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Stephen Scherr, the former chief financial officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., is seeking a Wall Street comeback by joining the leadership of one of the biggest investors in U.S. housing.Scherr starts this week as co-president at Pretium, a major landlord of U.S. single-family homes founded by his former Goldman colleague Don Mullen. The new hire will share his post atop the $55 billion investment firm with another heavyweight Mullen recruited last year: former Morgan Stanley CFO Jon Pruzan."The firm has grown extremely fast. I need to be in a position that I have people around me that, if I get hit by a bus, can run the place," Mullen, 66, said in an interview. "That doesn't mean that, if I drop dead, they come out of a glass case to run the place. There's a lot to do now."That includes expanding the firm."Bringing folks like that on board is going to put us in a position to be able to grow in a reasoned and mature way," he said. "We are still a tween in our growth path."Scherr, 60, spent most of his career at Goldman, including his last three years as finance chief, until 2021. The banker then ran car-rental company Hertz Global Holdings Inc. before stepping down from that role in March as the company teetered from its mistimed bet on electric vehicles.In joining Pretium, he returns to the familiar turf of finance, this time focusing on a residential real estate market that's being reshaped by giants. Mullen made a shrewd bet in the aftermath of the US foreclosure crisis, snapping up homes at depressed prices as he walked neighborhoods in California and Arizona.He has since expanded Pretium, amassing a portfolio of almost 100,000 rental homes and plowing deeper into more corners of real estate. That includes a nascent bet on apartment buildings. For investors, the multifamily market has presented opportunities, as some landlords and their lenders fret over a wave of loan maturities, and as some parts of the country work through a supply glut. Pretium is also in the business of originating and servicing home loans and is looking to bulk up in real estate debt.Pretium has grown at a moment of deep public frustration over the lack of affordable housing. That's turned attention — and scorn — toward Wall Street players. Both Republican and Democratic leaders have argued institutional investors are making it tougher for people to buy their first homes.Large investors have countered by arguing they own only a small percentage of US rental homes and are offering a valuable alternative to buying. "We should be part of the solution even if we are seen by some as a part of the problem," Mullen said. He added that Pretium has worked with some mayors to address the housing challenge.Earlier this year, Mullen agreed to sell a minority stake in his firm to Bennett Goodman's Hunter Point Capital in a deal to help fund expansion.Scherr said the ambition is to be "bigger and larger." While there there are other markets and areas where Pretium can expand, it doesn't need to stray far from its chief remit."The organization understands where it has edge and is quite disciplined in areas of real estate where it can make headway," he said. "There's a lot to do there long before we go further afield."Scherr will be working alongside Pruzan after the duo spent years at competing banks jostling for investor attention, often presenting public updates on successive days, seeking to talk up their firms' shares."I used to tell my team my second-favorite stock was Morgan Stanley," Scherr said. "The theory was that it would rub off and help the Goldman Sachs multiple. I think the two of us can coexist pretty well at the same firm."Private CreditPruzan and Scherr have been friends longer than rivals. As Pruzan was exiting Morgan Stanley, it was Scherr who hooked him up with Pretium.In fact, the pair were vacationing together last year when the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank set off tumult in US banking. While they no longer have to obsess over banking regulations and valuations, they're feeling the repercussions of tempered lending at troubled regional banks.That's opening up an attractive business line for Pretium, which wants to marry its presence in niche local markets with the ability to also finance homebuilders and developers in those areas.Construction lending as a percentage of the overall loan portfolio at banks has dropped to 4% from 8% in 2006, according to regulatory data compiled by Pretium. It will lead to only more business for nonbank players, according to Pruzan."Banks are becoming less relevant in certain lending spaces," Pruzan said. "The next private-credit market is going to be around residential real estate. The opportunity set is huge."

