Pricing, Non-QM, BI, Subservicing Tools; Processing and Pricing Shifts; Strong Employment Data Shoots Rates Higher

Goals are good. Anyone whose goals included bringing back serving alcohol on Southwest flights is happy. It is fine for the Biden Administration to highlight first-time homebuyer and affordable housing goals. But by the time those goals filter down to the state and local levels, well, things happen, like economics, red tape, builder preferences, existing housing zoning, and… felines? One wealthy town out in Northern California stopped an affordable housing development citing mountain lion habitat. Different reasons in different parts of the nation. Celebrate diversity! Old timers remember when mortgage rates varied by the different areas of the nation: Freddie Mac published average rates based on geography. Taste bud differences still exist, and, ten days ahead of Valentine’s Day, different states have different candy preferences. Certainly employers are grappling with employees having different preferences of returning to the office, working from home permanently (citing “extra” time not commuting or even showering and using those hours to work), or adopting a hybrid model. A cynic will ask if it is easier for manager at a lender to lay people off they’ve never even met. Managing a scattered, remote origination force can present challenges, and today’s audio version of the commentary is available here and this week’s is sponsored by ActiveComply, making social media monitoring simpler, more compliant, and lowering costs. Lender and Broker Services and Products