Mortgage Rates Soar To Multi-Month Highs Following Fed Minutes

Mortgage rates soared to their highest levels in months today after Minutes from the Fed's most recent policy meeting showed the board to be more divided concerning the continuation of its most recent round of quantitative easing, dubbed QE4. It's not that markets think that The Fed's purchases of MBS (the "mortgage backed securities" that most directly influence mortgage rates) or Treasuries will be stopping any time soon, but however long a particular market participant thought that QE would continue...

House Committee Chairs Blast CFPB's "Virtually Limitless Power"

Shortly before recessing for the holidays the Chairmen of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and of its Subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs issued a report titled The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Threat to Credit Access in the United States . The creation of CFPB was a central fixture of the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and has been the target of both the banking and finance communities and...

• Bank of America is Back in Lending; Thoughts on Basel III and MSR's; Investors Like Residential Mortgages
• Mortgage Applications take Holiday Break, Falling 21.6%
• MBS RECAP: FOMC Minutes Drop Afternoon Tape Bomb On Rates
• 2012 GSE Home Retention Actions Near Half-Million Mark
• MBS MID-DAY: More Mortgage Outperformance. More Overall Weakness
• To be Frank: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Micro News

Around the Web

• Why Bank Disclosure Is So Awful and How to Fix It
• Some Members See QE End Before End of 2013: Fed
• Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee, December 11-12, 2012
• Boehner Re-Elected Speaker as New Congress Convenes
• Geithner Said to Plan Departure Before Debt Ceiling Deal - Bloomberg
• NAR: Current Confidence Index for Single-Family Homes Steady

Video News

	End of QE Before End of 2013?
	Santelli: Cowboys and Central Bankers
	Sen. Shelby: 'We're Committing Financial Suicide'

Today's Comments

	"Locked a 15 year this PM at 2.75%. With rates this good, I'm hesitant to float as the potential for improvement, while there, is less than the potential..."
	"I don't see them requiring bank LO's to pass licensing tests. The biggest banks have way too many personal bankers selling 1st lien portfolio loans..."
	"Gosh, MIke, sorry you are so offended. Not sure why you would think there's a limited pool of folks eligible to refi with HARP, FHA and VA streams..."

Today's Q&A