Hedge fund firm Deer Park Road Management Co. is mobilizing capital to snap up debt tied to commercial real estate, betting the investment will eventually mint lucrative returns.Deer Park has launched its first commercial mortgages fund targeting debt backed by office buildings at steep discounts, Chief Investment Officer Scott Burg said in an interview. The Commercial Mortgage Opportunities I fund is looking to raise as much as $500 million for the strategy that offers an 8% hurdle rate, he added. A sustained period of elevated interest rates have hammered valuations and sparked a wave of defaults in parts of the commercial real estate market, leaving lenders rushing to dispose of some of their higher quality assets to shore up cash and avoid deeper losses."The volume of distress in the office space has led to price dislocation and we're seeing commercial mortgage backed securities trade at some very deep discounts," Burg said. "Most are dumping exposure to commercial real estate and particularly office space indiscriminately, so for us, we see this as a massive opportunity." Founded in 2003 by Michael Craig-Scheckman — one of the first employees of Izzy Englander's Millennium Management — Deer Park oversees more than $3 billion in assets. Known for its profitable wagers on deeply discounted mortgage- and asset-backed securities in the year following the 2008 financial crisis, it is seeking similar opportunities about 15 years later.The Steamboat Springs, Colorado-based firm is looking to attract investors from the the Middle East and Europe, and from multistrategy hedge funds, Burg said. "Valuations in some cases are down about 60%-80% from when borrowers took out the loans," Burg said. "Additionally, we are seeing cracks in multifamily and in commercial real estate CLOs where liquidity is scarce, but for us we're happy to take that on as we have the time to invest and see out the cycle."It's a similar story with REITs, with many borrowers handing over the keys and walking away as delinquencies and defaults increase, Burg said. "We've stood on the sidelines while prices have fallen but now we think the time is right to step back in," he said.

The share of mortgage refinance loans had been on the rise over the past several weeks, and now make up more than half of new applications. But because volume is rising from such a low point, no one is calling the situation a boom yet.Overall volume is expected to end the third quarter only slightly higher than three months prior, according to Fannie Mae's September forecast, because purchases have not come back in any great numbers yet. But mortgage lenders need to prepare now, including by staffing up, for when those refis start rolling in, especially coming from anyone who purchased a home in the last couple of years.The Fannie Mae forecast expects fourth quarter refi volume to be around $138 billion, well ahead of the $85 billion in the third quarter. In the first three quarters of 2025, refi volume should be $150 billion, $174 billion and $164 billion in each period, before ending the year at $161 billion. Jay Venkateswaran is the business unit head of banking and financial services at operations management company WNS Global Services. Jay Venkateswaran is the business unit head of banking and financial services at operations management company WNS Global Services. In that role, he handles anything from strategy to execution to client relations.The following are excerpts from a conversation Venkateswaran had with National Mortgage News. Both questions and answers were edited for length and clarity.

A woman wades through flood waters in Jersey City, New Jersey on Oct. 30, 2012.Emile Wamsteker/Bloomberg Nearly a million residential properties across the New York Tri State region carry the same severe flood risk as properties in storm-weary Florida, Louisiana and Texas, according to a new analysis. Even homes in inland metros like Buffalo and Newark face that significant risk, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said in a report this week. In all, just over 4 million people across 939,760 residential properties in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York were determined by the Bank to be in danger. Over 400,000 of those structures are in low-to-moderate income communities. The findings come a week after Hurricane Helene devastated areas far inland across the South, including millions of homes without flood insurance. The Tri State region is familiar with severe weather events, and has taken years to recover from storms like Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and Hurricane Ida in 2021. The New York Fed used CoreLogic's structure-level climate risk data. It determined an average annual loss, representing the damage a property can sustain in a given year due to flooding, as a share of its insurable value. The identified Tri State properties have AALs over the national 75th percentile, lumping them with the country's most climate-afflicted states. Flash flooding, heavy rainfall and overflowing rivers damage both properties and infrastructure, weaken property values, send insurance premiums soaring, and hurt both consumer and investor finances. Homeowners insurance has become a prominent issue for both borrowers and lenders, and has already impacted origination activity in Florida.  In the Tri State region, 14% of all multifamily structures and 12% of all single-family buildings fall into the high-risk category, the study found. That equates to 1.6 million households or just over 4 million people, an estimate assumed combining data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey.The specific communities with the most people at risk are Brooklyn and Queens, with a combined 276,124 households in the 75th percentile of AAL. Meanwhile New Jersey has the most people facing elevated flood risk located in low-to-moderate income census tracts, with 444,880 residents. The Garden State also surpasses New York City with over 1.1 million people overall living in homes with greater flood risks. That risk profile is split more evenly between multifamily and single-family residences, whereas most of the 910,037 New Yorkers at risk live in multifamily units. A few smaller Tri State towns face immense threat of rising waters: Long Beach, New York and Keansburg, New Jersey have over 90% of their properties in the high-flood zone. Across the Hudson River, around half of all households in Hoboken are at elevated danger of both coastal and inland flooding, the report found. The New York Fed emphasized the risk for rental properties among multifamily stock, for both owners and residents. Owners have to pay for insurance and reconstruction, and aren't obligated to keep rents unchanged or rehouse existing residents. Renters already face increasing monthly payments and relatively limited supply. "This explains, in part, why renter status has been found to be a key indicator of disaster vulnerability," the reports' authors wrote.

