ACUMA ONpoint
ACUMA ONpoint
Turning HMDA Data Into Mortgage Market Advantage
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HMDA is sitting in plain sight, and most lenders still treat it like a once-a-year reporting requirement. We think that’s a huge miss. HMDA data is a public record of mortgage applications and outcomes that links lenders, borrowers, loan products, and geography, making it a market map for any credit union trying to grow smarter and serve members better.
We’re joined by Val Buresch, CEO of Polygon Research, to break down what HMDA actually captures and why executives should care. We dig into the story the latest dataset tells, including the surprising rise in HELOC originations and what it means when independent mortgage banks start gaining ground in categories that credit unions often “own.” We also get practical about opportunities hiding in the numbers, especially secondary market execution with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae, and how liquidity and product depth can expand without abandoning relationship strategy.
Then we turn insights into an action plan. We talk candidly about whether the data support the credit union's mission, where pricing shines, and where outreach across the broader community can fall off. Val points to a signal leaders should not ignore: “Approved Not Accepted,” when a borrower is approved and still walks away. We also cover what to watch in DC, including CFPB activity around disclosures, the growth of non-QM and DSCR investment-property lending, fair-lending risk, and how AI is changing the way market intelligence is used.
If you want to use HMDA for mortgage strategy, member engagement, fair lending alignment, and real competitive analysis, press play. Subscribe, share this with a lending leader, and leave a review so more credit union teams can find the show.
Sponsored by Polygon Research
HMDA Beyond Compliance
SPEAKER_04This is Actions on Point Podcast. On today's episode, we discuss why Humda is more than just a reporting requirement, but rather a powerful data source that provides insights about market share, member engagement, and growth opportunities.
Sponsor Spotlight Polygon Research
SPEAKER_04But before we get to our episode, just a quick word from our sponsor.
SPEAKER_00This episode is sponsored by Polygon Research. With Polygon Research, your credit union can finally see what's invisible today, which lenders are winning in your markets, where you're underserving communities that need you, and exactly how much mortgage volume is slipping away. Every loan, every lender, every market you care about turned into a growth and fair lending playbook your team can actually use. Learn more at polygonresearch.com.
Acuma Updates And Conference News
SPEAKER_04Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, hello and welcome to Acima's On Point Podcast, a series, folks, sharing the stories of people who are making a positive impact in the credit union mortgage industry. I'm your host, Peter Benjamin. Today I am joined by Val Baresh, CEO of Polygon Research. Val, welcome to the pod. And how are you doing today?
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Peter. I'm doing quite well. Very excited for our conversation.
SPEAKER_04Me too. You know, as I said in like my teaser intro, Humda is so much more than what it's being used for. And when we kind of get to the meat and potatoes of our conversation, I'll kind of share a personal story of my experience with Humda. And it kind of relates to the main conversation of what I want to have with you today. But one, thank you very much for being here. I definitely consider you the foremost expert in Humda. So we are truly blessed to have you. Before we get any further, as always, we gotta take a step back. We gotta bring Justin the Hawk in. Hawk, what is the latest and greatest happening over at Acuma?
SPEAKER_03Oh man, we are we are rocking and rolling over here. Busy, busy, busy. That's our that's the motto these days. Say the least. I mean, we're officially one month away from kicking off the Make Your Mark annual conference this year. I mean, that's gonna be insane. If you don't know, it's gonna be in Vegas. It's happening September 20th to the 23rd, and we have great news. It's not too late to register. So if you haven't registered, let's make that happen. And then some other news. We have hotel cutoff coming up, but we have some modifications to room rates that might be coming out soon. So there's some cost savings opportunities happening. If you've already booked your hotel, don't worry, you'll still get those discounts. And the fun things that you get to look forward to at annual, just some highlights. We have an advocacy session on day one. So market calendars. I know we want to pack the house. Like I know, right? You know that Peter knows how to do like fawn at sessions, so like he's gonna be the one like leading on the monitor on that one. Yeah. So who knows what's in store for that? But we're gonna have a policy lunch and learn on day two. And day three, we're gonna have a speaker coming from HUD, so it's gonna be really awesome to have all those. Other sessions that I just want to bring up, all of our Q3 network meetings are gonna be happening in person, so not virtually, at the Make Your Mark annual conference. So be sure to check the agenda for those. Now, if you're not in to the in-person events and you're not into fun or annual, isn't your jam, we get it, sort of. But we have plenty of virtual education opportunities. So happening a couple times a month are inside track webinars. So be sure to check out those. For more information on all these, plus so much more, head over to the Acumen website.
