AI, Title Waiver, Real Estate Auction, QC, eNote Tools; Financial Literacy Study; MBS Issuance
Today brings us the MBA of the Carolinas conference, where demographics, technology, and “building a team” are on the agenda. Here at the Michigan Mortgage Lender’s Association conference in Ypsilanti, tech is certainly “on the serving platter” in the sessions, but so is how originators should best use what they have to their advantage, which includes knowledge. For example, here’s something simultaneously sobering and hopeful for lenders. Per the Census Bureau, in 2024, 58 percent of men and 56 percent of women ages 18 to 34 lived with their parents. About 2.6 million U.S. parents provided $26.6 billion in financial support to 3.7 million children. (So you don’t have to break out the calculator, that’s about $7,200 per kid.) Think of all those potential home buyers! (Today’s podcast can be found here. This week’s ‘casts are presented by Floify, the mortgage industry’s leading point-of-sale platform. Dynamic Apps, which can be seen at booth 600 during MBA Annual next week, lets lenders create fully customizable loan applications for any loan type, including HELOCs, construction, agricultural lending, non-QM and more, without custom development. Today’s has an interview Mortgage Education Institute's Andrew Conner on helping loan officers and small-to-midsize mortgage companies turn required continuing education and compliance from a burdensome, reactive “check-the-box” exercise into engaging, practical training and proactive support.)
Lender and Brokers Products, Services, and Software
Digital loan closings are no longer a forward-looking ambition. They’re an operational baseline, and the pace of adoption is accelerating. Earlier this year, the MERS® eRegistry surpassed 3 million eNotes registered, a milestone marking an all-time high in lender eNote adoption. For lenders still weighing whether to expand their digital closing footprint, this number carries a significance worth paying attention to. Lenders using Encompass® eClose get eNote registration, eDelivery and eRecording natively built into their existing origination workflow… no bolt-on tools, no extra logins, no added complexity. o bolt-on tools, no extra logins, no added complexity. See what’s driving the 3 million milestone - and how you can stay ahead.
Doctors’ bad handwriting has been a joke forever, but for pharmacists, who make more than 150 million calls a year to clarify hard-to-read prescriptions, it’s not so funny. Mortgage technology has its own version of the problem: You can’t expect AI to do much with information trapped in paper-era processes and disconnected systems. For nearly four decades, DocMagic has helped lenders replace paper processes with digital documents, standardized data, and connected workflows. Those lenders aren’t starting from scratch on AI. They’ve already built more of the digital foundation AI needs to do useful work. Fortunately, you don’t need 40 years to get that same head start. Meet with DocMagic at MBA Annual and put nearly four decades of digital mortgage experience behind your AI strategy.
Byte Software now supports VantageScore® 4.0 and FICO-10T within its loan origination system, in addition to Classic FICO®, giving lenders the flexibility to evaluate and manage loans using either model as the industry transitions to expanded GSE credit score options. Byte presents scores, findings, and score rankings for both models, side-by-side, while clearly identifying the active credit model. The platform also supports changing the active model within the loan file, while supporting downstream data updates including HMDA, disclosure set up and SFC/IFI. Byte’s native QC tools help maintain exceptional loan quality standards, including continuity with co-borrower scores across the loan. Lenders interested in modernizing their origination technology can request a demo at ByteSoftware.com or schedule a meeting at MBA Annual.
Dark Matter has a question for servicers: when's the last time anyone on your servicing team got excited about transmitting an investor report? Exactly. "Every mortgage servicing system generates investor reporting, but internal staff still needs to transmit them," says Linda Penttila, Senior Director of Product Management. "With Dark Matter's Elevate LSS, you don't need any of that. We handle it on your behalf: credit bureau reporting, IRS reporting, all of it." The reporting still gets done, and your team get their hours back for borrowers and the work that actually moves the needle. (Nobody went into servicing dreaming of file transmissions.) Heading to MBA Annual? Grab some time with the Dark Matter team and see how much time handing off reporting could free up. Request a meeting here.
