GDP growth owing to reduced business investment, the tax-like effect of tariff increases on real income and consumer spending, and tighter financial conditions as markets price a dimmer outlook. He forecasts low US growth and a 45 percent chance of recession within the next year, assuming the full slate of the ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs won't take effect. Goldman Sachs Research would probably shift to a recession call, he says, if they do take effect. That said, Hatzius is more optimistic than Krugman that a policy reversal could stabilize near-term conditions.
“Oren Cass, founder of American Compass, argues that although the Trump administration's goal of reordering the global trade system will entail some short-term costs, ‘there is no reason the trade policies the administration is pursuing would need to cause a recession.’ In his view, while the abruptness and lack of communication around the implementation of the shifts in tariff policy were understandably frustrating, the administration has already taken helpful steps to course correct, which should continue to resolve any uncertainty. And, Cass says, companies already have enough information about the administration's tariff goals to work out the right strategy: Invest significantly more in U.S.-based production.”
Like talking to, and trusting someone’s financial future, to a loan officer who isn’t licensed?
Visit www.robchrisman.com for more information on our industry partners, access archived commentaries, or to subscribe to the Daily Mortgage News and Commentary. If you're interested, visit my periodic blog at the STRATMOR Group web site. This month’s piece is titled, “Love Them or Leave Them? The Ongoing Saga of Fannie and Freddie.” The Commentary’s podcast is live and at any place you obtain your podcasts (like Apple or Spotify).
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