Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau released the final homeownership numbers for 2018 and indicated that Hispanic homeownership rose for the fourth consecutive year, and the gain was the largest since 2005. Hispanics are the only demographic to have its homeownership rate increase for four consecutive years. The increase is even more impressive if you…
Been a while since I wrote about the housing market. Maybe because it’s my day job and I prefer to blog about other interests, but I have been working on an op-ed about the current state of the housing market and what I believe is the cavalry that is keeping it strong. Here is an…
Anybody interested in seeing a great movie on the mortgage meltdown should watch the 2011 film, Margin Call, written and directed by J.C. Chandor. The film is a fictional characterization of a boutique Wall Street firm that figures out that the trading algorithms most of Wall Street was depending on to gauge the risk of…
This past week, I was in Miami with my NAHREP familia discussing the recent Hispanic Wealth Project (HWP) Annual Report. The report discusses trends in Hispanic household wealth in America. The financial clout of the Hispanic community is growing, but the metric we hear most frequently is Hispanic buying power not wealth. The fact is, Hispanic…
Despite rising interest rates and tight inventory, Hispanics purchased homes in droves during the first quarter of 2018 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Hispanic homeownership rate increased from 46.2 percent in Q4 of 2017 to 48.4 percent in Q1 of this year. The increase corresponded with a net gain of more than 250,000…
The rumor this week in the mortgage market was that the mega-retailer Amazon had hired a mortgage executive to lead the company’s new venture into mortgage banking. Amazon knows more about consumers than any other company and they are experts in streamlining processes. One would have to believe that if Amazon wants to be in…
In October, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, announced that they were going add a question about language preference to the redesigned Uniform Residential Loan Application (URLA). Beginning in July of 2019, all mortgage applications will be required to ask the applicant what is their preferred language.…
If there is one deliverable at NAHREP that stands out above the rest, it is leadership development. Knowing that every year NAHREP “graduates” 60+ chapter presidents who have managed a board, organized events, and improved their presentation skills, gives me a great sense of pride. During our short tenure, NAHREP has produced some of the…
This week the Mortgage Bankers Association announced that their CEO, David Stevens, would retire effective September of 2018. NAHREP released a statement about Stevens shortly after the announcement was made public. I am a product of the mortgage industry and was on the board of the MBA when they hired Mr. Stevens directly from his post as…
I had the opportunity to meet with the new CEO of the National Association of Realtors®, Bob Goldberg, last week in their offices in Washington, D.C. NAR is the most politically powerful real estate organization in America and one of the most powerful in any field. Goldberg is a different kind of leader; he’s active…