SPEAKER_04Well, fun fact before I well, one, thank you very much for the update. But fun fact, I don't know why I started doing this, but I started trying to learn how to do balloon animals while talking. Are you gonna do balloon animals on stage? I'm not very good at it. Every single time, I'm trying like you know, the sword and the dog, like the classics, right? Every single time I always get like the first twist down pretty well. The sword I'm decent at. It comes out okay. The dog is a little bit more difficult, but yes, I am gonna try. I'm gonna keep practicing, and who knows? Maybe I'll be doing balloon animals on stage. Isn't a sword just a blown-up straight balloon? No, it has like the tilt. The tilt. I could do a sword, just blow it up straight and call it a day. No, man. You got you gotta twist it and you gotta create the hilt. It's actually a couple bends, so you have the each tilt has a bend on it, and then the handle has a is straight. But anyways, I'm gonna keep practicing, and who knows? Maybe our members are attendees we're running around with balloon animals, brought to you by Peter Benjamin. But again, I have to keep practicing.
SPEAKER_03We're gonna have to get a clown nose for you.
SPEAKER_04We'll see. Hey, hey, everyone knows I'm I'm a practical choker, so clown outfit uh works well. Anyways, Justin, again, thank you very much.
Meet Val Baresh And Her Story
SPEAKER_04Of course. All right, Val, I want to dive into this conversation, but you know, before I do, as always, I have to start with the fundamental question that that kind of got us here, that that kind of made this podcast such a success. And the fundamental question is you know, really dives into who you are as a person. You know, obviously, as you are the Humda expert, but there's there's more to you than than just that, right? So for those who don't know you, you know, if you could share, you know, who is Val?
SPEAKER_01Well, thank you, Peter. And again, thank you for having me on this podcast. It's really a pleasure to be with you and talk to you about this. But when I get this question, it's always a little bit difficult to share personal things. My work defines me so much. I am the founder and the CEO of Polygon Research, and we are a mortgage data intelligence and technology company. And what defines me is my endless curiosity about mortgage markets. What I want to do is help lenders, credit unions see the markets as clearly as they can in order to make decisions that serve members better. And on the personal side, which is a more difficult thing for me to talk about, I am from Bulgaria. I was born in Sofia, and I grew up in a small town on the Danube River that is 2,300 years old. So that gives you a sense of where I'm coming from. I love history, I love art. I came to the US in 1999 with my five-weeks old daughter, and like many immigrants, I had to start over, I had a chance for a new life, new career. And every time I have chosen something to do, it has been around how do people make decisions? How does data make people do or take better decisions? So I also on the personal side, I love art history. I am a art uh fine art painter, and what it gives me is this appreciation of relationships, of seeing patterns, of seeing uh relationships between objects, just like a fine art painter is trained to do. And this actually is very helpful for me when I look at data as well, because that's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for patterns and for shapes and for the story, for the line in the story that the data tells. And then I translate my insights into our interactive dashboards that we offer. And so, as I said, I this is what defines me mostly my work. I'm committed, I'm passionate about what I do. I have been doing this for the last 11 years. Most people think of me as a data person, but data is my foundation, and what is my mission is market intelligence, which is what I started with. Making and helping people make better decisions, whether they're personal or as an institution.
SPEAKER_04I've known you for a few years now, and I I've learned more about you in that two minutes than I have in this whole time of knowing you, which I truly appreciate getting to know you. Love that you uh are fascinated by art and history. I would love to see one of your paintings one day. You know, for a short period of time in college, I was an art history major, but then I realized I I didn't want to be uh poor when I grew up. So here I am.
SPEAKER_01That's why that's why we we're getting along so well. I didn't know either.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I actually I I started off in college as a graphic designer and then struggled with that because I was in a very competitive program and then moved over to art history, and then I was like, you know what, I I can't keep doing this. Like I love history, I love art, but again, I didn't want to be poor when I when I was when I got older. So, anyways, we can talk about that more later. Let's come back to you know the conversation.
