Issue #83: A Little Good News

It’s been a week highlighted by fairly serious news—especially for our friends in the title industry managing a ransomware attack. So although the death of the “adverse market fee” probably didn’t fly completely under the radar (especially for our lending friends), it also probably didn’t quite get the coverage and analysis it might otherwise have in a “normal” news cycle.

You’ll recall that there was quite an outcry when the FHFA and its then-director (who stirred a bit of controversy on a number of topics over the course of his short tenure) announced the fee. While we’ll leave the deepest macro-analysis to the think tanks and economists, you don’t have to have a Ph.D. to know that adding fees to a producer’s costs is hardly the way to stimulate any market. While obviously not the only reason refinance has tailed off in recent months, let’s just say the fee sure didn’t help.

Do I think we’ll see another 2020-like surge in refinance because of this? No—not really. I think that was a once-in-a-lifetime, perfect storm-like confluence of factors and trends that led to jaw dropping volume. But do I think we’ll see a little re-fi spike at the end of the “summer season?” Sure.

We’re also starting to hear that lenders are looking ahead to an economy and market that will certainly compress their margins to some degree. How much? Who knows (yet)? But as lenders prepare to turn their sails into the wind and work to win market share, a little good news like this never hurts. 

By the way, if you haven’t had a look at our summer episodes of LLL, please do. We’ve got some new faces and some lighter (although certainly very meaningful!) topics on tap. Things like millennial women in the mortgage universe, Zillow gone wild and more. Plus, Marvel fans will love some of the discussions!

Of course, we’d like your input on this as well. Got an idea or a topic for the breezier edition of summer LLL? Send it our way! Email me at jpaolino@lssoftwaresolutions.com.