DS News

4 This Month FROM OUR DESK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 DS JOURNAL 4 Million and Counting; Single-Family Rental Vacancy Rates Improving; Super-Sized Homes Make a Comeback; Reading the Millennial Mind; Homebuyers Down but Not Out Due to Rising Rates; Housing Sentiment Hits All-time High; Is the Market in a Constant Tug of War?; Rising Rates Might Increase Defect Risk; What's Triggering Migration?; and more . . . . . . . . . 7 FIVE MINUTES WITH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 COUNSEL'S CORNER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 ASK THE ECONOMIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 STATE OF AFFAIRS Impactful local market information at your fingertips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 COVER STORY SPEAKING OUT e importance of housing to the U.S. economy has contributed to the challenges of market structure reform. Industry leaders are opening the dialogue for change to drive economic growth and better homeownership across America. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 By Nicole Casperson INDUSTRY INSIGHT FULL SPEED AHEAD New technologies are accelerating industry processes and increasing consumer satisfaction. Catch up on the top trends that will impact the mortgage professionals this year. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 By Michael Harris INDUSTRY INSIGHT THE DEBT DILEMMA At the end of 2017 consumer debt reached a peak not seen since the Great Recession; however, drilling into the data tells a different story of consumers' mortgage burdens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 By Richard Franks INDUSTRY INSIGHT INVESTING IN THE FUTURE In today's fast-paced market, financial service professionals are making strategic technology investments to not only survive but also thrive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 By Steve Comer Contributors MOLLY BOESEL is a Principal Economist for CoreLogic in the Office of the Chief Economist and is responsible for analyzing and forecasting housing and mortgage market trends. NICOLE CASPERSON is the Associate Editor of DS News and MReport. She graduated from Texas Tech University where she received her M.A. in Mass Communications and her B.A. in Journalism. Casperson previously worked as a graduate teaching instructor at Texas Tech's College of Media and Communications. MICHAEL HARRIS is President and CEO of Glencoe, Illinois-based Exceleras, developers of the DispoSolutions real estate asset management platform. Reach him at michael.harris@exceleras.com. STEVE COMER is the director of the financial services sales team at Hyland, a leading provider of content services solutions to better manage content, processes, and cases. Comer has spent the past 12 years working with financial services customers to develop strategic plans to improve their operational efficiencies through the use of OnBase by Hyland, an enterprise-class solution for capture, workflow, business process management and case management capabilities. RICHARD FRANKS is the Chief Credit Officer of FS Card. He previously led credit card risk for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, after a decade at Capital One in modeling and risk. Franks holds a BS in Engineering from Georgia Tech and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania DAVID WHARTON, Online Editor at the Five Star Institute, is a graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington, where he received his B.A. in English and minored in Journalism. Wharton has over 15 years of experience in journalism and previously worked at omson Reuters, a multinational mass media and information firm, as Associate Content Editor, focusing on producing media content related to tax and accounting principles and government rules and regulations for accounting professionals. Wharton has an extensive and diversified portfolio of freelance material, with published contributions in both online and print media publications. Wharton and his family currently reside in Arlington, Texas. He can be reached at David. Wharton@DSNews.com. Join the Conversation Do you have a suggestion, story idea, or some feedback you'd like to share with DS News readers? Help shape our next issue by emailing Editor@DSNews.com. A P R I L 2 0 1 8 C o n t e n t s D S N E W S . C O M 64 68 16 22 THE POLICY MAKERS JEB HENSARLING HON. EDWARD DEMARCO MICK MULVANEY ELIZABETH WARREN STEVEN MNUCHIN 58

• Cover