As you probably know by now, Richard Cordray resigned as the inaugural Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). With that, President Trump wasted little time in appointing his White House Budget Director, Mick Mulvaney, to replace Mr. Cordray. “Not so fast,” says Leandra English. Who? She was Director Cordray’s Chief of Staff. When Cordray decided to resign, he…
Don’t look now, but with home values on the rise so is home equity. That means that homeowners may have a little more available cash built up in their home. This is cash that can be used for a myriad of reasons; from paying off existing high credit card debts to helping their kids and grandchildren pay off some of…
Will we see any meaningful tax reform any time soon? Maybe, but what impact might it have on the housing market and our economy? Everybody seems to have their opinions. What’s yours? The problem as I see it is that the Republicans are working on tax reform to provide corporations and the so-called ‘middle class’ with some tax breaks. As…
Do you remember, the line from Top Gun when Maverick turned to Goose and says, “I feel the need, the need for speed!” It seems consumers may be feeling that way about the digital mortgage process. According to a recent J.D. Powers survey, 43% of all mortgage applications were done online. This was up from 28% a year ago; making…
With the recent hacks of Equifax, Google, Target, and other major companies, everyone is becoming much more concerned about information security (InfoSec). It’s no different in mortgage lending. Lenders need to protect the vast amounts of a consumer’s non-public personal information (NPPI) that they collect during a loan process. It’s not easy when so much of the lending process is…
A little while ago, McDonald’s saw their profits dropping. It came as the result of increased competition in the fast food market coupled with consumers’ tendencies toward healthier meal choices. What did they do? McDonald’s continued to offer their core products of burgers and fries (I think they have the best fries) to serve their base customer. But, they decided…
