Today in Mortgages

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard discuss if we are finally getting relief from high interest rates. The industry expected a cut in interest rates by the fed, which we got! But mortgage rates have worsened. We are still dealing with the bigger issues of worsening unemployment, and the fed wants inflation to come down to 2%.  Nobody know&ap...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard discuss the PPI report that came back weaker than expected.  The report showed there was a 10% decline, when they anticipated an increase. And a jobs revision report found 900,011 jobs have been erased from March 2024 to March 2025. These two reports all lead to a rate cut next week at the next Fed meeting...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard discuss if trigger leads will finally be a thing of the past.  Good news, we might all be getting less spam calls! National Mortgage Professional says "Trump signs homebuyer privacy protection act, ending abusive trigger leads." Now, we wait six months for the enactment period to pass from the si...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard talk about if we are in a housing emergency.  Todays article is from Newsweek: "Trump may declare national housing emergency -- but what is it?" We want to answer that question. First, Trump loves declaring a national emergency because it gives him executive powers, instead of going through congr...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard talk about storm season. Todays article is from Housingwire.com: "Hurricane season arrives amid homeowners insurance hikes." Interest rates are of course making home less affordable nowadays, but that's not the only increase. Home insurance has increased in some areas as much as 50% in recen...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard discuss homebuilder sentiment. Today's article from SeekingAlpha.com is titled: "Homebuilder sentiment unexpectedly dims in August as mortgage rates stay high." The main issues builders are seeing is supply headwinds, continued high-rate environment and affordability. In light of these issue...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard discuss Trump's new plan that is so crazy it just might work. Today's article from AIInvest.com says: "Trump's Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac IPO plan: A potential solution for lower mortgage rates?" Reminder, Fannie & Freddie went into government stewardship during the financial c...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard discuss application numbers are picking up! The good news we are talking about today comes from NationalMortgageProfessional.com: "Mortgage applications rise as rates fall for third straight week." Borrowers applying for loans have ticked up over the last three weeks. Overall applications are up...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages ! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard dive into some long-awaited news that loan officers everywhere will want to hear—trigger lead spam may finally be on its way out. There’s promising movement in Washington as new legislation is being introduced to ban or heavily restrict the use of trigger leads. For those unfamiliar, these leads get sold...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Rich and Michael explore a bold new question: Could Bitcoin soon be a legal payment method for buying a home? We’re diving into emerging reports suggesting new legislation may be on the table that would make Bitcoin a legitimate option in real estate transactions. While it's still early and the details are limited, this...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard discuss if real legislation for housing is finally in the works. We are seeing some bipartisan legislation coming together from this Scotsman Guide article: "Senators Scott and Warren release sweeping house package." The package is called The ROAD to Housing Act of 2025.  Lawmakers are trying to...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard discuss that the 2025 housing sales forecast is down for the year, and what that means. Today's article from Real Estate News says "NAR economist downgrades sales forecast, eyes rebound in 2026." As the article says, "It's been a real bummer," but we have a different take on t...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard discuss if we are stuck in a period of devaluation.  Home values in top markets aren't growing as fast as they were. Today's article from Fast Company says "Number of housing markets with falling home prices jumps sharply to 109 -- up from 31 in January." This group makes up 36% of the...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard have more clarification on the VantageScore 4.0 roll out. The FHFA shared an FAQ that helps explain some questions we had. What we have learned is yes, there will be options for using your best credit score, but there could be a competitive fee for that. And, as a lender we can chose which scoring system t...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard discuss the changes on how we view credit scores -- which might help with credit score evaluation for buyers. Today's article is from the US Federal Housing website FHFA.gov says "FHFA announces release of historical VantageScore 4.0 credit scores by the enterprises."  We've heard whisp...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard talk about the current housing correction that's happening. Today's article is from National Mortgage Professional: "Housing correction gathers momentum as supply surges, affordability pressures persist." The article cites a few corrections: - Delinquency rates are stable but have ticke...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard discuss if the big bill is "beautiful" for housing.  Today's article from NationalMortgageProfessional.com is titled "President Trump signs big beautiful bill -- Here's what it means for mortgages and housing."  - The first thing that stuck out to us was the ability to deduct...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard discuss the rise in existing home sales in May, but new homes were a different story... Today's article from the United States Census "Monthly New Residential Sales, May 2025" states new home sales fell 13.7% from April. Rich doesn't find this surprising; we are right at the end of a qu...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard discuss the tiny increase we've seen in home sales.  Today's article from Yahoo Finance is titled "US existing home sales rise in May; mortgage rates still a constraint." Overall, more homes are being listed for sale and the sales prices are appreciating!  There are a lot of signs in th...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard talk about why the Fed is moving slow to drop interest rates. Trump is putting pressure on the Fed Chairman Powell to lower interest rates. However, we've seen strong labor data, inflation is low and things are good so we did not see rates get lowered yesterday. There is still a lot of uncertainty aro...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard talk about the big beautiful bill and how it effects housing. Today's article is from CNN.com: "Here's how Trumps 'big beautiful bill' would impact housing." We haven't read the full bill, but this article applauds the expansion of tax credits that help assist landlords a...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard talk about the fact that home listings are breaking recent records. Today's article is from Fox Business: "Home sellers face harsh new reality as listings hit record $698B value." This article contradicts the problem we've had the last few years of not enough inventory. We find this art...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard talk about the ongoing saga continues of whether Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will go private.  Today's article is from the Scotsman Guide: "Senators demand answer from Pulte on plans to take Fannie and Freddie public." The big debate is between keeping them under conservatorship, or going pub...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard talk about the fact that there is $11.5 in home equity available in the market.  Homeowners are sitting on a lot of equity. Tappable equity is 80% of the current value of the home. Did you know, you can leverage the equity in your favor? The two types of loan we are discussing is HELOAN (Home equity loan)...

Welcome back, Dreammakers, to Today in Mortgages! In this episode, hosts Michael and Richard talk about whether FICO is a monopoly.  Today's article "FHFA's Bill Pulte takes aim at FICO 'Monopoly'" references the fact that FICO is synonymous with credit, and their costs have gone up over 400% in the last few years. These costs have been passed onto the borrowers throu...