The annual large independent mortgage banker race to raise their internal conforming loan limit ahead of the formal announcement in November has begun.
Processing Content
These firms, a group which includes both publicly traded and private companies, have the financial wherewithal that their smaller sized brethren don’t, by being able to put these loans on their balance sheet.
Rocket became the first of the group of five to announce this year’s change, on Sept. 10.
For one-unit properties, it will approve loans up to $845,000 as a conforming mortgage if the property is in the lower 48 states. It is approximately 1.5% higher than the current Federal Housing Finance Agency-set limit of $832,750.
Alaska and Hawaii have higher limits under federal law; Rocket will now approve loans to almost $1.27 million for single unit houses in those states.
For two-unit homes, the lower 48 limit is $1.08 million; three units have a limit of nearly $1.31 million, while for four units Rocket has a $1.625 million limit in place.
Current conforming versus jumbo pricing reveals an inversion
While conforming mortgage rates are normally lower than jumbo, right now, two sources are showing an inversion. The Mortgage Bankers Association Weekly Application Survey for the period ended Sept. 4, has the conforming 30-year FRM at 6.86%, and the jumbo at 6.74%; versus the prior week, the conforming rose 6 basis points and the jumbo dropped by 2 basis points.
According to the Optimal Blue tracker, since late June pricing on conforming and jumbo mortgages has swapped several times, with the latest inversion starting on Sept. 4. For Sept. 9, conforming loans were priced on average at 6.805%, while jumbo was at 6.791%.
But conforming loan underwriting allows for more favorable borrower qualification, said Kyle Schoenmaker, Rocket Pro senior vice president of sales.
Kyle Schoenmaker is the senior vice president of sales at Rocket Pro
Much of it also depends on the current secondary market appetite for jumbo mortgages. “It is an advantage for folks to be able to get into a conforming loan limit most of the time,” Schoenmaker said.
The higher limits are available for Rocket’s retail, wholesale and non-delegated correspondent customers.
Why increase loan limits early?
“Early deployment has been a strategy of ours over the past couple of years, and it’s something where we are trying to give our partners and our clients the best advantage in a really challenging market,” Schoenmaker said.
But it is also introducing these widened guidelines at a time when the capital markets side is dealing with a secondary market where pricing has come under pressure as the 10-year Treasury yield hits levels not seen in three years.
“We factor in everything when we make these decisions,” Schoenmaker said. “Our capital markets team is seasoned, they’re tenured, and they make the decisions. We have the reputation of delivering on solutions that serve our partners and our clients, so we take all of those factors into consideration.”
Once Jan. 1, 2027 rolls around and the updated conforming loan limits are enacted, they and anyone else are then able to sell these mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The annual increase in the top loan amount at which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will purchase a mortgage during a given year is in a formula set by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act. The FHFA’s own house price index for the third quarter sets the base for the percentage increase in those limits.
Which other IMBs raise limits early?
In 2025, United Wholesale Mortgage led the parade when it announced on Sept. 17 of that year. Rocket waited until last October, but broke ranks offering an $825,500 single family limit, while the others were at $819,000.
The other lenders who raised limits early in prior years in addition to the Detroit-area rivals were Pennymac, CrossCountry and Rate. National Mortgage News reached out to the other four for comment.
Both Rate and CrossCountry confirmed they are also raising their conforming limits to the $845,000 level for single unit properties.
Rate will be making its increased conforming loan limit available on Sept. 14, a statement from Jeremy Collett, chief capital markets officer.
“Homebuyers continue to face affordability pressures from both elevated home prices and sustained higher interest rates,” Collett said. “That’s why we’re committed to leveraging the full breadth of Rate’s platform to help customers identify the most competitive financing solution available.”
These programs give borrowers additional financing flexibility at a time when they could use every advantage, he said, adding “It’s another example of how Rate is using its scale, product breadth, and execution capabilities to help customers navigate challenging affordability conditions and achieve homeownership.”
