The beleaguered mortgage business has done quite a good job of continuing to provide mortgage finance at respectable levels despite the worst disaster ever to hit it. As the fall meeting season approaches, industry executives should take a moment to congratulate each other on this before they start to plan, plot or commiserate.
Though $1 trillion doesn't seem like much of a year compared to nearly $4 trillion in the record year of 2005, that $4 trillion in volume was not sustainable. Prior to the mid-1990s, the industry had never even registered a $1 trillion year, so it is good to put things in perspective. Fall traditionally is meeting season for the industry, just as spring and summer is construction season for all parts of the country except the southernmost, where construction can continue all year (to the detriment of some markets like Las Vegas and Florida).
Industry executives will have much to speak about to each other this year. Whether it's the plethora of new regulations, the tightening of underwriting standards, the move away from brokers and towards correspondents or net branch arrangements, the surge of FHA/VA market share, the continuing deluge of overdues and foreclosures, the liquidity desert in the nonconforming space, the industry is rocking and rolling. While the good times are more profitable, the bad times are much more interesting, a chance for industry people can prove their mettle.
We're glad to be adding to the discussion with two conferences of our own. The Mortgage Regulatory Conference will be Sept. 19-20 in Washington and will feature some big Inner Beltway names, like Rep. Barney Frank and Raj Date of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And, we are relaunching our Mortgage Technology Conference in Miami on Nov. 12-14. We've held almost 20 conferences in the technology space, and after a small market-driven disruption, we are back to giving this space the coverage it deserves.
The New England Mortgage Banking Conference returns to Newport, R.I., this year in September, while the Regional Mortgage Brokers Conference returns to Atlantic City, also this month. Individual state groups in New York, North Carolina and others are also holding shows.
The biggest show of the year remains the Mortgage Bankers Association's annual convention, this year in Chicago from Oct. 9-12. There are bound to be some interesting conversations in the MBA hallways, in addition to those from inside the sessions.