Get the Edge You Need this Fall with LoanStream’s October Specials with up to 50 BPS Price Improvement on Non-QM! Includes 25 BPS Price Improvement on a 30-Year ARM, 50 BPS Price Improvement on a 40 YR Fixed Rate and 25 BPS Price Improvement on all 3 YR + prepayment penalties. Specials are for loans locked October 1st – 31st, 2026. Ask your AE or submit a scenario today! Learn more. Plus, don’t let your pipeline turn into a ghost town this season, carve out time to Unlock the Power of Investor loans by taking the guesswork out of DSCR with LoanStream’s newest webinar on DSCR 101! Learn about breaking down common DSCR misconceptions and understanding how to identify opportunities for your investor borrowers. It’s a can’t miss webinar! Register now.
Covius has tapped mortgage servicing veteran Tom Vaughn as Vice President of Business Development for RealtyBid, its online real estate auction platform. Tom has worked with servicers, investors and GSEs for more than 25 years, finding solutions and bringing efficiencies to their teams. His perspective bridges client needs, market conditions, technology and best execution across loss mitigation and default waterfalls. Tom now brings this experience to Covius. RealtyBid provides concierge onboarding, compelling, embedded investor tools like FoxyAI and Blue Hammer and an exceptional record of selling aged, distressed assets. If you’re considering a champion-challenger exercise in your 2027 planning or would like a second opinion, please reach Tom.
“Title waiver and title acceptance programs are changing the way lenders think about the closing process. The opportunity is significant, but navigating the requirements takes more than simply knowing these programs exist. Priority Title & Escrow (PTE) stays current on evolving GSE requirements, eligibility criteria, and documentation standards so lenders can better understand where these programs may fit within their operations. Our team can help lenders evaluate potential opportunities, identify qualifying transactions, and navigate the operational changes that come with reduced title requirements. The landscape continues to evolve, and lenders need a settlement partner that understands both the technology and the operational implications of these changes. With national reach and deep title and settlement expertise, PTE is positioned to help lenders navigate this evolving environment while maintaining a strong focus on accuracy and compliance. If your team is exploring GSE title waiver or title acceptance programs, let's talk about what we've learned and how PTE can support your strategy. Join us at our meeting space in Chicago next week.”
There’s a dragon coming to MBA Annual. And it knows mortgage. Named for Balerion, the Black Dread of Game of Thrones, Balerion brings together Berkeley AI researchers, engineers, and experienced mortgage operators. What makes this team different? The people building the technology work alongside people who have lived the complexity of lending. They understand both what AI can do and what mortgage teams need. As founder Naren Krishna shared with Robbie Chrisman, technical expertise alone isn’t enough. You have to understand how underwriting gets done. That’s why Balerion builds by listening to lenders, studying workflows, identifying bottlenecks, and testing against actual loan files. The goal: understand the entire loan file, identify what needs attention, and turn findings into action before underwriting begins. Intelligence Before Underwriting. Built by listening to lenders. Meet the team at Booth 826 in Chicago, talk through your toughest loan challenges, and grab Dragon Water. Learn more at Balerion.ai.
The next Chrisman Demo Day is October 15 and is a free perk for all Chrisman Marketplace members. If you're a technology or service provider and haven't joined the Marketplace yet, reach out to Jake Perkins at info@chrismancommentary.com to learn more.
The Chrisman Marketplace is a centralized hub for vendors and service providers across the industry to be viewed by lenders in a very cost-effective manner. We’re adding new providers daily, so check back often to see what’s new. To reserve your place or learn more, contact us at info@chrismancommentary.com.
Financial Literacy for Kids
The latest NextGen Homebuyer Report is live, and it takes a different approach to how we think about expanding the pool of homebuyers. What if the buyers that reach your office are only a slice of the available (and interested) market? The study, "How You're Built to Buy" is a continuation in a series that has surveyed over 10,000 millennials and Gen Z, sponsored by National MI and conducted by Kristin Messerli of FirstHome IQ. According to this study, over half are anxious or avoidant with their finances, and nearly 9 in 10 experience real shame around their finances. "To me, the most interesting part of this study was that it didn't matter whether they made good money or had perfect credit and savings, at least half of them are held back by feelings of overwhelm, distrust, and anxiety," says Kristin.