What HMDA Is And Why It Matters
SPEAKER_04So, as I said in my my teaser intro, you know, all too often, Humda, and it's not just credit unions, it's community banks, large banks, you know, IMBs, Humda is often viewed as just a reporting requirement, almost something that they are forced to do on an annual basis, and they they submit, you know, the you know, the the LARD and they just forget about it, right? Until it's time to do it again. But the more I gotten to know you, the more I've settled into the position I'm currently in, I've realized that there's something truly powerful about that data, something that it almost paints a picture of who we are and gives us the roadmap to who we need to be. Now, the conversation valve that I want us to have today is really broken down into three categories. First, we're gonna start with the market, and I actually have two questions on the market. Next, we're gonna go into opportunities, and I have a few questions on opportunities within Humda. And again, all this is really shaped up as, you know, in the in the lens and the in the under the eyes of credit unions. And then finally, we're gonna wrap up with a few questions on an action plan. Like I said, Humda provides us almost like a crystal ball into who we need to be. So if it's okay with you, let's just jump right into the market. And so, first question, I think it's important, right? Because and it really ties back to my initial statement of just a reporting requirement. And so, from your perspective, and we think about the market, for the the CEOs and the executives listening into this podcast, if you could answer the simple question what is Hamda and why should CEOs care about it?
SPEAKER_01Thank you for this question, Peter. And you are absolutely right. It's one of the most misunderstood topics or even data sets in our industry. You are absolutely right. This is where Hamda is. Hamda is a regulatory data set. Hamda stands for Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. It has been around for since 1975, I guess 51 years now, and it collects data from lenders and then presents it in a publication about the mortgage activity. But what is unique and makes it so valuable beyond the compliance, beyond fair lending, which is the main purpose of this data set, is that it describes the entire market activity. So think about taking an application and then looking what happens to that application through the lens of a borrower and then through the lens of the underwriter. And then at the end you have closed loans. And in between, so it's end-to-end application to closing to secondary market. It creates this funnel and vision and visibility into the loan lifecycle. But it is valuable because it's not just about the mortgage transactions, it is valuable because it's also it connects the lender. So we know the lender, we know all the 1500 credit unions that are in Hamda and connects them to the borrower, to the loan product, to the property, to the geography at the transaction level. So we have imagine a complete public record of mortgage applications and what happens to them. And that's why you should care. It's a public data set that is available to everyone. A credit union can look beyond its production when they use Hamda and understand the larger market, how much lending there is. Over multiple years, I mentioned that this has been around since 1975, but you can look into the past and see the trend, how much lending has been taking place, which institutions are active in your mortgage market, how big is the share of credit unions in a particular location, it could be census tract, it could be zip code, it could be county, MSA, state, national level, and you can move between those geographies seamlessly with Hamda without losing that connection with borrowers. And then also speaking of borrowers, a credit union can understand why borrower has chosen a particular loan product or even a loan channel or even a lender. And so my job as a founder and CEO at Polygon Research is to make that data really available across multiple years. And where Hamda becomes interesting for an executive at the CEO at the C level at Credit Union is that when it is put in context with American community survey data and other mortgage data sets, it becomes a practical intelligence, something that is useful for strategy setting, for growth, and connects fair lending. Now, fair lending is not just outside of your strategy, it becomes part of it. You can use the Hamda insights for your, as I said, growth strategy, but also training, hiring, product, marketing use cases. And Hamda, in a way, for credit unions, is the natural ally. It gives them visibility, and that visibility typically was preserved for larger institutions. Actually, one of our credit union clients expressed that this is leveling of the playing field. Using Hamdavision, for her, it was like leveling the playing field that allows her to see herself in the local market and make better decisions of how she's serving her members and communities.
SPEAKER_04Thank you for walking us through that. And I love how you kind of transition to like that, that, that story, because it it Hamlet does provide a lot of information. So when you think about and and and I know you've looked at the data from this year, or I guess last year, you know, when you think about the latest data set that was produced, and it doesn't have to be credit unions, it could just be in
The HELOC Surge Hidden In HMDA
SPEAKER_04general. Was there just a big story that was told in that last data set? Like if there was one story that you could tell out of last year, what would it be?