Real estate investors shared their views on the 2024 presidential election, with a noticeably larger share leaning toward one candidate, both in their predictions and opinions. The majority of real estate investors forecasted a Kamala Harris victory in November, with the current vice president grabbing a 51.4 % share, according to a new quarterly business sentiment survey from RCN Capital and CJ Patrick Co. Another 40.5% backed former President Donald Trump. The remainder favored Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent candidate who has since withdrawn from the race.In expressing their views on who might create the better business environment for investors, Harris, again, came out on top among 47.2% of the segment compared to 39.2% for former President Trump."It could be that investors are optimistic about the Harris campaign's initiatives focused on strengthening the housing market overall, and believe that those policies might benefit investors, tenants and homebuyers alike," CJ Patrick CEO Rick Sharga said in a press release."Survey respondents told us that a Harris Administration could create a more robust environment for investing, despite some proposals — like raising the capital gains tax — and policies being pursued by the Biden-Harris Administration, such as rent control and limiting tax benefits for owners of 50 or more rental properties, that seem to be inherently anti-investor," he added.A split emerged, though, between fix-and-flip and rental businesses, possibly due to some of the current administration's proposals. On a national basis, home flippers saw Harris better for business over Trump by 56.9% to 32.6%. On the other hand, rental investors preferred the former president to Harris 45% to 39.6%. Challenges in obtaining insurance coverage also remain high on the minds of a significant majority of real estate investors, as the topic garners renewed attention in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Nearly four-fifths, or 79.8%, of the investment community cited the cost or availability of insurance as factors in their business strategy, influencing their decisions about which properties to purchase, the research found. While the share reflected an overwhelming majority, it contracted from 84% in the prior second-quarter survey. The most recent data was collected prior to the arrival of Hurricane Helene in late September, which put flood and other disaster insurance coverage in the spotlight.Home flippers were more likely to note insurance concerns, with 82.9% referencing it as an issue, compared to 69.4% of rental investors. Flippers had a higher propensity for a negative business experience due to insurance-related factors, contributing to the gap, according to survey researchers. "Insurance issues have caused more flippers (73.3%) than rental investors (45%) to miss out on a deal," the report said.   Concern among investment businesses in states hit hard by high premium costs and exiting insurance providers soared. A 97% share of home flippers in California ranked insurance challenges as a hot issue, with Florida at 93%. Among rental investors, the numbers stood at 85% in California and 90% in the Sunshine State.Despite added scrutiny on insurance coverage in what has turned into a deadly hurricane season, real estate investors overall still appeared optimistic with near-term business prospects. Approximately, 68.1% said current conditions were better than they were a year ago, with the outlook for further improvement over the next six months growing to a 71.1% share of investors. Numbers improved from approximately 60% in response to both queries over the summer.  At the same time, the percentage of investors seeing deteriorating business conditions declined from the prior quarter to 13.5% currently and 8.6% in the next six months — both smallest in the year-old survey's history. "Investor sentiment is almost twice as positive today as it was in the third quarter of 2023, and they're even more optimistic about the future," said RCN Capital CEO Jeffrey Tesch, in a press release. "It seems likely that investors are reacting to improving market dynamics — financing costs declining, the inventory or homes for sale increasing dramatically and home price appreciation slowing down, but still rising."Their views of housing costs showed 36.5% expecting home prices to rise by more than five percentage points in the next six months, with 34% seeing a smaller increase. Meanwhile, 18.4% said prices would remain near current levels, while 11% thought they would fall.

