Correspondent, Wholesale, Document Automation Tools; FHA, USDA Changes; Mark Calabria Interview

Demographics matter. Although I am sending today’s Commentary out from a Dunkin’ near Columbus, Ohio, yesterday I found myself visiting a supposedly haunted hotel in Chattanooga, possibly the last “weather kiosk” in the world in Knoxville, a tourist attraction near Lexington built like an ark, and in a tavern, for lack of a better term, in Kentucky, and a fellow at the bar struck up a conversation with me. He explained that his family had moved from Wisconsin to Florida, found it intolerable, and was now thinking about living near Lexington. Per Prashant Gopal of Bloomberg, lots of investors snapped up land in Kissimmee, Florida, the suburb of Orlando, with the goal of making an easy buck renting them out to tourists trying to visit Disney. The suburb has over 30,000 short-term rentals, more than any other city in America, so lots of supply and not as much demand. The solution? Hire Home Theme Orlando, which will renovate the houses at a starting price of $150,000 a pop to make them “themed.” The ”theme” of this week in Mar Largo has been proposed appointments, and eventual changes in Washington DC. And today is another episode of The Big Picture at 3PM ET (click here to register). Today’s show has Mark Calabria (he was the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency – FHFA – and chief economist for VP Pence) discussing the possible future of Freddie & Fannie. (Today’s podcast can be found here. This week’s is sponsored by Floify. Floify is an easy-to-configure point-of-sale platform that allows each branch or loan officer to customize its look and feel to meet the needs of their lending team, homebuyers, and market. Today’s features an interview with CMG Financial’s AJ George on the strategy of mergers and acquisitions from an executive’s perspective.)