Loan Think

We all know the one thing that is certain in life is change. And change is coming in a big way to the reverse mortgage industry. How you prepare and how you handle change tells a lot about you and your future in the business.

THE NUMBER OF NEWLY DELINQUENT HOME LOANS HAS RISEN FOR TWO STRAIGHT QUARTERS in what could foreshadow another surge in unemployment-related foreclosures.

The White House is supposedly working on some type of new program to aid the mortgage and housing markets with an announcement coming by mid-September. At press time details were sketchy but rumors are starting to float around Washington about what the plan might entail.

The stock market continues its August swoon. (Okay, it's up as of this writing but look for it to turn down by close of day.) As I've noted before, consumers with their wealth tied up in equities must be feeling pretty poor these days - jumbo borrowers especially.

As home sales numbers continue to decline, mortgage originators need be among the leaders of the pack in telling consumers why they need to buy a house now.

Will depositories 'roll up' their mortgage banking subsidiaries into the bank parent because of upcoming regulatory changes? As National Mortgage News and American Banker reported last week, federally insured depositories have a choice to make: they can keep their mortgage subs as such, which would subject them to a patchwork of state consumer-protection laws.

THIS JUST IN: He's back! That would be Jonathan Kempner, former president of the Mortgage Bankers Association, who left the trade group a little more than two years ago, just as the mortgage industry was crumbling. But let me clarify: Jon is back, but not in mortgages.

Just when you thought conditions might be looking up in the jumbo market stock prices tank and "rich folks" (jumbo and super jumbo borrowers) are facing the prospect of taking home less money next year when the Bush tax cuts expire.

Too many businesses, too many loan originators, are trying to move a lot of dirt these days with a spoon instead of investing in a bulldozer.

Rep. Barney Frank might leave Congress rather than take a demotion to ranking member status on the House Financial Services Committee should the Democrats lose control of Congress this fall.