Truist's Sherry Graziano on preparing lenders for this year's low rate environment

The Housing News Podcast is a weekly wrap of the top news stories by HousingWire CEO Clayton Collins. Each week, HousingWire interviews financial services experts who can help make sense of the latest headlines sponsored by our partners at Arch MI and Quicken Loans. This week, Sherry Graziano, the head of Mortgage Omni experience at SunTrust, which has now been named Truist, joins the Housing News Podcast for episode two of season 3. In this episode, which was recorded two weeks ago during the nation’s interest rate debacle, Graziano discusses the housing market's low-interest-rate environment, which continues to change day-to-day, and what it means for the mortgage industry as more and more lenders report a surge in both refinance and purchase volume. Additionally, she explains why relationships are key in the housing space. Here’s more detail on the topics of discussion this week: The Federal Reserve made its second emergency cut in two weeks, slashing 1% off its benchmark rate, and renewed a program to buy Treasuries and mortgage bonds in an effort to bolster the economy as the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 spreads in the U.S. As the mortgage business continues to try to deal with the repercussions of interest rates hitting an all-time low early March, it appears that some lenders are inflating their advertised mortgage rates to try to stem the tidal wave of mortgage applications they’re receiving. Mortgage rates fell to an all-time low two weeks ago, and lenders across the country are now dealing with a deluge of mortgage applications as borrowers rush to both buy and refinance. But are some of those same lenders keeping borrowers from getting even lower interest rates than they already are? The answer: Possibly.