CrossCountry, which recently closed on its purchase of Two Harbors Investment following a heated battle with UWM, called its upsize the Early Bird Program.
“The housing market doesn’t wait for annual loan-limit updates, and neither should homebuyers,” said Brian Clark, director of product and pricing at CrossCountry Mortgage, in a press release. “Through our 2027 Early Bird Loan Limits, we’re giving borrowers earlier access to higher conventional loan amounts — creating more purchasing power, greater flexibility and added confidence as they search for the right home.”
The risk for independent mortgage banks is that the conforming limits are not increased to the level expected; this has not happened since HERA went into law, however. This is not an issue for depositories, which have the ability to portfolio non-conforming products.
UniCredit has taken a minority holding in Frankfurt-based fintech VC Trade, deepening the Italian lender’s push into digital debt markets. Terms were not disclosed. The agreement includes a right for UniCredit to raise its ownership later and is intended both to fund VC Trade’s growth beyond Germany and to give the bank stronger tools for originating and distributing corporate debt across Europe.
VC Trade runs a digital marketplace and supporting infrastructure for private debt.
Its platform covers the full life cycle of deals such as syndicated loans and Schuldscheine—the privately placed German promissory notes that sit between a classic bond and a bilateral loan.
Issuers, arranging banks and institutional buyers use the system to standardise data, route documents and match supply with demand, cutting the paperwork that still dominates much of this market.
The firm is widely described as Germany’s Schuldschein venue by both number of deals and volume.
Some reports put more than 600 completed transactions and over €90 billion of activity on the platform since it began operating, with a network of more than 1,600 banks and investors.
The stake is not a cold start. UniCredit already arranged transactions on the platform, including a large Schuldschein for the City of Cologne earlier in 2026 with Helaba and ING Deutschland.
Buying equity turns a commercial relationship into a longer-term partnership.
Other lenders arrived first: in 2022 BayernLB, Helaba and Raiffeisen Bank International each took minority positions in a capital raise. Founders remain in control, so VC Trade keeps operational independence.
For UniCredit the deal sits inside its UniCredit Unlimited agenda, which treats fragmented European capital markets as a cost problem rather than a capital shortage.
Sam Kendall, head of advisory and financing solutions, argued that the real friction is the expense of linking money with mid-market firms and public issuers that can use it productively.
He said VC Trade’s technology attacks that friction directly by making participants easier to find and processes less manual.
CEO Stefan Fromme of VC Trade called the investment a milestone and pointed to a shared bet on end-to-end digitisation, connectivity and artificial intelligence for every party in a deal.
The move also fits a wider pattern of small, targeted technology bets. UniCredit has already taken a stake in blockchain financing specialist BlockInvest, launched DealSync, an AI matching tool for SME mergers and acquisitions, and issued Italy’s first tokenised minibond.
Germany remains a priority market for the group as it expands its corporate franchise, even as larger strategic questions—such as its interest in Commerzbank—continue in parallel.
If the partnership works as planned, borrowers should see faster placement and cleaner documentation, while UniCredit gains distribution reach without having to build a marketplace from scratch.
VC Trade, in turn, gets a pan-European balance sheet and client base to take a German product set into more countries.
Whether that combination scales will depend on adoption by other banks and on how quickly mid-market issuers accept fully digital workflows. For now, the transaction is a signal that large European banks still see infrastructure platforms—not just balance-sheet lending—as the way to modernise debt markets.
If you’ve been reading about Social Security in the news, you may be aware that the program’s finances aren’t in such great shape. In fact, Social Security faces a 22% benefit cut if Congress doesn’t implement changes to prevent it.
Of course, staving off Social Security cuts is easier said than done. The solutions to prevent Social Security cuts run the gamut from raising the program’s full retirement age to increasing payroll taxes. As such, it’s easy to see why lawmakers haven’t made any firm plans to shore up the program’s finances.