SPEAKER_01There's so many stories, Peter, but one thing that really surprised me as a story was the growth of the HILOCs. Those people who don't know, since 2018, we have very granular insights into HELOC originations. And when I looked in the Hamden, the latest is 2025, I see double-digit growth for the HELOC originations across the nation. And what surprised me is that credit unions are major contributors to that segment, 38%. We already know that. But where my surprise is that the growth was just under 10% for credit unions compared to a growth of 25% for IMBs. So if you think about that, credit unions have a fairly large share, 38%, as I said. I think it was 430,000, 460,000 HELOCs recorded in the Hamda data. The banks get 603,000, a little bit bigger share, but the IMBs are coming into the space of credit unions, and that's what we can see in the data. And so growing 25% year over year, it would take them about what, four or five years to catch up with credit unions. I think that's one of the stories that for me is a big news that people don't talk a lot about.
SPEAKER_04I love that. So thank you for that. Let's switch over to you know opportunities.
Secondary Market Opportunity For Credit Unions
SPEAKER_04Because again, I think this is where really the heart and soul of this recording is gonna be. So let's focus on you know the opportunities, you know, more specifically as it relates to credit unions. The simple question really is what opportunities are credit unions missing when you think about the most recent Hamda data?
SPEAKER_01Speaking at the national level, as I said, 1,500 credit unions have reported Hamda. And so that's a lot of institutions that can take advantage and can look at different opportunities. The opportunity at the national level is in the execution. What happens after credit union originates a loan? Do they keep it in portfolio or do they sell it to the secondary market? I think this is something that these 1,500 credit unions can take a look. But at the national level, that's a missed opportunity. What I saw in the latest data is that only 6% of it's about 1 million loans, all kinds of loans that credit unions originated and recorded in Hamda, only 6.2% were sold to the secondary market to agencies like Fanny, Freddie, and Gini. And the reason I'm thinking about this as an opportunity for the credit unions is that the credit union sector is just dipping its toes into the secondary market when the banks have much better execution. The IMBs, of course, that's their model of originate to sell. So they are heavily relying on the agencies. But the credit unions with their mission of serving members, they should be very curious how to tap into that agency market, how to get those affordable products from the agencies and offer them to the members. And I'm saying that with full understanding that keeping a loan in portfolio is a great way to lean into the relationship strategy. With the agencies, you can have such a strategy by retaining the servicing rights of the mortgages that are sold to the agencies. But with that, maybe there is an opportunity, maybe there is an opening for the credit unions to see how they can still keep that relationship strategy, that intimate relationship with members, while bringing more liquidity to their balance sheet, to their portfolio, so that they can have more number of loans that they can serve members with, and also deeper, richer product pipelines. And in this way, they might be able to reach to first-time home buyers. As we know, all three, Jeannie, Fanny, and Freddie have very good opportunities for that. And also the opportunity there, so this is the national level, and I mentioned 1,500 credit unions. But when you look locally, you might find in the local market other opportunities from the market. But if I have to answer with one opportunity, that would be it for me. Tap into the secondary market, research it, look, learn, talk to other credit unions who are successful in that.
SPEAKER_04Val, thank you very much for kind of walking us through that. And I love how you kind of paint that picture. You know, there's 1,500 credit unions, and I love that you echoed everything that we tell our members, you know, sell in the secondary market, you know, help with liquidity in that fashion. Yeah, but one of the things that I get from that everything you just said, yes, there are 1,500 credit unions that originate mortgages. But you know, here's the thing, Belle there are 4,800 credit unions in this country, right? Now that's a pretty large deficit when you think about the number of credit unions versus the number that originate mortgages. So for me, you know, it's we have to do a better job as a whole from a credit union industry helping our communities and originating mortgages. If you know 1,500 is a lot, yes, but it's not enough. If there's just under 5,000 of us, more credit unions should be originating. Because if you think about it, if we if one of the fiduciary reasons why we are established is to help our communities, there's no better way than a mortgage, right? So to that point, you know, knowing that there's 4,800 credit unions and knowing that only 1,500 of them originate, there have to be areas that credit unions are just losing out on, right? So it could be obviously purchases or refinances or you know, who knows, right? Construction lending. Based off what you've seen again from at a national level, are credit unions losing loans, they should really be winning.
