Elections and earnings calls: What’s shaping the mortgage industry

In today’s Daily Download episode HW+ Managing Editor Brena Nath joins Mortgage Editor James Kleimann to discuss the most compelling articles reported from the HousingWire newsroom. Brena and James discuss president-elect Joe Biden’s election win and how it could impact the mortgage industry, as well as Rocket Mortgage’s upcoming earnings call.

For more background on what is discussed, here is a preview of today’s interview. The transcript below has been lightly edited for length:

Q: What were some of the top stories that stood out to you last week?

James Kleimann: There was only one story that happened in my mind last week and also, it happened to be one of the most well-read pieces, which is the story I did with Tim Glaze about what a Biden administration would mean for housing. There are a lot of national publications and talking heads on cable news, and they talk about the presidency, but there are very few outlets that look at it from the housing goals.

What we really wanted to do was to talk to some experts in housing and in the mortgage industry as well, and really try to get a sense of what Biden would prioritize and what would actually be achievable during his term. And that really depends primarily on what happens with the Senate. Last week, we had a lot of clarity on how the electoral votes were shaping up, but we didn't know until Saturday that it would, in fact, absolutely be Biden. But at that point, we sort of operated on the premise that we were probably going to have Joe Biden at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and very likely we were going to have a Republican-controlled Senate. Unless they're able to flip Georgia, which could happen but I don't think people expect it to happen.

We really wanted to ask people what is going to happen in the first year or two of a Biden presidency, and for the most part, they said they expect a much more active CFPB, just in terms of enforcement. Another key point is Biden in particular, has talked a lot about using the strength of the federal government to push forward affordable housing initiatives, and in some cases, he might use Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to strengthen affordable housing. In others, it could be public, private partnerships, kind of like what NYCHA is doing with private ownership in New York City.

Q: What is one article or piece of news that you think people need to be paying attention to right now?

James Kleimann: I think a lot of companies are going to be paying very close attention to what Rocket Mortgage does in their earnings call coming tomorrow at 4:30 EST. They were projecting record volume and record originations, probably a little bit lower again on sales margin this quarter, but this could be the biggest quarter for Rocket ever. It’s just a funny time because you had all of these minor events in the stock market, it was up 600 and it was down 800, it's all over the place and it spooked a lot of the other independent mortgage banks that were looking to go public.

The Daily Download examines the most compelling articles reported from the HousingWire newsroom. Each afternoon, we provide our listeners with a deeper look into the stories coming across our newsroom that are helping Move Markets Forward. Hosted by the HW team and produced by Alcynna Lloyd and Victoria Wickham.