CEO’s Corner: A New Year for Our Industry

With a New Year come new challenges for our industry - and the promise of a better tomorrow. For homeowners, for our economy, for our nation.

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Much as for many Americans, a New Year offers the mortgage lending and servicing industry a chance to take a step back and reflect. Still faced with a wounded economy, many onetime homeowners found themselves in rental properties in 2011. Confidence went through modest periods of renewal before sliding back, all while loan officers, mortgage brokers, and their companies await a cascade of new rules and regulations from our nation├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós capital. Let├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós not forget that a mountain of public debt weighs on our country and the whole of Europe.

And yet there is the glimmer of a better day, a better tomorrow, and a better year - much as there always has been and will be for our country. The possibility of homeownership remains the foundation of the American Dream, and it rose from a period of uncertainty to hit a high note by yearend with higher home sales and stabilizing home prices, thanks to record-low mortgage rates and more hopeful homebuyers. Confidence in the homebuilding industry - a hard-pressed sector of the housing economy - is beginning to show signs of strength and with it, hope for a market rebound in the coming year.

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The message we should take from 2011 is clear: The American Dream of homeownership is far from over. Americans want to own their slice of the dream, and one nightmare - namely, a financial crisis - will do anything but soften the strength and ingenuity of a time-tested people.

We were extremely honored to host former President George W. Bush and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani at the Five Star Conference, benefitting from their history-making leadership following a crisis of national proportion. Former Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice graced our first-ever MPact conference with her presence, articulating a matchless international perspective as an honest broker for peace and diplomacy.

If these icons teach us anything, the responsibility to restore faith against a time of uncertainty falls not upon the individual, but on us all. The instinctive response to crisis is the necessity to heal. This process will call for sound leadership and innovation. It will take the entirety of an industry - corporate leaders, REO brokers, loan officers, and economists alike - to guide homeowners to their dreams, our industry toward success, and our country back to prosperity.

The Five Star Institute is deeply proud to offer you the news you need to realize our common success with DS News and MReport. The glimmer of a better tomorrow only reassures our efforts as we cover the latest stories, convene conferences, and certify more brokers and loan officers.

Thank you for your service to our industry. We wish you and yours much health and happiness as we enter the New Year, and look forward to seeing you again in 2012.

Ed Delgado
CEO
The Five Star Institute