“Brokers being short-changed without non-QM”

“Right now, originators fully embrace the need for non-QM, and we’re seeing it based on their desire to be educated,” he said. “We’re always out there, doing webinars and trainings, but the attendance and the registrations that we’ve had in the last two to three months is actually quite remarkable.

“Having conversations with loan officers, they know that refis are gone, so loan officers are just viewing non-QM as an alternative. There’s new business and more tools to purchase, and without it they feel like they’re going to be shortchanged.”

Refi volume may have tumbled by more than 60% in a year, forcing originators to focus even more on purchase volume, but even this is no guarantee of success.

Fannie Mae recently predicted that property sales would drop by 7.4% this year and by 9.7% in 2023. And when even a luminary like UWM’s Mat Ishbia acknowledges that the housing market will cool down later this year, it’s perhaps unsurprising that brokers are now looking at their options with a greater sense of urgency.