Capital Markets
U.S. Treasuries ended the week once again weaker despite an initial rally that followed a sharply disappointing September jobs report, with nonfarm payrolls rising just 29k, unemployment increasing to 4.2 percent, wage growth slowing, and back-month revisions lower. The weak labor data increased expectations for an October Fed pause, but it has not resolved what is keeping long-term rates elevated: inflation remains above target, energy costs and sovereign-debt concerns persist, and the Fed remains cautious about easing too quickly.
The takeaway is that while hiring is clearly cooling, subdued layoffs and resilient consumer spending and business investment suggest the economy has not weakened enough to drive a sustained decline in rates, leaving the mortgage market caught between softer employment data and persistent inflation and growth pressures.
Longer-term yields, with Agency MBS tagging along, returned toward their highs by Friday's close, with the 10-year reaching 5.28 percent after touching 5.34 percent (the highest level since 2002) earlier in the week. The yield curve steepened and Agency MBS posted its worst monthly excess return (the return investors earn from MBS above the return they would have earned from a comparable-duration U.S. Treasury, capturing compensation for taking mortgage-specific risks such as prepayments, credit/liquidity, and spread volatility) at -96 basis points since March 2023, pressuring specified-pool payups, lender margins, mortgage rates, and applications. Rising Treasury yields, a 47 percent increase in volatility, weaker institutional demand, and longer duration weighed on prices. As most of you already know, the mortgage market is increasingly driven by purchases rather than refinancing, with Agency MBS supply reaching $111 billion last month despite refinance activity falling to its lowest share in a year. Conventional purchase issuance rose 13 percent year-over-year while refinance issuance was essentially flat. Ginnie Mae refinance issuance fell 13 percent at the same time, and UMBS 30-year issuance increased to $62 billion, with production shifting toward 6.0 percent to 6.5 percent coupons as higher mortgage rates pushed borrowers further from refinancing opportunities.
Higher rates have also created a large pool of deeply “out-of-the-money” 30-year mortgages: About $2.4 trillion of conventional MBS and $746 billion of Ginnie Mae II have little incentive to refinance, producing unusually stable prepayments and more predictable cash flows. The trade-off is greater duration risk, meaning these securities may offer attractive relative value but remain vulnerable if rates continue rising or volatility stays elevated. For those wondering how Agency MBS supply is rising year-over-year, it is not the same thing as new mortgage origination volume. MBS supply measures loans that are actually pooled and securitized, and several factors can keep that number high even when overall origination activity is falling. Agency MBS supply measures loans being pooled and securitized, not the level of new mortgage originations in real time, so issuance can remain high even as origination activity falls. Refinancing has collapsed because elevated rates make it uneconomical, but purchase lending remains active and is increasingly concentrated in higher-coupon loans, while mortgages originated in prior months can continue moving through the securitization pipeline. In short, the market is producing fewer loans overall, but a larger share of those loans are still flowing into Agency MBS, keeping supply relatively elevated even as the composition shifts away from refinances and toward purchase mortgages and higher coupons.
Looking at this week’s economic calendar, the September ISM Services index, due out today, is expected to ease modestly while continuing to signal expansion. Particular attention will be paid to whether price pressures remain elevated. Other releases of note include the August Trade Balance, Minutes from the September FOMC meeting, August Consumer Credit, August Wholesale Inventories, and Preliminary University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment. Treasury auctions will be headlined by $58 billion 3-year Treasury notes, $39 billion 10-year Treasury notes, and $22 billion 30-year Treasury bonds. We begin the week with Agency MBS prices little changed from Friday’s close, the 2-year yielding 4.82, and the 10-year yielding 5.29 after closing last week at 5.28 percent, up 10-basis points over the course of last week.