A buddy from Kentucky wrote to me, saying, “Statistics show that the average person has sex 89 times per year. Looks like I’m in for a pretty wild December.” November is behind us, and with it all the noise about President Trump’s 50-year mortgage proposal. Capital markets personnel in the mortgage biz don’t like thinking about how long it would take to create a market for 50-year mortgages, nor do they like volatility, but traders do. The mood among traders has swiftly improved, chiefly due to economic data that has supported an interest rate cut in December. The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee doesn’t set mortgage rates, but the same factors that influence its decisions impact the bond market. A slow jobs market reduces the number of qualified borrowers but tends to lower rates. Pick your poison. Meanwhile, back office personnel are focused on making sure loans are manufactured correctly, and tomorrow’s STRATMOR session is all about data standards, AI guardrails, and the future of mortgage tech. At 2PM ET tune in as Sue Woodard, Garth Graham, and Brian Vieaux, the president of MISMO, discuss where the industry is headed and how thoughtful standards and collaboration can pave the way. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s are sponsored by Two Dots, whose conversational screening agent replaces manual underwriting with a streamlined, end-to-end process that reduces risk and fraud while securing safer borrowers, increasing profitable loan volume, and lowering underwriting overhead. Today’s has an interview with United Home Loans President Mike Dulla on borrower sentiment and winning business in the current rate environment, automation with “humans in the loop,” and where lender executives are focused.)