Michael Barone and Scott Weintraub: The New 1003 and Mortgage March Madness

Unlike the NCAA basketball tournament, March Madness in the mortgage industry began very early in March and will last beyond the NCAA Championship game on April 5. By adjusting their application best practices and keeping a keen eye out for upsets for the next few months, lenders can stop upsets before they happen and avoid a busted bracket.

Multifamily Market Musings: Q&A with MBA’s Sharon Walker

MBA NewsLink interviewed MBA Associate Vice President of Commercial/Multifamily Sharon Walker, who represents MBA members active in multifamily finance. She advocates on policy issues primarily related to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration and oversees numerous related committees, working groups, councils and events.

Quote

“This is the strongest seller’s market since at least 2006. Buyers outnumber sellers by such a huge margin that many homeowners are staying put because they know how hard it would be to find a place to move to. It seems like the only move-up buyers who are confident enough to list their homes are those who are relocating to a more affordable area where they’ll have an edge on the local competition.”
–Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather.

MBA RIHA Study: Affordability Growing Challenge for Low-, Moderate-Income Renters in Majority of Top 50 Metro Areas

Home prices and rent appreciation have exceeded income growth since the turn of the 21st century. This has created economic obstacles for many American households, especially for low- and moderate-income renters living in cities with recent employment growth but significant housing supply constraints, according to a new report from the MBA Research Institute for Housing America.

Lori Brewer: Lender Staffing Data Signals Need to Automate Back Office and Monitor Performance

Lenders hiring their way through spikes in volume, as they have for decades, is a suboptimal, efficiency-draining reaction — not a strategic business decision. Any time lenders hire to manage temporary spikes in volume they reduce profitability, add enterprise risk and pour valuable internal resources into a hiring-firing routine that can destabilize and discourage an entire organization long after volume has normalized.

Distressed Debt Monitor: CBRE’s Patrick Connell on the Role of Receiverships

2021 and beyond looks to be a marketplace defined by haves and have-nots with significant property type performance divergence both within and across property types. MBA Newslink interviewed CBRE’s Patrick Connell for some perspective on downturns and the role receiverships play in navigating the path to recovery.