Approved Not Accepted And Lost Loans
SPEAKER_01Yes, they are. So if those who market and who go and and reach out to members, especially where we see that is in one data point in the Hamda data code, approved, not accepted. I think fair lending experts know about it, but it is a great signal for marketers and for product managers. So what it is is that at the end of that process where you are talking to your members, you are reaching out to them, educating them, and then taking the application, running it through underwriting, collecting all the documents, analyzing, and you say yes to your member, the member walks away. And at that point, the question is why? And so digging into that, you know, at least those who already originate mortgages can squeeze a lot of more originations and maybe will be able to provide just better stickiness for the members. But in terms of those who don't originate, I cannot speak for them. There are many different kinds of credit unions, and what drives them is the mission to their members. They are founded with a specific mission, with a specific field of membership. If someone is listening to this and they don't originate mortgages, I think the best thing to do is to jump in the Hamda data and see how other credit unions are doing it and also what the opportunity is in their market. If they're serving a county, for example, most likely is that they are first-time home buyers. They are people who are downsizing in their market, people who have high interest rates on their mortgages, they want to refinance, or someone who has accumulated enough equity so that they want to take a cash out or a HELOC. So understanding that opportunity through data might help them design their strategy and be more confident jumping into mortgage lending. But I would say that the answer for those questions is in the data. And there is no one recipe that fits for all situations. But the data set that we are discussing today, Hamda, is large enough and detailed enough that it will provide help in answering those questions.
SPEAKER_04No, thank you for that. Let's move on to action plan, because I think that's pretty important and really the next step,
Does The Data Match The Mission
SPEAKER_04right? We talked about the market and why Humda is important and really some of the biggest stories coming out of it. You know, we talked about the opportunities and loans that our creditions are losing out on. I think we now need to talk about action plan, right? So when you think about the credit union mission, and I'm gonna ask a candid question. When you look at the data from a national level, you know, does the data support the credit union mission? Like, are we doing enough to support our communities? I think I know the answer, but I think I feel sometimes we have to ask the hard question. So, in your opinion, what are your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER_01Yes and no. Yes and no. And again, I will say every story is different. Every one of those 1500 recorded digital stories about credit unions will tell a different story. But I'll give you some patterns that I have noticed. Number one for the yes, pricing. Loan pricing, you can get to a very specific loan segment, conventional, conforming, fixed rate, first-time home buyer type of loan segment. And very consistently you would see that credit unions have better interest rates, lower interest rates for the borrower, lower fees. Again, this is the national level. Are there differences on both ends of the distribution? Yes, they are. You can find that in some cases the credit unions are not the best providers of pricing. But nationally, as a pattern, this is what we see. Credit unions consistently provide better interest rates for their members. So that's a great story, something that credit unions should be proud of and go to market with. Where I see a lot of room for improvement is serving the credit needs of your community, understanding the broader community. Many credit unions, in my observation, have grown from a credit union that served a company, and then they grew their field of membership to include geography. So now they're serving the people who live, worship, go to work, and work in a particular county or a group of counties. And it's very interesting to see how where they're serving their members is the closest where that headquarters of that company was. And the further the perimeter goes, the less they're present in those counties that they have amassed during the field of membership. So the outreach becomes a little bit weaker. So that's where what I see a big opportunity for credit unions is to go in and dig into the credit needs of their communities and then look at their product lines. Do they match those credit needs? Do they have high LTV products in the pipeline? Do they have high DTI and high LTV and low credit score products solutions for those members in their field of membership? And this brings me back to my earlier answer to you about looking into the secondary market for products for answers. How to do better within your field of membership with your members. I think there is an enormous opportunity for credit unions to do better, to lend more. Currently, we see it at 1 million. If you look at historically, this 14 to 16% market share has been consistent regardless of the cycle that we are in. It's the long runners of the mortgage lending credit unions. They're always there for the credit, for their members, but can you do better? Do you want to do better? There are some examples of credit unions who have taken very bold steps, who are leaning into the secondary market as a way to bring more products to their members and serve this variety of diverse credit needs more effectively. I can talk more about that, or we can connect afterwards to tell you about those best cases.
