Secondary, Processing, VOE, Subservicing; Conventional Conforming News; Affordability Study

Here in Louisville, at AgFirst’s Correspondent Lending Conference, much of the discussion involves going after builder business (“focusing on how fast they get paid so they can pay their subs”), rural programs (“know how to communicate with your clients, or else”), top producer success (“treat your processor like royalty, and fill out the information correctly in the first place,” “set boundaries,” “sell yourself, not rates”) and agriculture. In ag news, the amount of butter the U.S. has in cold storage is down 22 percent compared to a year ago, and the average price of Grade AA Butter is up 80 percent year over year: seasonal milk production is down, there were 11,000 fewer milk-producing cows on U.S. farms compared to a year ago, and dairy products that see seasonal surges like cream cheese and eggnog are eating into supplies of milk that would otherwise go into butter. As butter prices rise, people switch to margarine. In a housing market with high prices and mortgage rates, it is presumed that priced out millennials are largely the target market for build-to-rent single family homes. Affordability is cited as the main reason millennials have not purchased a home. Lastly, speaking of prices, the September Producer Price Index report is tomorrow and is expected to show a 0.1 percent month-to-month drop. The Consumer Price Index comes out Thursday as is expected -.2 percent month over month. Both would be nice, but not enough to dissuade the Fed from another .75 percent increase especially given the tight labor market. (Today’s podcast is available here and features an interview with TMS’s Anthony Forsberg on loss mitigation. This week’s is sponsored by SimpleNexus, the homeownership platform that unites the people, systems, and stages of the mortgage process into one seamless, end-to-end solution that spans engagement, origination, closing and business intelligence. Click here to learn more about SimpleNexus, an nCino company.)