Aug. 16: Thoughts on the CFPB's future; Homebuyer study; Vendor news incl. AI glossary; Saturday Spotlight: LicensingStore
Two questions on a summer Saturday, besides can President Donald Trump dismantle the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau without Congress being involved (or at least reach the “five men in a room with a telephone” stage; more below): how long has your company been around, and how much would you pay for two hours sitting in a chair? Broadway fans know that Hamilton is celebrating its 10th anniversary on Broadway this year with a bang, bringing back the show’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and original Broadway cast star Leslie Odom Jr. to the Richard Rodgers Theater in September. Ten years ago scalpers made a killing off Hamilton during its first year on Broadway, raking in an estimated $15.5 million or more from the 100 performances preceding Miranda’s final show. Most of the tickets to the two stars’ return to the stage are already sold out, but StubHub still has some listed for more than $14,000. Nothing’s surer in life than death, taxes, and scalpers making a killing. For those who believe that gross receipts for Broadway shows is an indicator of economic health, you should know that this season is the highest grossing in recorded history. What recession?
Saturday Spotlight: LicensingStore
_________________________________________________
“Mortgage Licensing Reinvented”
In 3–5 sentences, describe your company
We built our team with veteran mortgage executives in a diverse array of subject areas including compliance officers, legal counsel, risk directors, finance controllers, and sales managers. We know firsthand what it takes to build a mortgage business from getting licensed, to staying compliant, and scaling efficiently and effectively. We are best able to help clients and new brokers because we have been in their shoes.
From licenses, reports, and renewals to start, and expanding into compliance, policy development, exam support, and post-closing loan file quality control, LicensingStore’s approach helps companies accelerate growth, often moving from concept to nationwide licensing faster than they thought possible.
Tell us about volunteer work employees are encouraged to engage in
We’re passionate about mental health and believe supporting our communities is part of supporting each other. Our team members choose causes that matter to them, from platelet donations and heart disease fundraisers to giving back to veterans. We encourage everyone to take time to give back as it’s just as important as the work we do for our clients.
What does your company do to help elevate employees’ growth?
We invest in our people the same way we invest in our clients. That means ongoing training in mortgage compliance, hands-on mentorship from leadership, and opportunities to attend industry events and webinars. Our team shares knowledge across every corner of the business so everyone can develop their expertise and their career.
How do you maintain culture in a work-from-home environment?
Being remote has been a value add for our team and our clients. We connect daily through video calls, team chats, and collaborative tools that keep projects moving and people talking. We make a point to check in on each other and keep the human side of work front and center.
Things you are most proud of that don’t have to do with sales
It’s our team’s collective brainpower that sets us apart. With a diverse and robust range of industry experience, we have an unmatched ability to understand and solve our clients’ unique challenges. We’re also proud of the trust we’ve built, growing alongside clients from their very first license to nationwide coverage.
Fun fact about your company
We just launched our own show: Approved AF - The Mortgage Licensing Podcast, where we share real stories, strategies, and compliance tips to help mortgage pros grow without the stress.
Anything else you’d like to share?
Licensing isn’t just a requirement; it’s the foundation for scaling a business. By adding audit assistance and loan file QC to our services, we’re making sure our clients’ foundations are solid so they can focus on bigger opportunities ahead.
(For more information on having your firm’s extracurricular activities, employee growth, and your charitable side featured, contact Chrisman LLC’s Anjelica Nixt.)
Richard Horn on the CFPB’s future
_________________________________________________
Yesterday an appeals court allowed the Trump administration to resume CFPB dismantling. More precisely, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit panel voted 2-1 that employee unions and groups that use CFPB services have no right to bring their challenge in federal court. I am sure large lenders are looking forward to dealing with 50 state-level CFPBs.
Attorney Richard Horn weighed in. “On August 15, 2025, the DC Circuit issued a very consequential opinion allowing the CFPB acting leadership to continue efforts to substantially reduce the CFPB’s size, which may include a ‘reduction in force’ (“RIF”) of most of the CFPB’s employees. While it remains to be seen whether the CFPB’s acting leadership has changed its plans regarding the RIF, this decision could potentially lead to the downsizing of the CFPB to a skeleton crew.
