NAMB penned a letter to Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director Bill Pulte earlier this week, reiterating its calls for reform in the name of boosting access to affordable homeownership & supporting “small business” mortgage professionals across the country.

Chief among those proposals: removing loan-level price adjustments (LLPAs) on investment properties & second homes, a requirement that puts up “unnecessary barriers to entry” for qualified borrowers hoping to invest. Removing these restrictions has been a lynchpin of NAMB’s reform agenda for the last few years.

NAMB also called for the Area Median Income (AMI) eligibility cap to be reinstated to 100% for HomeReady & Home Possible loans, having recently been slashed to 80% – a level NAMB believes potentially freezes out moderate-income households who earn more than the limit but still face housing affordability challenges.

Read the complete article on MPA Mag.

Here’s what’s about to become more expensive with the next round of tariffs. 

Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 allows a president to impose tariffs to protect or bolster domestic industries if there are deemed potential national security threats. What used to be a rarely employed trade provision has been a favorite in the president's tool box during both terms.

There have been notable exclusions, including goods compliant under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement; products in the pipeline for Section 232 probes; and most recently, the exclusion of smartphones, computer monitors & other electronics from the 145% “reciprocal” tariff on Chinese imports.

Copper and critical minerals: An investigation is already underway on copper — a critical cog in the ongoing electrification of America & industries such as defense. The U.S. imports about 50% of the copper it uses, and demand is only expected to grow as energy-consuming AI & blockchain boom.

Lumber: Softwood lumber is a critical ingredient for homebuilding, and 30% of it is imported by the U.S. Higher costs of lumber imports could affect furniture & even toilet paper. To bolster the U.S. lumber industry, the president ordered that half of America’s national forests be opened up for logging.

Pharmaceuticals: Tariffs here present conflicting policy goals for the administration. Bringing down pharm prices & bolstering U.S. manufacturing doesn't jibe with tariffs, which would drive up healthcare costs & hamper the affordability of medication, especially for people without insurance: 

Semiconductors: Medical devices, Wi-Fi routers, laptops, smartphones, cars, household appliances & LED lightbulbs are a few examples of where semiconductor chips are found. New cars contain thousands of them.  Although the bipartisan CHIPS & Science Act passed during the Biden administration helped incentivize chipmakers like TSMC to open U.S. facilities, even if tariffs do spur more domestic chip production, America still lacks electronic assembly capabilities.

TLDR: Tariffs create disruptions in the supply chain, leading to shortages. Prepare.

Get the whole story on CNN.com.

Recently posted on NAMB's new online community NAMB hive: 

“Minor Email Signature Tweak: I notice a lot of LO’s that email me have their email address in their email signature but not their website. The email signature is an easy place to include wherever you want your prospects going, i.e., website, review page, landing page, social profile.

Ask yourself: If my prospects want to learn more about me on their own where would I want them to go? And then just add that in your email signature. It makes it easy for referral partners too.

– NAMB hive member Anthony Balsamo

Sign up here: namb.org/hive.