What We're Hearing

Did the Federal Reserve this morning put another nail in the coffin of mortgage brokers as well as loan officers who live off of yield spread premiums? The Fed has issued – in an attempt to kill YSPs -- a proposed rule that would only allow mortgage origination companies to compensate LOs and third-party professionals based on the principal amount of the loan. National Mortgage News’ Brian Collins was at the Fed this morning and the full story will be on our website shortly (http://www.nationalmortgagenews.com/) with more analysis to come in our weekly. Meanwhile, as I write this the stock market is up 100-plus points and has cracked 9,000. Does this mean the worm has turned and that the U.S. economy is back? Does this mean all those empty houses in Vegas – and all those empty condos in Miami – will start flying off the shelves? Or is all this a “false positive”? And what will happen when the federal first time home buyer tax credit expires and rates start moving up? Stay tuned...