It’s also served as a reality check for those brokers and originators who might have been preparing to take their foot off the gas, according to an industry executive who’s urging mortgage professionals to maintain the same grind and drive that’s gotten them through recent lean years.
Corrina Carter (pictured top), president and chief executive officer of CMS Mortgage Solutions, told Mortgage Professional America that it was becoming increasingly clear the “new normal” means mortgage rates significantly above the rock-bottom lows of 2020, 2021 and early 2022.
That means complacency simply isn’t an option. “I feel like probably by the first quarter of next year, everybody’s going to realize we’re not going to really see much more of a change,” she said. “I think that then is when we actually say, ‘OK – this is our life. This is who we are, and this is how we have to get business.’”
Temporarily lower rates gave false sense of security
Ultra-low rates might be positive for borrowers and a potential spike in volume, but they’re also an anomaly that doesn’t come around too often, and that shouldn’t be taken as reflective of a normal market. “I’m kind of glad rates didn’t stay low all the way through the first month of [2025] and it was more of a dip,” Carter said, “because I feel like it gave us a sense of false appreciation for where we are.”
Mortgage applications remained stable last week, with a slight 0.1% decline as mortgage rates rose for the fourth time in five weeks, reaching 6.73%. https://t.co/9H1XYaZn3n
— Mortgage Professional America Magazine (@MPAMagazineUS) October 31, 2024
The environment that’s prevailed over the past two years – one that’s required brokers and LOs to knuckle down and find new ways to eke out business – has been helpful in a way, according to Carter, because it’s served as a reminder that nothing comes easy in the mortgage industry.