The Federal Housing Administration is walking back the tight deadlines it set for mortgage lenders reporting cyber breaches.According to a draft mortgagee letter, the FHA wants to implement a 36 hour window of time for companies to report a cyber incident to the agency.This is a notable departure from the 12 hours allotted previously, and more in line with timelines set by the government-sponsored enterprises. (Fannie Mae requires lenders to report within 72 hours if a potential hack has taken place, while Freddie Mac requires lenders to report within 48 hours of detection.)The administration further wants to update its definition of a cyber incident, dubbing it an "occurrence that results in actual harm to the confidentiality, integrity or availability of an information system."It also wants to outline what a reportable incident actually is, noting it is one that has materially disrupted or degraded a lender's ability to meet its operation obligations for originating or servicing FHA-insured loans.These revisions will supersede previous guidance once they are finalized and published, the FHA wrote Sept. 30 in its communication to lenders.In a statement Friday, the administration said its revisions are a response to stakeholder feedback "to provide clarity and better align its reporting requirements with computer-security incident notification standards established by the Federal banking regulators."The agency's first iteration of data breach reporting requirements went into effect in May and cast a wide net on cyber-related incidents that should be reported.At the time, the FHA said cybersecurity incidents include those that actually or potentially jeopardize "the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of information," making all events – big or small – fall into that purview."HUD issued this mortgagee letter to reinforce with program participants the importance of quickly reporting to HUD, addressing, and tracking cyber-security incidents in light of the nationwide increase in incidents in recent years," a HUD spokesperson wrote in May.The administration's move to implement data breach timelines for lenders comes during a time of increased data breach activity.In the past year, numerous megalenders have had their systems hit. In some cases, the attacks have been carried out at third-party vendors.Loandepot, Mr. Cooper, Academy Mortgage and Planet Home Lending are among mortgage shops impacted by such incidents. Title companies have also been hit, including First American and Fidelity National Financial. All in all, millions of customers have had their personal identifiable information stolen and some litigation has sprouted because of it.

New York and California, routinely overlooked in presidential elections, are shaping up as potentially pivotal battlegrounds in a nail-biter struggle for control of the U.S. House.The outcome will determine whether the next president has a legislative-branch ally or antagonist in the fight ahead over Donald Trump's expiring tax cuts as well as clashes over immigration and Wall Street regulation. An opposition-controlled House could also block presidential spending initiatives and hinder the administration with partisan investigations.Democrats need a net gain of just four seats to take the House majority from Republicans. And GOP incumbents are playing defense in 10 competitive races in the two reliably Democratic states.Control of the House ultimately hinges on a complex map of about 40 competitive local campaigns. Most of those are along the coasts or the U.S. border with Mexico. In an era of regional political polarization and ruthless gerrymandering of district boundaries, more than 90% of 435 House races are not particularly competitive. "It's absolutely a fact that control of the House could go either way," Jacob Rubashkin, deputy editor of Inside Elections, which provides nonpartisan political analysis of congressional campaigns, said. A strong election performance by either Vice President Kamala Harris or Trump could tip the balance. But Joshua Huder, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Government Affairs Institute, said idiosyncratic results in just a couple of states could also break the current "dead heat," regardless of the presidential winner.Here is a survey of the contest: Rep. Mike LawlerDana Ullman/Bloomberg New York-NortheastDemocrats are targeting five GOP-held seats in New York state, seeking to oust first-term Republican incumbents from the New York City suburbs on Long Island and the Hudson Valley, as well as one in the Syracuse area. These contests  — including a marquee showdown just north of New York City between freshman Republican Representative Mike Lawler and former Democratic congressman Mondaire Jones — are a major focus of House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is from New York. First-term Representative Anthony D'Esposito, who represents much of Long Island's Nassau County, was already in a fiercely competitive race when he became enmeshed in