Banks Fire Up Their Mortgage Machine for a Refinancing Boom

Yahoo! Finance ^ | August 29, 2019 | Hannah Levitt and Claire Boston

[2ndDivisionVet]

Lenders thought it was time to shrink their mortgage businesses. Now they’re finding they were wrong.

With rates for home loans sinking to their lowest levels since late 2016, Wells Fargo & Co., the biggest mortgage lender in the U.S., has boosted staffing for the business by about 10% this year and plans to keep hiring. Bank of America Corp. is hiring in areas including sales, processing, and underwriting.

The mortgage industry has added almost 5,000 employees since March, a 1.5% gain, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s a stark reversal from a year ago, when the Federal Reserve was hiking interest rates and banks were cutting thousands of jobs.

Employment in the mortgage lending business has been shrinking for more than a decade, thanks first to the housing crunch and then to rising rates. In 2006, there were more than half a million workers in mortgages, compared with about 323,000 in June.

Now demand for the loans is rising high enough and fast enough that lenders seem to be doing something. The volume of applications for refinancing mortgages has more than tripled since December, according to a barometer from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

[BobL]

While I’m no fan of juicing the economy by lending money to people who can’t pay it back (as in 2008), I’ll make an exception in this case - if it helps get Trump re-elected.

[\/\/ayne]

That's great until the bank turns over your loan to a Mortgage Servicer. Some people think Mortgage Servicers are just fine but a little research shows differently.

Across the nation, State Attorney General offices are slammed with cases against Mortgage Servicers. They all have huge Mortgage Service Fraud departments now that are kept extremely busy. That's just a fact. And when a sleazy mortgage servicer loses too many cases, they just change their name and start over.

With this new boom in lending, we also need a big boom in reining in Mortgage Service Fraud.

[cuban leaf]

Yep. We’re going down, one way or another, and it’s when, not if...but, if it can just wait until after the 2020 election, I’m good. I think there are only two things that could keep Trump from being re-elected:
1. The economy tanks hard before the election.
2. He dies before the election.

[BobL]

“I think there are only two things that could keep Trump from being re-elected:
1. The economy tanks hard before the election.
2. He dies before the election.”

OR... He cuts a crappy deal on immigration or gun control, although it’s not looking that way now, thankfully.

[cuban leaf]

An oldie but goodie about our current condtion (but it is much worse than when the video was made):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlN28DoL5qA

It’s actually hilarious, and the zinger is at the end.

[cuban leaf]

There are a lot of peripheral things that could damage him, but those are the only two things I think are a real threat. And I’m not really all that sure about number two.

I’ve considered the economy to be what could do it since the day he was elected. Economies are fickle, and if the deep state wants him out bad enough, they can create whatever mayhem in the economy they want. And the voters are amazingly fickle regarding the economy as it relates to elections.

[BobL]

I agree that the economy is usually the top issue, but if he does what Bush Sr. did, which was piss off his base, he’ll be in trouble.

As to the economy, if you look back at past recessions, there’s almost always something triggering them (not taught in economics classes, by the way). It could an oil price spike, or a huge Regulatory Barrage (Bush Sr. gets full credit for that idiotic move). So far, despite the ‘presents’ left for him by the outgoing Obama Administration, Trump has loosened up regulations big-time, and oil is still pretty stable - not to mention that our production is through the roof.

So that leaves sabotage, such as interest rates spiking for no reason - hopefully that doesn’t happen.

[moovova]

I was checking rates yesterday...and still haven’t seen anything that beats the refi rate we got 7-8 years ago. There’s a lot of marketing froth right now in the mortgage news, but rates are still good for purchasers. I think they’ll get even better...

[BobL]

Agree...but since literally NO ONE in this country wants to try to fix it, why should Republicans impale themselves to try (and then fail)? That’s how Trump sees it.

I see it the same way, but I do hold out some hope, but only if Trump can get the courts hard-right. Then, perhaps a simple case asking why it’s Constitutional to have programs like Social Security and Medicare...and if they’re thrown out, along with most of the other crap, then we can have our debt paid down in a decade.

[cuban leaf]

I agree that the economy is usually the top issue, but if he does what Bush Sr. did, which was piss off his base, he’ll be in trouble.

---

I agree. But I think that is a huge if. I don’t expect anything close to that. I think he’s quite aware of how timing plays a part in all this stuff. A perfect example was the wall. A lot of leftists were laughing at him for not coming through with his most important campaign promise, yet here we are. And where will that be in 2020?

Trump seems to have his finger on the pulse of his base, unlike the “standard issue politician” called George Herbert Walker Bush, who seemed to think he could talk his way out of exposing who he really is. With Trump, once he was elected, it seems that what you see is what you get.

And this is interesting regarding Trump’s “lying”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbPULTssuD4

[cuban leaf]

I wouldn’t waste time trying to fix it. It is one of those serenity prayer things. The ship is headed full speed into an iceberg, and even throwing it in reverse will not slow it down enough to prevent a catastrophic crash.

The world’s economy is in a death spiral with no human solution in sight. The only thing to do is keep everything pumped up for as long as possible. i.e. put off the inevitable for as long as you can.

That’s really it.

[central_va]

Why can't I borrow money from the fed and cut out the middle men and their need for vacation homes?

[PeterPrinciple]

Why can’t I borrow money from the fed and cut out the middle men and their need for vacation homes?

---

You’ve just written the libs new campaign issue

[Bonemaker]

“I was checking rates yesterday...and still haven’t seen anything that beats the refi rate we got 7-8 years ago.”

I have two homes both 5 year ARMs. One 2.875 and 3.25 on the other.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Refinancing generally lowers your monthly payment. Thats the point of it. That and tapping equity or shortening the term of the loan.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Generally the bank is the servicer. They very seldom own the loan. Most loans are sold off to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac within 30 days of closing. You keep making your payment to Wells Fargo but they are just the servicer.

[central_va]

A mortgage directly from the feds a the discount rate + 1% point would be sweet.

[moovova]

Beats my 15 year at 3.375. Rates have been a little lower than mine but not including the closing costs it would take to refi, plus we’re about to sell.

[\/\/ayne]

The banks outsource the riskier loans to cheaper, more crooked servicers. I believe they also do that with widows and orphans - they have a good change the financial wizard is the one who died and they can more easily flim-flam the survivors. I got hit soon after I became a widower. I was able to beat them but my research showed a huge problem in America.

You can see the size the problem by the huge amounts of complaints to State Attorney Generals. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Many victims don't make complaints after the crooked mortgage servicer steals their house through a crooked foreclosure. They figure if the judge let them do it there's nothing they can do.

I don't want these crooked entities to ruin our wonderful housing boom so I hope a legal boom falls on them.