Loan Think

The end of Google Advisor Mortgage is another missed opportunity by a larger technology player trying to make its mark in the mortgage industry.

It's good news for the nation (and a certain president in particular) that the U.S. economy added 243,000 jobs in January. (Of course, when the numbers get revised next month...) And I'm sure the president's GOP revivals have already tried to deflate the job gains, noting that the decline in unemployment to 8.3% is tied to so many people leaving the workforce.

The mortgage industry needs to push back-hard. For the better part of the last four years, politicians have been pounding on banks and lenders as the source of all that ails our economy. The most recent example was the State of the Union address, where still more regulation, oversight and government involvement with lending practices were promised.

Taking a trip? Most prudent travelers create some sort of plan before venturing on any type of journey. Where to begin the trip, what items to pack and what markers you'll encounter to aid in getting to your destination are just a few of the details to be addressed.

The Mortgage Bankers Association's annual convention was set for Orlando in 2005. So far, so good. I'd been to a million meetings in Orlando, and here was one more. The trouble was, Florida was also set for a visit at the same time by a monster hurricane named Wilma.

CitiMortgage is throwing its wholesale division overboard – again. Readers of the National Mortgage News website (and weekly) might recall that two years ago Citi scaled back its broker channel significantly only to re-grow it a bit. But at last check, wholesale production accounted for just 10% of its overall production and some brokers I talked to are not sorry to see them go.

President Obama's recent State of the Union speech, as widely predicted, turned out to be a campaign speech rather than objective, substantive oratory. GOP candidate Mitt Romney characterized the Obama speech as a 'Groundhog Day' event ... more of the same optimistic promises of things to come.

In the movie "Groundhog Day", Bill Murray is forced to live the same day over and over again until he begins to change his choices. Today, many loan officers might be feel as doomed as Murray even after writing their 2012 production goals. Nothing has really changed and today is the same as yesterday.

Home sales in some of our nation’s hardest hit markets are showing signs of recovery. This is great news for the industry, especially if estimates are true and we still have years’ worth of housing industry that has yet to reach the market.

Military generals are cautioned to avoid fighting the last war; time and opponents have a way of producing new ways to contest a battlefield, catching unwary leaders off guard. When it comes to housing policy and political power, are Washington observers missing the next conflict?