scandal. The New York Times reported in September that he gave taxpayer-funded jobs to both his fiancee's daughter and another woman described as his lover.National issues such as the economy and cost of living, abortion rights and immigration are prominent in these races. But so are local concerns, including an influx of migrants into New York City and the Hudson Vally, the financial burden of a $10,000 limit imposed on deductions for state and local taxes as part of Trump's federal tax overhaul, and high housing costs.There are also high-profile House races in New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania and Maine. First-term New Jersey Republican Tom Kean Jr., the son of a former New Jersey governor with the same name, faces a strong challenge in an affluent suburban district that Joe Biden won in 2020.  In Eastern Pennsylvania, three-term Democrat Susan Wild won her last election by fewer than 6,000 votes and again faces a struggle in a district that includes Allentown and the Lehigh Valley. Six-term Democrat Matt Cartwright is struggling to hold onto a perpetually competitive northeast Pennsylvania district that includes Biden's hometown Scranton but Trump carried in 2020.Three-term Democratic incumbent Jared Golden is defending his seat in Maine's heavily rural 2nd Congressional District, the largest US House district by land area east of the Mississippi River. Trump won the district in the last presidential election. George Whitesides, then-chief executive officer of Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc.Michael Nagle/Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloo West CoastSouthern California and that state's Central Valley hold another pocket of Republican-held seats that are among the most competitive nationally — and crucial to Democrats' hopes of taking the majority. Among them is a rematch to represent a heavily agricultural stretch of the San Joaquin Valley between first-term Republican John Duarte and Democrat Adam Gray, a former state representative. Duarte eked out his victory last time by just over 500 votes in a district Biden carried in 2020. Another hotly contested race in an area north of Los Angeles pits GOP Representative Mike Garcia against Democrat challenger George Whitesides, a former NASA chief of staff and chief executive of Virgin Galactic for a decade.Many of the competitive California contests are in the Los Angeles media market, making them among the most costly in the US. Concerns over housing and gasoline costs, as well as water issues, figure in the races along with dominant national issues.Seats held by Democrats in Washington and Alaska face fierce challenges, as does a seat held by a Republican in Oregon.HeartlandA handful of seats in the Midwest and Great Plains held by Republicans are either competitive or edging in that direction, including two in Iowa. Nebraska's unusual method of apportioning its presidential Electoral College votes is adding to the pressure on Republican incumbent Don Bacon, who represents an Omaha-area swing district Biden carried in 2020. Nebraska is one of only two states that divides its electoral votes rather than awarding them as one bloc, allocating three of its five to the presidential candidate winning each of its three congressional districts.That has stoked Democratic enthusiasm and Bacon is trailing in some polls.In Iowa, GOP representatives Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn are in competitive contests, as Harris boosts Democratic enthusiasm and the state's strict abortion ban is triggering a backlash.Republicans are targeting two seats in Michigan being vacated by Democrats. GOP challengers are focusing on inflation and fears the shift to electric vehicles will hurt the region.SouthwestRepublicans, who have made a tough stance on immigration a pillar of their campaign, see a pick-up opportunity in a New Mexico district that runs along the southern border. The seat, now held by first-term Democrat Gabe Vasquez, has switched back and forth between parties in each of the past three elections.In Arizona, a ballot initiative to restore abortion rights in the state is feeding Democratic hopes of turning out enough voters to take a district held by a first-term Republican Juan Ciscomani, and a Phoenix-area seat held by a more-senior Republican, Dave Schweikert. Republicans hope concerns over immigration will save the incumbents.SoutheastElection night viewers can look to two seats in Virginia, and another in North Carolina, as potential early bellwethers. Polls close at 7 p.m. New York time in Virginia, where economic issues mark competitive races for a central Virginia seat being vacated by a Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger, and another on the state's Atlantic coastline defended by GOP Representative Jen Kiggans.In eastern North Carolina, where polls will close at 7:30 p.m. New York time, a changing population and redistricting is giving the GOP a shot at unseating first-term Democratic Representative Don Davis.

