As the MMLA conference wraps up (congratulations to Dan Grzywacz, CMB, and nearly 40-year industry vet, who was this year’s James T. Barnes Award winner), the conversations still involve some seemingly endless topics. One of which is W2 versus 1099. There’s been a lot of “quacking:” about whether originators can be paid as independent contractors (1099) or need to be employees (W-2). Mortgage Muser and attorney Brian Levy has some new thoughts on this topic that are worthwhile even if he “ducks” providing legal advice in his entertaining and insightful mortgage blog. View past editions of the Mortgage Musings and subscribe to get emailed about new postings for free here. Another is sticky higher interest rates, and today at 3PM ET, Skylar Olsen, Zillow’s Chief Economist, will be co-hosting The Mortgage Collaborative’s Rundown, covering current events in the economy and mortgage market for 30-45 minutes. And there’s volume. According to Curinos, July 2023 funded mortgage volume decreased 30% YoY and 13% MoM. Curinos sources a statistically significant data set directly from lenders to produce these benchmark figures. (Today’s podcast can be found here and is sponsored by SimpleNexus, an nCino Company, developer of mortgage technology uniting the people, systems, and stages of the mortgage process into one seamless, end-to-end solution. Hear an interview with Equifax’s Joel Rickman on leveraging income and employment verifications during the home equity line of credit (HELOC) origination process.)