Image source: Getty Images.
But while there’s a decent chance Congress will be able to prevent a broad Social Security cut, it’s on you to prevent a cut to your personal monthly checks. And if you want to avoid a reduction, you’ll need to avoid filing for benefits too soon.
Understand the ramifications of filing early
Once you turn 62, you can claim Social Security benefits at any time. But if you want those monthly benefits without a reduction, you’ll need to wait until your full retirement age to file, which is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later.
Now, the more months you claim your Social Security benefits ahead of full retirement age, the more significant a reduction you’ll face. For example, filing for Social Security 12 months early will cut your benefits by about 6.67%, whereas filing at 62, which is 60 months early, will reduce those monthly checks by about 30%.
But you should know that any early claim you make generally results in a permanent reduction in benefits. So it’s important to put a lot of thought into your decision to claim. And if you do decide to file early, you’ll need to figure out exactly how much less money you’ll receive each month as a result and whether your retirement budget can survive that hit.
Also recognize that Social Security benefits are subject to a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) each year to help keep pace with inflation. If you reduce your benefits by filing ahead of full retirement age, each COLA that comes through is going to be worth less to you on a dollar basis, since your checks will be smaller.
How to choose an optimal filing age
Of course, claiming Social Security early isn’t always a mistake, even though it leads to reduced benefits. You may be better off filing for Social Security ahead of full retirement age if your health is poor and you feel you’re unlikely to live very long. That could result in a larger lifetime benefit from Social Security, since your checks will start sooner.
Claiming Social Security early could also make sense if you’re unable to continue working and would otherwise need to rely on debt to cover your day-to-day expenses. And finally, taking benefits early could be a smart move if you have a lot of retirement savings and want to enjoy those monthly checks when you’re healthier and have more energy to travel and do things.
The point, however, is to recognize that if you don’t like the idea of potential Social Security cuts on a broad level, filing at full retirement age can help you avoid a benefit cut at the personal level. And remember, while broad cuts aren’t a given, you can’t assume the best.
If you claim Social Security early and benefits are then reduced broadly, you might end up with even less monthly income than expected. So be sure to keep that in the back of your mind as you make your decision.
Money Makers | Podcast Series
Mr Aashish P. Somaiyaa, CEO, WhiteOak Capital Asset Management, joins Rajat Devgan on BIZ TAK Money Makers.
From his journey from Polymer Science to fund management, to India’s long-term growth story, market cycles, small & mid-caps, portfolio construction, gold and wealth creation – this conversation is packed with insights for investors. Aashish explains why staying invested for the long term is the result of a good investing experience, why investor psychology and trust matter alongside financial fundamentals, and why investors should remain flexible, open-minded and probability-driven. A powerful conversation for anyone looking to understand markets beyond short-term noise.
Aashish P. Somaiyaa, CEO, WhiteOak Capital Asset Management, BIZ TAK Money Makers में Rajat Devgan के साथ खास बातचीत में शामिल हुए।
पूरा वीडियो देखने के लिए इस लिंक पर क्लिक करें –
#AashishSomaiyaa #WhiteOakCapital #StockMarket #Investing #WealthCreation #MutualFunds #BIZTAK
————
BizTak Premium ज्वाइन करने के लिए क्लिक करें ……
क्लिक कर देखें लेटेस्ट TAK फोटो गैलरी:
——-
About the Channel:
BizTak brings you the latest news on stock markets, gold silver prices, market predictions, mutual funds, real estate, automobiles, tech, gadgets, and smart investment tips from India and around the world. We cover everything about the Union Budget, income tax, GST, RBI updates, pay commission updates, stock scans, global oil crisis, and how they affect your money — all in simple, easy to understand language. No matter if you are new to investing or an experienced trader, BizTak has something for everyone.
