This morning I am heading to Knoxville to visit with the local chapter of the Tennessee Mortgage Bankers Association. On my way I received an email asking, “I’m trying to place a high bal loan on a manufactured house on acreage. Any suggestions?” Nope, no suggestions. This is not an ad, but you should start with Mortgage Elements: enter the state, and then the program, and see who’s doing what. And what about information on warehouse lending, and what it is telling us about the current lending environment? The Mortgage Bankers Association has its survey. The MBA’s Chart of the Week from mid-February showed that the average usage level of first-mortgage warehouse lines (the percentage of outstanding borrowings to warehouse facility limits) fell for the sixth consecutive quarter to 38% as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2021. It was the lowest usage level since the inception of the survey in the second quarter of 2018. Meanwhile, at the other end of the industry, a panel at MCT’s Exchange discussed the exponential MSR portfolio growth in the last few years. Anyone with a financial interest in that asset are actively managing the mortgage servicing rights through watching speeds, stress testing, and cash flow analysis, and hoping to use the income and balance sheet boost as a cross hedge for lower production, margin compression, revenue, and balance sheet declines in other areas. And plenty more servicing sales are expected in 2022. (Today’s audio version of the commentary is available here and this week’s is sponsored by SimpleNexus, an nCino company and award-winning developer of mobile-first technology for the modern mortgage lender.)
Source: Mortgage News Daily