“Why did the Dalai Lama go to Las Vegas? Because he loves Tibet.” Here at the “MBA Annual,” the puns may not be flying, but there is news bouncing off the walls, some of it learned just by chatting in the hallways. (And there is plenty of time spent walking through the convention center… I need a Segway!) The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) announced that total single-family mortgage origination volume is expected to increase to $2.2 trillion in 2026 from $2.0 trillion expected in 2025. Purchase originations are forecast to increase 7.7 percent to $1.46 trillion next year and refinance originations are expected to increase 9.2 percent to $737 billion. By loan count, total mortgage origination volume is expected to increase 7.6 percent to 5.8 million loans in 2026 from 5.4 million loans expected in 2025. Since the boom 2020-2021 years, lenders not only laid off tens of thousands, but the successful ones have been implementing technology, operational efficiency, and management improvement. Are you ready for a pickup? (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s are sponsored by nCino, makers of the nCino Mortgage Suite for the modern mortgage lender. nCino Mortgage Suite’s three core products nCino Mortgage, nCino Incentive Compensation, and nCino Mortgage Analytics, unite the people, systems, and stages of the mortgage process into a seamless end-to-end solution embedded with data-driven insights and intelligent automation. Hear an interview with Geoff Sharp at Eris Innovations, the creators of CME’s Eris SOFR Swap futures, on the growing need for SOFR-based cash flow hedging solutions.)