SPEAKER_04No, I mean it's obvious that you know more than one conversation about Hamda is needed. But all right, so listen, I know there's a lot of data when it comes to Hamda, and I know there's different types of data sets and metrics that can be used. If
The One Metric To Watch
SPEAKER_04there was a CEO listening to this conversation and you were consulting them, what would be the one metric that CEO should be watching?
SPEAKER_01CEOs are already watching the market share and the volume. That is a metric that can be traced in county recorders office data, in the agency MBS data, and in Hamda data. But Hamda is unique because it has this connection at the transaction level with the borrower, the product, and the lender. So I would advise them to watch market penetration of products. For example, not only market share among the competitors, but penetration in a specific market, perhaps 25-year-olds or under the generation Z. Maybe that is one metric that would make sense for credit union CEOs to lean into the age metric. How are we doing in these different age brackets? Are we achieving the penetration that we want? The future of credit unions is with the next generation. So how are we serving that? That's what I would say. This is always a hard question. You know, the one metric I would say measure the penetration per age group of your landing.
SPEAKER_04All right. So final question, you know, before we start transitioning, there's a lot happening in DC right now, and some of it actually relates to Hamda.
What Leaders Should Prepare For Next
SPEAKER_04For the leaders that are listening, what should they be preparing for next?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, a lot has happened, and including the road to housing, including the FHFA vintage score inclusion into how they think about risk and also how they do disclosures. So there's a ton of stuff going on.
SPEAKER_04The CFPB, RFI requests support information on mortgage credit, right? I mean, there's a lot happening that that could impact our day-to-day in Hamda, right?
SPEAKER_01Yes, there is um uh current RFI out by the CFPB that the CFPB is collecting responses from practitioners about disclosures. They call it access to credit, improving access to credit, and that will impact credit unions as well. Your processes after they process all the responses, it has to do with timing of those disclosures, details, and so forth. Much of that data from closing disclosures goes into Hamda, including interest rates, property value, loan amount, LTV, well, not LTV, but discount points and lender credits. So that's something that you should be watching out. I would say that other things that you have to be prepared for is, for example, the rise in non-QM and specifically the debt-to-service coverage ratio, DSCR, loans and lending, and how it's regulated, what's the impact on your members? There's a lot of some locations, and that's also obvious through the data, are drawing the interest of mom and pop investment investors who need investment loans in order to buy investment properties. That's one way to create wealth apart from home ownership, of course. So be on the lookout for those. There is neither good nor bad in those things. It's just whether it's useful for your members, this type of loan, and whether you can offer it and how it's going to impact both your balance sheet and also your fair lending risk exposure. But these are things that are brewing here: this focus on investment properties, focus on disclosures, focus on fair lending risk as well. I would add to this AI, the use of artificial intelligence in day-to-day operations as well.
SPEAKER_04I appreciate you walking us through that. So the last question I asked, and this is a truly last question before we segue, goes back to a little bit more of a personal question.
Motivation Data Families And AI
SPEAKER_04The first question I asked you was, you know, who is Val? And you gave us this amazing story and you shared a lot with us. The last question is kind of goes along with that. And it's focused on, you know, what keeps you going? Like how do you stay motivated? So the question's again pretty simple. You know, how do you keep going? How do you keep yourself motivated day in, day out to try to make our industry better?