Who’s been buying or refinancing, and why
_________________________________________________
Mortgage rates are expected to end 2025 and 2026 at 6.4 percent and 6.0 percent, respectively, downward revisions compared with last month’s forecast of 6.5 percent and 6.1 percent, according to the July 2025 Economic and Housing Outlook from the Fannie Mae (FNMA/OTCQB) Economic and Strategic Research (ESR) Group. The ESR Group also updated its home price growth forecast this month and now projects annual home price growth, on a Q4/Q4 basis, of 2.8 percent in 2025 and 1.1 percent in 2026. These are downward revisions compared with the previously projected 4.1 percent and 2.0 percent. Total home sales are forecast at 4.85 million units in 2025 and 5.35 million units in 2026. Visit Fannie Mae’s Data and Insights page to read the full July 2025 Economic and Housing Outlook, including the Economic Developments Commentary, Economic Forecast, and Housing Forecast.
If you believe a survey that includes only 20 people per state, a new survey of 1,000 recent U.S. homebuyers reveals a concerning trend: younger buyers are making risky financial bets on their ability to refinance in the future, with nearly two-thirds of Gen Z and Millennial buyers saying it's important to their financial health to be able to refinance their mortgage, double the rate of Baby Boomer recent buyers at just 32 percent.
According to the Truework 2025 Recent Homebuyer Report, which surveyed Americans who purchased homes in the past 18-24 months, it's not just the younger crowd who is banking on a future drop in interest rates. In fact, more than half (56 percent) of all recent buyers said that refinancing to a lower rate is important or extremely important to their financial health, and 1 in 4 (25 percent) said the ability to refinance is "extremely important" to their economic well-being.
“Overall, the Truework study exposes a generational divide in both confidence and financial stress during the homebuying process, with younger buyers facing specific challenges in comparison to older buyers in today's high-rate environment. Specifically, one in three Millennial and Gen Z buyers (33 percent each) experienced ‘significant stress’ during the buying process, compared to just 22 percent of Boomers. 27 percent of Gen Z buyers feel pessimistic about their financial future after buying, significantly higher than the overall average of 16 percent.
15 percent of Millennial buyers in particular admit they are ‘not confident at all’ in understanding the financial terms of their mortgages, higher than even the youngest Gen Z buyers at 11 percent, and much higher than Gen X or Boomer buyers (8 percent each). But this means that the vast majority of recent buyers don’t feel this way.
“Truework's survey also spotlighted more general trends across today's homebuyers of all ages, particularly related to stress, surprises, and financial challenges in the process. For example, 90 percent of recent home buyers reported experiencing stress in the home purchase process, and 30 percent reported ‘Significant Stress.’ West Coast buyers experienced the highest stress levels, with 37 percent reporting ‘significant stress,’ compared to 27 percent of recent buyers in the South. The top-ranked sources of this stress for buyers were a tie between ‘Navigating lengthy paperwork and documentation’ and ‘Limited inventory in desired neighborhoods,’ something which, of course, a lender can’t help with.
“The number one financial challenge for recent homebuyers was ‘Budgeting for unexpected expenses and repairs,’ followed by ‘Gathering income and employment information and asset documentation.’
But homeowner optimism prevails. “Given the current interest rates and limited inventory in many areas, Truework looked at what was driving people to take the plunge into homebuying anyway in today's market. The top two driving factors across all generations, regions and marital status were ‘Necessity for my life and/or family’ at 32 percent and a realization that ‘Prices don't seem to be dropping and might actually go up’ at 21 percent.
“Despite concerns and stress factors, today's recent homebuyers still maintain a positive outlook, with 86 percent saying they felt financially secure when purchasing their home. And 82 percent said they feel ‘optimistic’ or ‘very optimistic’ about their financial future after buying their home.
Third-party provider developments: who’s doing what?
_________________________________________________
What lenders don’t rely on outside parties for their business? Let’s take a random look at who’s up to what and play some catch up.
The 2025 STRATMOR Technology Insight® Study is now underway. The first part of the study (the Lender Intelligence Survey) is live and focused on how lenders really feel about the tech they use every day. Lenders who complete the survey will receive a summary report of 2025 Technology Insight® Study results at no cost. This is actionable intel to help guide tech decisions in today’s competitive environment. Take the survey and help shape the future of mortgage tech. The survey is open to lenders only. Questions? Reach out to STRATMOR’s Technology Insight team for details: technologyinsights@stratmorgroup.com.
