Mortgage Roundup (5/14/21) – Rates, Margins & Panic

Good morning! Today is Friday, May 14. The CDC says that fully vaccinated people don’t need to wear a mask or physically distance during outdoor or indoor activities, with a few exceptions. Colonial Pipeline paid nearly $5 million in ransom to hackers. A NASA astronaut tweeted photos of the Charleston area from International Space Station.

And in mortgage and housing news …

MORTGAGE RATES: Mortgage rates remain parked below 3 percent.

WELLS FARGO EXODUS: Wells Fargo is experiencing an exodus of mortgage bankers. Insiders explain why.

LIBOR REPLACEMENT: While large banks and mortgage lenders like Fannie Mae have started actively using the LIBOR benchmark, some large U.S. corporations and other borrowers held off, seeking a benchmark that could fix rates over longer time spans.

CUTTING MARGINS: Why are mortgage lenders cutting margins, and what that means for brokers and originators.

NO CREDIT, NO PROB: J.P. Morgan Chase and other banks are issuing credit cards to people who don’t have credit scores

PANIC BUYING: People are panic buying homes as prices skyrocket around the world.

MORTGAGE VOLUME: Key margins for mortgage lenders are dropping. But originators like Rocket and UWM may emerge with bigger slices of the pie in what could still be a solid market.

TECH TRANSFORMATION: The real estate industry has entered a new tech era—one that’s making the transaction easier and more user-friendly and transparent.

MORE AND SMALLER: Can more and smaller homes be the cure to the nation’s inventory problems? 

RENOVATION FINANCE: A new loan service is designed to help home owners and buyers finance renovations.