SPEAKER_01I mentioned that I'm really interested in how people and financial institutions make decisions and when and how information plays a role in how good those decisions are. Because when we talk about mortgage, we are talking about the biggest financial decision that a family can make. So for me, people look at me, and sometimes I have heard people say a data nerd, but for me, a mortgage transaction, when I look at it, the data represents the family, the person who made that decision. So that's what keeps me going is how can I use whatever I have at my disposal, my mortgage domain expertise, my technology, my data analytics expertise in order to help lenders make those decisions with more confidence, using that information in a more informed way, and help more families. And how I know about that is looking at it in aggregate. Then you can see those patterns and see whether you were successful. So that's what keeps me motivated very much on this emotional side, on the more logical side, what keeps me motivated is the fact that we are all entering a new era of business. This is artificial intelligence, and with that, in my little sliver or slice of this whole world, of the commercial world, is the mortgage market intelligence. And so what keeps me going is trying to find an answer to the question: how do we make people use more data, more information? How do we help them move away from software and give them the technology that adapts to them rather than asking them to adapt to a new technology? And what is very exciting, actually, right now for me is that we have built mortgaged data.ai. This is truly a grounded AI solution and an answer to this question because we have put together our low-level data. We have put a semantic layer, meaning a layer that translates a natural question in English into data. And we have allowed now people to ask questions more seamlessly and get more seamlessly from a plain question in English to the underlying analytics. And that's something very, very new for us. And that's what motivates me a lot because we are just released it, we are making it better every second as we speak. People can chat for exploration, they can use our dashboards for analysis, they can use reports for already made reports for immediate action planning. This is exciting that we have this now one platform that connects all the data sources and allows people to use it in different kinds of ways. And that's what in general keeps me going. This is my mission, my mission to use data to make mortgage market intelligence, in my case, much more accessible, trustworthy, and usable and useful and actionable for people, especially in these ages. I start answering your question: age of artificial intelligence.
SPEAKER_04Such a great answer. We're certainly entering a almost like a golden age or gilded age of mortgage technology and data, where almost, if you think about it, you know, the sky's the limit on the things that we can accomplish if we just leverage data and the technology in the right way. I'm excited for the future of our industry, just strictly based off how far we've come over the past few years. I get what you're saying. I absolutely love that response. So, Val, it's time to transition to the second segment of our podcast. And
Dad Jokes And Wrap Up
SPEAKER_04the second segment, this is where we do the most requested segment, the most listened to segment of our podcast, dad jokes. So, prior to the recording, I asked you to come prepared with two to three dad jokes. Now, on air, you're gonna share two dad jokes, and we have a third one just in case the other two aren't that funny. And then it happens, it happens. But here's what we're gonna do: you're gonna share your two dad jokes after that. Justin's gonna share his two dad jokes, and then I will wrap up with my two dad jokes. And so, Val, whenever you are ready, please share your two dad jokes.
SPEAKER_01Hey, that's new for me. Right. First one, I wondered why the baseball was getting closer and closer, then he did me.
SPEAKER_04Good baseball joke. All right, Val, what's the next one? I love that one.
SPEAKER_01Have you ever heard of quiet tennis?
SPEAKER_03No.
SPEAKER_01It's the same as regular tennis, but without a racket.
SPEAKER_03Two good sports jokes right there. See, Val news. All right, Johnson, you're up. Oh, okay. So why did the old man fall down the well? Why? Because he wasn't feeling well. All right, what's the last one? What happens when you cut a house in half? What? You get a duplex.
SPEAKER_04All right. I'll wrap up. What do you get when you cross a chicken with a fox? A scared dog? A fox. Oh yeah. I like that one. All right. Um two fish are in a tank. One looks to the other and says, Do you know how to drive this thing? A military tank? Come on. Ah! All right, that one bombed. Um I'm not gonna lie, I I don't get it. I said, two fish are in a tank. Two fish? Two fish are in a tank. Two fish are in a tank. Oh see, it's totally bombed. All right. Two uh two snowmen are standing in a field. One says, Now that you mention it, I can smell carrots too. I like that one. There, I redeemed my dead all right, good. Well, Val, it truly was a pleasure speaking with you. I always enjoy learning from you. Your insights into really mortgage data is quite impressive. And truly, this conversation went better than I completely expected. I think you gave our listeners some true actual items and insights into everything happening with with Humda. And really that's that's all I was hoping for. Again, thank you very much. You know, appreciate you know your your your time and and and your partnership. It's good talking to you.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Peter. Thank you, Justin. It was a pleasure.
SPEAKER_04Very good. And Justin, as always, thank you. Absolutely is my pleasure. And to close out, thank you again to Polygon Research for sponsoring today's episode. And to all of you, we know your time is valuable. Thanks for tuning in to the latest episode of Acuma's On Point Podcast. We hope you enjoyed it. Until next time, be well, my friend.
SPEAKER_02Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time at the Acuma on Point Podcast. If not already, be sure to subscribe and give us a five star rating. For more great episodes and information, visit us online at Acuma.org. And to get the latest updates, head over to our LinkedIn page.