BizTak आपके लिए लाता है शेयर बाजार, सोने और चांदी के भाव, म्यूचुअल फंड, रियल एस्टेट, ऑटोमोबाइल, गैजेट्स और भारत तथा दुनिया भर से स्मार्ट निवेश की सलाह। हम यूनियन बजट, इनकम टैक्स, जीएसटी, आरबीआई अपडेट और यह सब आपकी जेब पर कैसे असर डालता है — यह सब आसान और सरल भाषा में समझाते हैं। चाहे आप निवेश की दुनिया में नए हों या एक अनुभवी निवेशक, BizTak में सबके लिए कुछ न कुछ जरूर है।
LLMs are becoming part of investment research, portfolio analysis, risk management, and client service. Their speed and scale can improve productivity, but biased inputs, model behavior, and workflow decisions can also distort recommendations, amplify errors, and create financial, regulatory, ethical, and reputational risks.
“Managing LLM Bias in Investing: From Detection to Mitigation” explores how bias can influence AI-assisted investment decisions. It examines common human biases, such as availability, anchoring, framing, and positional and self-preference bias, and explains how these can interact with AI prompts, selected information, system instructions, model design, and AI systems that make decisions or take actions during a workflow (agentic AI workflows) to reinforce biased outcomes.
The report combines behavioral finance with original experimental research to help firms build more transparent and reliable AI-enabled investment processes. It distinguishes implicit LLM bias, which arises from pre-training data, model architecture, and training procedures, from explicit LLM bias, which appears in observable choices such as data selection, source use, and analytical steps.
This distinction shifts attention from whether a model is simply “biased” to how a complete investment workflow produces its result. That broader view helps firms locate the source of a problem, select an appropriate control, and assign responsibility for reviewing the final decision.
Delta and Hyatt have announced a new, long-term strategic relationship that brings together two popular programs, Delta SkyMiles and World of Hyatt.
The news comes as Hyatt is ending its partnership with American Airlines. For now, AAdvantage members who have linked their AAdvantage® and World of Hyatt accounts by Nov. 15 can continue earning World of Hyatt awards through Loyalty Point Rewards through Feb. 28, 2027. World of Hyatt members who have linked their accounts by Nov. 15 can continue earning AAdvantage® awards through Milestone Rewards through Dec. 31, 2026.
The new, exclusive collaboration will launch in the coming months and reflects a shared commitment to closing a critical gap in premium travel: delivering a connected, high-quality experience where both brands know who you are, recognize what you’ve earned and make it easier to move between air and stay.
If you use Claude, you’re probably re-explaining yourself every single time you open it.
Same background. Same tone preferences. Same formatting requests. Typed out fresh into every new conversation, over and over.
There’s a way around that, and it’s honestly pretty straightforward.
Claude has a feature called Skills. A skill is a saved instruction set. You teach Claude something once, and it remembers and applies it automatically the next time a similar task shows up. Instead of writing the same long prompt every time, you build the preference once and reuse it for good.
Here’s the part most people don’t expect: you don’t have to touch a file, a folder, or a line of code. You do the whole thing through conversation. You describe what you want, and Claude builds the skill for you.
Here are three that are simple, safe, and actually useful for the work you do every week.
Disclaimer: While these are general suggestions, it’s important to conduct thorough research and due diligence when selecting AI tools. We do not endorse or promote any specific AI tools mentioned here. This article is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to provide legal, financial, or clinical advice. Always comply with HIPAA and institutional policies. For any decisions that impact patient care or finances, consult a qualified professional.
It’s not just the talks. Or the speakers. Or the strategies.
PIMDCON, the #1 Real Estate & Entrepreneurship Conference for Physicians, works because of what happens between the sessions.
The conversations. The clarity. The shift.
LEARN MORE ABOUT PIMDCON
Know What a Skill Actually Is
Think about training a new assistant. The first week, you explain everything. How you like things to sound. What format you want. What matters and what doesn’t. After that, they just know.