Down payment remains the #1 obstacle for would-be buyers; this tie-up gives educators and lenders an easy way to surface 2,300+ grants and low-interest loans that most consumers never hear about. Down Payment Resource (DPR), the folks behind the industry’s go-to database of down-payment assistance, has announced a strategic partnership with FirstHome IQ, a nonprofit that’s teaching Gen Z and young millennials how to get into their first home, minus the jargon and gate-keeping. FirstHome IQ’s curriculum already lives in high-school classrooms and community workshops. Integrating DPR’s live data turns those lessons into actionable next steps. This collaboration will empower industry professionals to be better equipped as they educate and guide first-time homebuyers through the process.
MISMO®, the real estate finance industry's standards organization, published its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Glossary. “This glossary serves as a growing collection of key AI terms and definitions to foster a shared language and mutual understanding among all mortgage stakeholders,” said Acting MISMO President Rick Hill. “As AI technology continues to evolve, new concepts, methodologies, and terminologies emerge. This resource will be regularly updated to reflect the latest advancements.” The 30-day public comment period ran through August 14, 2025.
ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property data, and real estate analytics, announced the availability of its comprehensive property datasets on Snowflake, marking the next step in ATTOM’s ongoing expansion of modern, cloud-based delivery solutions. This integration allows clients to work with ATTOM’s trusted property data directly within the Snowflake environment, streamlining analytics workflows and accelerating time to insight. Concurrently, ATTOM is broadening its delivery options with the launch of Parquet file delivery including support for GeoParquet offering even more flexible, high-performance solutions for clients managing complex datasets.
Lightning Docs, the premier document automation platform developed by Fortra Law, and LendingWise, a leading loan origination system (LOS) announced their successful API integration. The new API integration allows LendingWise users to generate accurate, compliant loan documents directly through Lightning Docs without re-entering any data. This enables faster closings, fewer errors, and more time to focus on growth.
Informative Research (IR), a premier technology provider delivering data-driven credit and verification solutions to the lending community announced the availability of Halcyon’s IRS tax transcript service within the IR Verification Platform. This enhancement expands Informative Research’s suite of verification of income and employment (VOI/E) options, enabling lenders to access secure, permissioned tax transcript data directly from the IRS through Halcyon’s technology. Integrating Halcyon into the IR Verification Platform gives lenders more flexibility to automate income validation, meet investor rep and warrant relief requirements, and streamline workflows with trusted income data sources.
Lender Toolkit, the leader in mortgage automation technology and creator of the industry's only fully integrated Mortgage Efficiency Cooperative announced the official launch of its IT Services offering, designed specifically for lenders using ICE Mortgage Technology's Encompass® platform. As part of its mission to eliminate inefficiencies and unify disconnected mortgage workflows, Lender Toolkit's new IT Services practice adds a critical layer of support for independent mortgage banks (IMBs) seeking to improve performance, reduce costs, and align technology with business goals.
MISMO® published revisions to the eVault Standards and SMART Doc® Validation Rules. This standard increases interoperability and trust between partners trading eNotes. Changes to the eVault Standards and SMART Doc® Validation Rules include corrections to typographical errors. The 30-day public comment period will run through August 16, 2025. The public comment period allows at least 30 days’ notice prior to final release to review and disclose any applicable Patent Rights (as defined by MISMO's 2018 Intellectual Property Rights Policy).. All comments and disclosures are due by August 16, 2025, and should be directed to info@mismo.org.
ChatMMI the mortgage industry’s first conversational AI interface purpose-built for market data and intelligence. Powered by 25 years of MMI data (owned in part of the senior management of New American Funding), it gives lenders, recruiters, and marketers instant answers no dashboards, filters, or spreadsheets required. Just ask a question and get powerful insights in seconds. For example: “What is my monthly production volume over the last five years?” and receive answers instantly.
This funny ad was purportedly made with AI.
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, “The Tax and Spending Bill: The Impact on Borrowers.” The Commentary’s podcast is available on all major platforms, including Apple and Spotify.
qoɹ
(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 2025 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.)