As the mortgage market goes, HousingWire tends to follow, and vice versa.
Our Rising Stars award is now a force to contend with; winners reap all the spoils.

And the talent pool continues to grow. For this issue, we needed to put two people on the cover and this time from Amherst, based out of Austin, Texas.
Our cover stars Chris and Joe helped expand the Amherst portfolio to include more than 23,000 single-family rental homes and the company now employs 650 people working in 26 national markets. That’s huge. This year’s list is the best yet!

Speaking of moving forward, how many times have you read about the “return of subprime” in the national press? If you’ve heard it even once, that’s wrong! There is no return to the subprime of the past, according to a viewpoint by our own Editor Ben Lane.
Yet, keeping that in mind, the non-QM credit box keeps opening a little more each month, Lane argues we will need to stay vigilant.

“The last thing the housing industry needs is another foreclosure crisis. So while it makes sense to see lending standards expand beyond the government and GSE standard, it must be done smartly,” Lane argues.

Also of note, check out our feature on reverse mortgages. As those who actively work in that sector know, it’s been a tough two years. Our reverse mortgage editor Jessica Guerin, tells us why and whether or not we should hope for a turnaround in that market!