A Claude Skill works the same way. It’s not a plugin and it’s not a separate app. It’s a description of how you want a certain kind of task handled, saved so Claude can spot the pattern and apply it without being told again.
Anthropic built a conversational way to create these, meant for exactly this kind of beginner use. You don’t need to write anything in a technical format. You say “Create a skill that does X,” and Claude builds it and tells you when it’s ready.
Set This Up Before You Start
Skills are available on Free, Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans, but one setting has to be flipped first.
Click your Account name on the bottom right, go to Settings, then Capabilities, and turn on “Code execution and file creation.” Skills won’t run without it.
Then go to Customize, then Skills. That’s where everything you build lives, and where you toggle each one on and off. If you’re on Enterprise, an owner has to confirm that both Code execution and Skills are switched on at the organization level before any of this appears for you. On Team plans, it’s on by default.
How to use it?
Claude reads the descriptions of the skills you have turned on, matches them against what you’re asking for, and fires the right one on its own. You just describe your task normally.
Built a summarizing skill? Paste in a long document, say “summarize this,” and it usually goes.
When Claude misses it, name the skill directly. “Use my Quick Summary skill on this.” That’s the fix Anthropic points to when a skill isn’t firing, and a vague description is almost always the reason. Worth going back and sharpening it.
There is a slash menu, just not everywhere. In Claude Code, and in the Claude add-ins for Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook, you type / and pick a skill from the list. Handy if you spend your day in Word or Outlook.
In regular chat, you’re just asking for what you want.
Skill #1: Rewrite Anything in Your Voice
You’ve probably run into this one. You write a draft, a note to a colleague, something for your newsletter, a message to your team, and it comes out stiff. It doesn’t sound like you.
This fixes that permanently.
How to build it:
Open a new conversation and paste in a few things you’ve written that already sound right. A couple of old emails, a message, anything that reflects how you actually talk.
Then say something like:
“I want you to create a skill called ‘My Voice‘ that rewrites anything I paste into a style that matches these examples. Study the tone, sentence length, and word choices in what I’m about to share, and use that as the model. Here are some samples of my writing: [paste examples].”
Claude will ask you a couple of questions. How formal you want it, whether you use contractions, stuff like that. Then it builds the skill.
From there, you paste in a rough draft, say “run this through My Voice,” and get back something that sounds like you wrote it. No re-explaining your tone every time.
Use it for anything you write repeatedly. Internal notes, newsletter drafts, social captions, adjusted to whatever voice fits that context. Keep it to your own writing and generic templates, nothing with patient information in it. More on that below.
Skill #2: Summarize the Way You Want
Everybody condenses information differently. Maybe you want three bullets. Maybe you want a short paragraph with no headers. Maybe you want the bottom line first and the details after.
Right now you’re probably typing that preference out every single time. Build it once instead.
How to build it:
“Create a skill called ‘Quick Summary‘ that summarizes anything I give you in this exact format: a two-sentence overview first, then three to five bullet points of the most important details, and nothing else. Keep it under 150 words unless I ask for more detail.”
After that, you paste in an article, a long email thread, or a document, say “summarize this with Quick Summary,” and get the same format every time.
One thing to keep in mind. Treat any summary of factual material, especially clinical or scientific content, as a starting point you still need to verify. This skill controls format and structure. It doesn’t replace checking your sources.
Skill #3: Brainstorm With You, Not At You
You ask an AI for ideas and get back a flat list of ten generic suggestions with no depth to any of them. Sound familiar?
This one turns brainstorming into an actual back and forth.
How to build it:
“Create a skill called ‘Real Brainstorm‘ that, whenever I ask you to help me brainstorm something, doesn’t just give me a list. Ask me one or two clarifying questions first about what I’m actually trying to solve. Then give me three to five ideas, but for each one, briefly explain why it might work and what the downside or risk is. Push back if an idea seems weak instead of being agreeable about everything.”
Use it for naming a new offering, thinking through a scheduling change, working out how to handle a difficult conversation.