Samuel Corum/Bloomberg Federal regulators raised the threshold at which certain financial products are subject to enhanced oversight standards by a smaller percentage than last year as inflation eased.The Federal Reserve and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau raised the price at which consumer credit and leasing transactions are subject to truth-in-lending requirements from $69,500 to $71,900.The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency joined the Fed and the CFPB in raising the price at which mortgages are exempt from appraisal requirements from $32,400 to $33,500.The Truth in Lending Act of 1968, also known as TILA, requires that consumers be informed about the terms and costs related to certain financial products. The law brought standardization to lending products — including the uniform use of annual percentage rate for consumer-facing credit and loans. The act also establishes the conditions under which consumers can rescind agreements that pose excessive risks.Originally, oversight of consumer protections within the act were assigned to the Fed, but the law was modified by the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, which created the CFPB and granted it authority over TILA oversight and enforcement.Dodd-Frank also required the agencies to update the minimum threshold at which products are subject to TILA based on inflation. The agencies use the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W, as their benchmark for price adjustments. This year, the index increased 3.4%. The prices are also rounded to the closest $100 increment.TILA also requires special appraisals for high-risk mortgages, known as higher-priced mortgage loans, or HPMLs. Originally, the threshold for these appraisals was set at $25,000, but it too has been raised annually based on inflation.The agencies' implementation of these laws is known as Regulation Z. Unlike other, more comprehensive rule changes, regulators are not required to go through a notice and comment process to update the thresholds set by Regulation Z, because its authorizing legislation calls for annual updates. The new price thresholds go into effect next year.

When Hurricane Helene barreled ashore last week, it caused devastating flooding across the southeastern US, including in the Shore Acres area of St. Petersburg, Florida. The neighborhood saw 6 feet of storm surge, which flooded roads and homes. It was far from the first time. Shore Acres, where roads are just 2 feet above sea level at their highest point, sits in one of the 10 ZIP codes with the greatest number of "severe repetitive loss properties." It's a designation used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Natural Resources Defense Council to refer to primarily residential buildings that have received at least four flood insurance payouts totaling $20,000 or more, or at least two totaling more than the building's market value. Severe repetitive loss properties are a growing category. NRDC identified about 40,000 of them in 2022, in an estimate that associated the majority of SRL properties with their rough dates of designation. That was up from about 10,000 SRL properties in 2000, a sharp increase that highlights the burden extreme rainfall and flood risk is placing on homeowners, landlords and insurers. "It's a huge problem. It's getting worse," says Anna Weber, senior policy analyst for flooding solutions at NRDC. Because the data only covers properties that have had flood insurance coverage in the first place, it's "just the tip of the iceberg," she says. Only about 4% of Americans have flood insurance, though one analysis pegged that figure at 2.5% or lower for many of the inland counties affected by Helene. Roughly 95% of US flood insurance policies are issued by the National Flood Insurance Program.Using a slightly different methodology, FEMA counted about 46,000 buildings as SRL properties as of February, 8% of them in the top 10 ZIP codes. Eight of those ZIP codes are in Gulf Coast communities, where hurricanes are common. But it doesn't take particularly extreme weather to spur flooding. Rainstorms cause flash floods in coastal Louisiana. New Jersey's Wildwood is vulnerable to storm surges. Shore Acres is so low-lying that it can flood when it's sunny.Created in 1968, the NFIP plays a critical role in insuring homeowners for flood risk. But the program is also designed to incentivize people and communities to reduce that risk.  