Sad?: “Invitations to the Unabomber’s funeral were mailed out, but no one wants to open them.” Hopefully not sad: for anyone wanting to know about comp for processors, underwriters, or LOs, STRATMOR’s current blog is, “Compensation: Ever Changing.” Sad for real: Comerica (CMA) announced that it is “organically” exiting mortgage banker finance, aka, warehouse lending. (Talk to your rep for details.) Sadder: this story about what to do when the U.S. becomes uninsurable. “Climate change means actuaries are making a radical new calculation about the price of risk.” Some would say sad, but with a hint of optimism: volume in residential lending, although it did pick up last month! According to Curinos, May 2023 funded mortgage volume decreased 37 percent YoY and increased 23 percent MoM. In the Retail channel, funded volume was down 44 percent YoY and up 23 percent MoM. The average 30-year conforming retail funded rate in May was 6.36 percent, -1bps lower than April and 136bps higher than the same month last year. Curinos sources a statistically significant data set directly from lenders to produce these benchmark figures. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s is sponsored by SimpleNexus, the homeownership platform that unites the people, systems, and stages of the mortgage process into one seamless, end-to-end solution that spans engagement, origination, closing, incentive compensation, and business intelligence. Today’s has an interview with Black Knight’s Frank Poiesz on what lenders need to do to be ready to adopt AI solutions safely.)