The value isn’t in how many ideas you get. It’s in getting an honest response instead of a shallow list.
Unlock the Full Power of ChatGPT With This Copy-and-Paste Prompt Formula!
Download the Complete ChatGPT Cheat Sheet! Your go-to guide to writing better, faster prompts in seconds. Whether you’re crafting emails, social posts, or presentations, just follow the formula to get results instantly.
Save time. Get clarity. Create smarter.
Check These Things Before You Build Anything
None of these three skills require patient data, and that’s deliberate. They’re built around voice, formatting, and thinking, not clinical content, which means you can build and use all three without a compliance conversation.
That boundary only holds if you keep it. Claude’s Free, Pro, Max, and Team plans aren’t covered under Anthropic’s Business Associate Agreement, and PHI shouldn’t go into any AI tool without the right compliance setup in place. BAA coverage requires a HIPAA-ready Enterprise plan or the API. So don’t paste a real patient message into your voice skill to “make it sound better.”
Build the template, run the template through the skill, and fill in the specifics yourself afterward.
Also worth remembering: a skill is only as good as the examples and instructions you give it. If yours starts producing results that feel off, that’s an easy fix. Open a new conversation and say “adjust my [skill name] skill so it does X differently instead.” Claude will update it.
Give It Fifteen Minutes This Week
All three of these take about fifteen minutes total to build, and most of that is you digging up a few writing samples for the first one. There’s no technical setup involved. You just type into a normal Claude conversation.
The physicians getting the most out of AI right now usually aren’t the ones with the most complicated setups. They’re the ones who spent ten or fifteen minutes once building a few simple skills and have been reusing them ever since.
So what’s the one thing you keep re-explaining to Claude over and over? That’s your first skill. We’d love to hear what you build.
Download The Physician’s Starter Guide to AI – a free, easy-to-digest resource that walks you through smart ways to integrate tools like ChatGPT into your professional and personal life. Whether you’re AI-curious or already experimenting, this guide will save you time, stress, and maybe even a little sanity.
Want more tips to sharpen your AI skills? Subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive insights and practical advice. You’ll also get access to our free AI resource page, packed with AI tools and tutorials to help you have more in life outside of medicine. Let’s make life easier, one prompt at a time. Make it happen!
Disclaimer: This article is for general informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute medical, legal, compliance, or professional advice. The information provided here is based on available public data and may not be entirely accurate or up-to-date. It’s recommended to contact the respective companies/individuals for detailed information on features, pricing, and availability.All screenshots, if any, are used under the principles of fair use for editorial, educational, or commentary purposes. All trademarks and copyrights belong to their respective owners.
If you want more content like this, make sure you subscribe to our newsletter to get updates on the latest trends for AI, tech, and so much more.
As U.S. prices for diesel fuel surge to all-time highs, some California pumps literally can’t price their diesel any higher—maxing out the display at $9.999 per gallon.
Fuel-tracking firm GasBuddy reported Thursday that a small handful of California fueling stations hiked their retail diesel up to the maximum display pricing as the state’s overall diesel average hit $7.91 per gallon.
GasBuddy said it had confirmed that the $9.999 price was on displays at pumps in the San Diego suburb of Serra Mesa on Wednesday, and that it was investigating reports in other locations. Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, cautioned that some pumps could simply be out of fuel. He noted that it is practice for some fueling stations to list “$9.999” to warn drivers away when diesel has run dry temporarily.
But what is clear is that several stations in California are pricing well above $9 per gallon.
On a national level, the U.S. average for diesel surpassed $6 a gallon this week for the first time ever. De Haan said the national diesel average could realistically rise to $7 per gallon in the weeks ahead. “There are really no signs of any improvement,” he told Fortune. “There are more signs of escalation. We’re headed in the wrong direction.”
De Haan said the first $9.999 reports gave him “chills”—for the first time ever, it’s a realistic pricing option.