Local governments that join the NFIP are required to adopt floodplain management regulations. "It's generally accepted that climate is getting worse [and] flooding is getting to be more of a problem," says Mark Browne, chair of the faculty for the School of Risk Management at St. John's University. Browne says curbing flood risk is "increasingly important."Some communities are doing just that. New Jersey recently agreed to an emergency sand-pumping project to shield North Wildwood from storm surges, while St. Petersburg has upgraded valves that prevent bay water from flooding Shore Acres. Still, many properties remain unprotected. In the Shore Acres-area 33703 ZIP code, for example, only 14 of 331 SRL properties are listed as mitigated — a designation that means a property has been fortified against flood damage. Overall, protective steps have been taken for a little over a third of SRL properties in the top 10 ZIP codes, according to FEMA data. Nationwide, about 24% of SRL properties are currently mitigated, though Weber cautions that FEMA may have data gaps that cause it to understate the number of mitigated properties. While federal grants pay for projects that curb the risk of repeat damage to NFIP-insured buildings, there isn't enough money available to meet every request, said Sandra Knight, a former FEMA official who oversaw mitigation grants and floodplain management. To stop repeat flooding, governments could also update zoning laws to prevent development in at-risk areas, she said, including by accounting for the way risk is changing along with the climate. "Existing infrastructure that's already there, that's harder to deal with, because then you are going to have to mitigate or move," Knight said. "And people don't want to do that."

A jump in U.S. job numbers above the levels seen the previous month cooled interest rate cut expectations Friday, and nonbank mortgage broker and bank job estimates released that day softened.U.S. jobs rose by 254,000 in September, above expectations for 150,000 more in line with August's addition. Unemployment was 4.1% as compared to the 4.2% anticipated. New industry payroll estimates for August activity totaled 272,300 compared to an upwardly revised 272,600. "Employment continued to trend up in food services and drinking places, health care, government, social assistance and construction," the Bureau of Labor Statistics report said.The numbers suggest that while federal monetary policymakers may continue to cut short-term rates they control, it won't be as aggressive as the 50 basis point cut last month."A return to a more normal cadence of 25 basis point cuts is likely at the November meeting, and at each meeting beyond that, until the fed funds rate returns to a neutral level next summer," said Michael Brown, senior research strategist at Pepperstone, in a report. This makes it less likely mortgage borrowers, brokers and lenders will get much more interest rate relief."Interest rates jumped on the release of this report," Michael Fratantoni, chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association, said in an emailed statement."MBA's forecast is for longer-term rates, including mortgage rates, to remain within a relatively narrow range over the next year. This news will push mortgage rates to the top of that range, but we do expect that mortgage rates will stay close to 6% over the next 12 months," he added.While the market was somewhat surprised by Friday's employment report, there had been other indications that hiring has been a little stronger recently earlier in the week.The August Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey numbers had signaled that in some respects U.S. employment conditions are surprisingly robust, according to a report from Rania Gule, senior market analyst at global multi-asset broker XS.com.U.S. job openings rose during the month to 8.4 million, following two consecutive declines earlier, Gule noted."This reflects ongoing strength in the labor market, prompting traders to lower their expectations for any significant monetary easing," said Gule.Private payroll numbers released two days earlier showed 143,000 jobs added in September, according to a report ADP produced in collaboration with Stanford Digital Economy Lab. The number was larger than anticipated after five months of slower activity but still below the 200,000 benchmark.Compensation for private workers softened compared to a year earlier in the payroll provider's September report, particularly for workers who changed jobs. The latter category saw their average increase fall from 7.3% to 6.6%, while the former dipped slightly to 4.7%."Stronger hiring didn't require stronger pay growth last month. Typically, workers who change jobs see faster pay growth. But that premium over job-stayers shrank to 1.9 percent, matching a low we last saw in January," ADP chief economist Nela Richardson said. At 225,000, initial jobless claims outpaced estimates for 220,000 this week, according to Cody Echols at Mortgage Capital Trading. Continuing claims largely plateaued."Continued geopolitical tensions also continue to remain high, which is driving uncertainty with global markets," said Echols, who is a senior capital markets technology advisor at MCT.