Heading into this week (and even throughout the entirety of last week) we were mostly focused on seeing today's jobs report for the next big dose of i...
Bond bulls have been on parade since November 1st and especially since November 14th (CPI). Since then, we haven't seen any real threats to the linea...
“What do you call James Bond having a bath? Bubble 07.” In different bond matters, mortgage rates will always be higher than Treasury rates, in part b...
If you're reading this on Thursday, December 7th, it is the day before the big jobs report--the one that has all the potential in the world to cause h...
Thursday didn't exactly have any high risk events from a data standpoint with weekly Jobless Claims being the most notable report. Claims came in very...
Time flies (see joke at bottom), and here we are at Pearl Harbor Day already. “I'm a multitasker. I can listen, ignore, and forget all at the same tim...
Mortgage rates are hitting lower milestones like it's their nine to five recently and today was just another day at the office. The average lender wa...
Another day, another set of economic reports that offer no objections to the steady bond market rally of the past few weeks. Yesterday's heavy liftin...
Yesterday I was driving across Northern California to the coast (Gualala), and in Sacramento I asked the McDonald’s drive-through clerk (hey, only the...
Double-digit declines in many mortgage rates helped revive interest in refinancing last week and a subsequent increase in the Mortgage Bankers Associa...
Right from the start and with only a few days that didn't fit the narrative, November was a stellar month for mortgage rates, and December is picking ...
JOLTS, the job openings and labor turnover survey, used to be a very forgettable report. On a scale of potential market movers, we've always assigned...
My cat Myrtle doesn’t have a lot of rizz, and there are those that will argue that no cat has any charisma whatsoever. But plenty of marketing people ...
Apart from this past Friday, you'd have to go back to September 1st to see lower mortgage rates than today. It probably makes the best sense to view ...
“People would learn more from their mistakes if they weren’t so busy denying them.” Here’s a little trivia for the compliance folks in the coffee room...
Just yesterday, we were nodding in agreement and acceptance of the fact that rates were better served by cooling off a bit (read: "rising") after impr...
With it being the first trading day of a new month and a Friday, it's hard to determine the extent to which traders planned to buy bonds today providi...
Yesterday, a clown held the door open for me. It was such a nice jester. On the flip side, it’s not nice being taken advantage of and lenders are feel...
If you count the Friday after Thanksgiving as a business day, mortgage rates had fallen for 6 straight days as of yesterday afternoon. Moreover, they...
It would have been a lot to ask for bonds to continue rallying without any major justification after hitting 4.25% yesterday and after 50bp rally over...
The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said its Pending Home Sale Index (PHSI) established a record low in October. The Index, a forward-looking ...
Home schooling is the goodest thing I ever did for my two kids. Hopefully, they both learned that an inverted yield curve doesn’t automatically create...
There were no major economic reports or news headlines in play today. Movement in the bond market (which underlies mortgage rate changes) was orderly...
The "base case" of a narrower, more sideways range between CPI and NFP is increasingly being disproven by a more bullish reality. Especially after th...
There is always non-mortgage financial news. Mark Cuban is both selling his share in the Dallas Mavericks and leaving Shark Tank. Berkshire Hathaway’s...
Despite the three-day week observed by most businesses last week, purchase mortgage applications more than held their own. The Mortgage Bankers Associ...
The tedium that is the 2nd half of November continues to underwhelm. Specifically, we're in a lull between CPI 2 weeks ago and Nonfarm Payrolls next w...
The trend in rates has been very linear in the 2nd half of the month and the day-to-day changes have been getting smaller and smaller. On 5 of the las...
While we await the release of the changes in the official conforming loan limits later today (many lenders and MI companies went to $750k in October, ...
Thanksgiving week is always an interesting (and frequently frustrating) time for the bond market that underlies day to day interest rate changes. Mar...
The Census Bureau released the monthly New Home Sales report today, showing a decrease from 719k in September (revised down from 759k initially report...
The mortgage industry does not move in unison, unlike some groups. (You’ll need sound.) But consistency is important. For example, Starbucks fans can ...
The end of November has been true to form with several examples of directional movement despite an absence of motivation. Last Friday was perhaps the...
"Lower volatility and more sideways momentum" have been the themes as we've moved away from last week's more consequential economic data. The underly...
Up until yesterday, we would have placed the lower boundary of the prevailing range somewhere between the 4.40% lows from last Friday and the 4.43% pi...
Thinking of purchasing a house for a disabled adult child or parent? Are you unable to qualify for a mortgage due to a disability? While this progra...
“I threw my phone from the roof, and it broke. I guess airplane mode wasn’t working.” Plenty of folks will be traveling soon. Here’s some trivia for t...
Surprisingly Resilient Despite Stronger NFP
Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP)--the headline component of the big jobs report came in higher than expected today. Adding to the challenges for the bond market, the un...