De Haan said further clarification is needed if stations could legally be allowed to adjust the digital software and move the decimal place to charge over $10 per gallon, or to instead start charging by the half gallon or some other measure.
The California news comes as crude oil and fuel prices continue to spike worldwide amid military escalations in the Middle East and the effective closure again of the Strait of Hormuz bottleneck. While diesel prices are hitting record highs in the U.S., the situation is worse in the rest of the world where pockets of fuel shortages are projected, prices are higher, and inflationary pressures are growing on everything from groceries to other goods and services.
The global benchmark for oil spiked almost 8% on Sept. 10 from $101 per barrel up to $109—the highest since May. The average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in the U.S. was $4.27 on Sept. 10 and still projected to spike further. That’s the highest September price ever.
Eyes on the Middle East
OPEC reported that, for instance, Middle East energy leader Saudi Arabia’s oil production in August fell to its lowest output since 1990 at 6.2 million barrels per day—down from pre-war levels of 10 million barrels daily—as Yemeni Houthi attacks disrupted volumes through the Red Sea, according to OPEC stats. Houthi attacks have again escalated this week, including targeting critical Saudi oil pipelines. And more tankers are being targeted in the Strait of Hormuz.
But, while oil volumes continue to be drawn down from strategic reserves worldwide—the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is down to 44-year lows—no such reserves exist for fuel, especially diesel, which fuels the global economy for trucking fleets and more. The timing is particularly bad for the agricultural sector, which relies heavily on diesel, with its harvest season typically beginning in September.
“It’s going to be trickling down the [inflationary] supply chain in the weeks ahead,” De Haan said.
The highest gasoline and diesel prices are cumulatively costing Americans over $700 million more per day versus last year. De Haan said he would not be surprised if it rises to a $1 billion daily impact. Gasoline prices are painful, he said, “but diesel is really going to be the troublesome child.”
President Donald Trump said this week he is resigned that the Iran war will continue at least into November, although he argued it will be solved shortly after the midterm elections.
Apart from a peaceful truce in the Strait of Hormuz, the only solution is that prices rise more to force further “demand destruction” of oil and fuels, said Susan Bell, senior vice president for the Rystad Energy research firm. “I hate to say it, but we need prices at the pump to go up higher to encourage consumers to make choices on their energy consumption. We need more (global) austerity measures,” Bell told Fortune.
Everyone focuses on the price of oil spiking above $100 per barrel, but diesel costs are much more concerning right now, said oil forecaster Dan Pickering, founder of Pickering Energy Partners consulting and research firm.
“The [global] market is competing for a limited supply of diesel. So, at what point do we worry? We worry now,” Pickering told Fortune. “Prices are quite high and there’s no easy relief valve. Nobody is building new oil refineries.”
There were an estimated 1.53 million home sellers active in the market nationwide in August, the most since the start of 2020, while the number of active buyers barely moved from July’s record low. Nashville alone saw an estimated 139.3% more sellers than buyers, the widest gap of any metro Redfin tracks.
On paper, that kind of imbalance should hand buyers real leverage. Home price growth has already cooled to 1.6% year over year across the nation’s buyer’s markets, compared with 5.5% in the five remaining seller’s markets, according to Redfin.
Having more room to negotiate does not help a buyer who cannot qualify for the loan in the first place, and elevated rates and prices are still keeping plenty of would-be buyers on the sidelines, particularly those sitting just above conforming loan limits.
Kyle Schoenmaker (pictured top), SVP of sales at Rocket Pro, said navigating a market like this requires brokers to think outside the box.
“In a challenging market, it really requires a lot of the lenders to be creative with the solutions that they’re providing,” Schoenmaker told Mortgage Professional America. “If I had to offer one piece of advice for all of the brokers out there, it would be to stay curious. Now is the best time to ask questions, find the best competitive advantage for them, and make sure that they’re doing truly what’s right by their clients and by their business.”
