Remember October and the first part of November--not because of the election, but rather because of the relentless rise in mortgage rates? Would you ...
First thing's first, mortgage applications increased last week, both for purchases and refinances! It was the first improvement for refi demand since ...
“I thought swimming with dolphins was expensive until I went swimming with sharks. It cost me an arm and a leg.” Through the wonders of modern air tra...
There has been plenty of news over the past 48 hours regarding the U.S. greenlighting Ukraine to use long range missiles to attack Russia. Yesterday'...
Ask your favorite curmudgeonly old market watcher and they'll be happy to explain what "always" happens in financial markets when there's breaking new...
The most common interval for scheduled economic data is "monthly." That means that things like inflation, sentiment, job counts, unemployment, retail...
Tuesday brings a classic example of a seemingly significant geopolitical headline resulting in a completely underwhelming bond market reaction. When ...
“What do giraffes and zoning regulations have in common? They both don't exist in Texas.” I am not heading there for a while, but instead head to St. ...
The average top tier conventional 30yr fixed rate was just a hair over 7% on Friday afternoon and the same is true at the start of the new week. Rate...
Historically low interest rates may not have guaranteed historically high levels of housing activity, but exceptionally high rates have definitely mut...
While financial news outlets continue focusing on politics and Trump's cabinet picks, the bond market is expressing anxiety about the risk that econom...
“I didn't make it to the gym again today. That makes five years in a row.” I did, however, make it to the aerodrome over the weekend, which involved t...
This afternoon's mortgage rates are higher than yesterday's latest levels. That's a result of bond market weakness seen late yesterday and earlier th...
"To the person who stole my glasses. I will find you; I have contacts." Here in Cleveland, much of the mortgage talk involves conjecture about where w...
All 3 of this morning's 8:30am economic reports were stronger than expected, and the 9:15am report was right in line with expectations. Of these, Ret...
Losses... weakness... selling pressure... When any of these things happen in the bond market, it puts upward pressure on interest rates. Mortgage ra...
Demographics matter. Although I am sending today’s Commentary out from a Dunkin’ near Columbus, Ohio, yesterday I found myself visiting a supposedly h...
The morning has been both straightforward and interesting. The straightforward part involved a moderate sell-off following stronger economic data. J...
While there's been plenty of movement in the average mortgage rate on any given day recently, today was not one of them. 30yr fixed rates remained ab...
It's not entirely clear if it's a can or the proverbial bucket. All we know is that mortgage applications have been kicking it. There's no great way...
“When I was young man, I met a girl in Tennessee who turned out to be a moonshiner’s daughter. That was a long time ago. But I love her still.” The Co...
Bonds managed a moderate rally in response to this morning's inflation data. While it has since been mostly erased, it was as strong of a showing as ...
Last Thursday and Friday offered some hope that the persistent move to higher rates was finally leveling off. It wasn't necessarily a rational hope, ...
What would lenders do without telephones and phone calls? In 1947 area codes were created by AT&T. Metropolitan areas were given low numbers so that p...
In the run up to the election, we offered constant reminders that a 10bp move in Treasuries wasn't really a big deal, and that such volatility could b...
The bond market dictates day to day movement for all manner of interest rates, including mortgages. On election night, bond yields (another word for ...
"Buy the rumor, sell the news" is an age-old aphorism in financial markets for a reason. It accurately speaks to the real and repeatable phenomenon w...
Many believe, and with good reason, that there will be some turnover at the CFPB coming up. Here are the pay grades if you’re interested in a job. (I ...
There's a distinct risk that, even in the financial community, that people will look back on today's drop in interest rates and conclude it must have ...
Recent indicators suggest that economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace. Job gains Since earlier in the year, labor market conditio...
This morning's only relevant economic data was weekly jobless claims. The headline was right in line with forecasts and the non-adjusted number keeps...
You knew that Minnesota has 90,000 miles of shoreline, more than California, Florida, and Hawaii combined, right? Here at Servion’s Fusion 24 event in...
Mortgage rates spent the entire month of October moving higher at a fairly quick pace. Some of that had to do with stronger economic data, but at lea...
In today's weekly mortgage application survey from the MBA, the average 30yr fixed mortgage rate only rose from 6.73 to 6.81%. Meanwhile, daily avera...
I went to a Vikings game with a friend and decided I wanted a drink. I wanted the big soda pop, but when I saw the price, I decided… A Minnesota will ...
Heading into the election, we knew the bond market was losing ground in concert with improving odds of a Trump victory and red sweep. After being sur...
More often than not, mortgage lenders only set rates once a day. Their decisions are based on trading levels in the underlying bond market. Even thou...
Last week could easily have left us with the impression that the bond market's love affair with economic data was put on hold until after the election...
I think that I read somewhere that there’s an election today (in addition to the Boeing strike ending). Certainly, the sun will come up tomorrow, and ...
Love it or hate it, election-related volatility has been having a big impact on the bond market and, thus, mortgage rates. Most of the volatility has...
There has been plenty of news over the past 48 hours regarding the U.S. greenlighting Ukraine to use long range missiles to attack Russia. Yesterday's examples resulted in relatively modest overnight gains for the bond market. Today's example i...