We’re only a few days away from 2018, which according to a bunch of 80’s movies we should have already seen Dr. David Bowman disconnect the HAL 9000 computer and discover the true secrets of the monolith (2001: A Space Odyssey), Marty McFly and Doc Brown flying around in a DeLorean (Back to the Future Part II) and who could forget Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken in Escape from L.A.? He saved the President’s daughter and in the process stopped all technological activity on the entire planet. Phew… that’s a lot to take in.
As unfortunate as it is… we never had the chance to see Kurt Russel’s perfectly coifed hair running through the streets of a dystopian L.A. or have the chance to use the Grays Sports Almanac that Marty purchased; However, we did get to see several things that impacted the mortgage industry specifically.
We saw originations drop due to an increase in the purchase market, but a decrease in the available housing inventory.
We saw an increase in the number of companies hit by regulatory and compliance issues. Millions, if not billions of dollars were paid out by large to mid-sized mortgage lenders for servicing and origination violations.
We saw a changing of the guard at the CFPB (albeit it wasn’t an easy one). President Trump appointed Mick Mulvaney as the interim director after Richard Cordray stepped down, thus creating confusion on who would fill the role and opening the door to discussions about loosening the noose the CFPB has created.
We saw a new tax bill being signed into law, which has major implications toward home values and the housing industry.
I think most importantly what we saw was a changing of the guard in Washington D.C. and what that could mean for our industry. We now have a government in place that is pushing for things like GSE reform and deregulation. These are things that have only been pontificated about, but now as we sit on the edge of a new year, these “things” could become a reality. Imagine, you’re sitting at home or you’re at a party about to watch the ball drop. Then all the sudden there is a large crack of lightning and out from a cloud of smoke the DeLorean is outside waiting for you. You set the dial for December 28, 2018, get up to 88 mph (never knew why they chose that number) and boom you’re into next year… what do you see? Where is the mortgage industry? A lot can happen in one year, right?
The opinions expressed in this post are the sole view of the writer and do not reflect the opinion of Princeton Mortgage Corporation.