Today, 4:12 PM
One of the very few welcome byproducts of the pandemic was the pervasive availability of new all-time low mortgage rates. Depending on when you c...
Today, 3:52 PM
Snowball Selling Continues. Why?
In not so many words, most of the rate drama seen during the past 3 weeks i...
Today, 11:12 AM
Builder confidence stumbled a bit this month, breaking a four-month streak that had pushed moved the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/We...
Today, 10:38 AM
Bonds sold off last Friday after 4 days of relative stability and improvement to start the week. Optimists hoped the weakness was a byproduct of the ...
Today, 9:52 AM
The refinance share of originations in November remained at 53 percent for the third month even though the average interest rate on 30-year fixed-ra...
Today, 9:43 AM
While rates continue higher, from South Carolina comes, “I just got 30 minutes of cardio trying to pick up an ice cube off the kitchen floor.” Plenty ...
Fri, Jan 14 2022, 7:20 PM
In the past 2 weeks, press coverage of the Federal Reserve's policy outlook has ramped up significantly. The Fed is now expected to start hiking rate...
Fri, Jan 14 2022, 5:51 PM
Friday's Sell-Off Makes Rest Of The Week Look Like a Trap
Over the past 2 days, we've pondered the fate of t...
Fri, Jan 14 2022, 11:41 AM
Friday is not shaping up to be a great day for the mortgage bond market. Our benchmark guidance giver of choice (10yr yield) is in the midst of a pot...
Fri, Jan 14 2022, 11:21 AM
ATTOM says that foreclosure activity in the year just ended was at the lowest level since the company began tracking it in 2005. Foreclosure filings...
Fri, Jan 14 2022, 11:15 AM
It’s Friday, things have slowed down a little bit, and I appreciate you taking a break from Wordle to check out today’s Commentary. Here’s a riddle: W...
Thu, Jan 13 2022, 4:16 PM
Just Enough of a Rally to Keep Things Interesting
Coming into the day, we were pondering the fate of this we...
Thu, Jan 13 2022, 4:06 PM
In almost every case, a day of bond market improvement results in rates moving lower. That makes sense considering mortgage rates are based primarily...
Thu, Jan 13 2022, 11:20 AM
2022 is already off to an “interesting” start. Going directly to the borrower , normally the role of brokers, lenders, MI companies, and other mortga...
Thu, Jan 13 2022, 11:12 AM
Whether we refer to it as a correction or consolidation, bonds have enjoyed a few days of moderate gains after selling off abruptly last week. Today'...
Wed, Jan 12 2022, 4:45 PM
Mixed Signals in Data, Events, and The Market Reaction.
The hotly anticipated CPI data came in roughly in li...
Wed, Jan 12 2022, 4:25 PM
Interest rates are typically determined by bond market. Mortgage rates, for instance, are directly tied to mortgage-specific bonds know as mortgage-b...
Wed, Jan 12 2022, 12:08 PM
Most people are paid wages… will raises keep up with an annualized inflation rate of 7 percent? Others may receive a large payout from the sale of the...
Wed, Jan 12 2022, 11:36 AM
Yesterday's resilient trading day strengthened the case for a corrective (or consolidative ?) bounce after last week's big yield spike. Traders (a...
Wed, Jan 12 2022, 9:39 AM
There was a small uptick in purchase mortgage activity during the first week of 2022. Refinancing held its own despite significant increases in in...
Tue, Jan 11 2022, 4:39 PM
2022 has gotten off to a bad start for the bond market and consequently, mortgage rates. The pace has been on the aggressive side with the average ...
Tue, Jan 11 2022, 4:12 PM
Is it Time To Get Excited About a Bounce?
As per the recent norm, bonds were fairly flat overnight and began...
Tue, Jan 11 2022, 2:58 PM
Mortgage credit loosened a bit last month but the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA’s) Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) which measures cr...
Tue, Jan 11 2022, 2:51 PM
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) says that, after a few months of moderating lumber prices following the rapid runup in early spring...
Tue, Jan 11 2022, 11:05 AM
As freezing temperatures continue on in the Midwest and Northeast, keeping people inside, I doubt if there is a single person in the United States who...
Tue, Jan 11 2022, 10:44 AM
The national delinquency rate declined for the 7th consecutive month in October. CoreLogic’s Loan Performance Insights Report for the month says tha...
Tue, Jan 11 2022, 10:31 AM
Bonds were unchanged to slightly stronger for most of the overnight session, but are now losing ground modestly. In the context of the previous 2 tra...
Mon, Jan 10 2022, 3:47 PM
A Glimmer of Resilience and a Primer on Which MBS Coupon to Watch
Bonds began the day by resuming the sellin...
Mon, Jan 10 2022, 3:24 PM
Last week wasn't a great one for mortgage rates. Most lenders were roughly a quarter of a point higher on a conventional 30yr fixed scenario by Fri...
Mon, Jan 10 2022, 2:43 PM
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government sponsored enterprises (GSE’s) that guarantee most US mortgages, announced substantial increases in the fees...
Mon, Jan 10 2022, 2:41 PM
Mortgage origination activity as measured by rate locks declined again in December. Black Knight’s Mortgage Originations Monitor said it marked the ...
Mon, Jan 10 2022, 12:16 PM
Last week saw bonds sell off at their fastest pace in at least 9 months on a combination of a hawkish pivot from the Fed and paradoxical omicron optim...
Mon, Jan 10 2022, 11:57 AM
The gap in positive answers from consumers as to whether it is a good time or buy a home or to sell one widened in December, as attitudes toward buyin...
Mon, Jan 10 2022, 11:53 AM
While Omicron continues to grab headlines, and economists, investors, and Congress grow increasingly wary of the immense U.S. fiscal expansion as evid...
Fri, Jan 7 2022, 5:00 PM
Seemingly overnight, the mortgage rate narrative has changed rather drastically, at least in relative terms. While rates had risen gradually from near...
Fri, Jan 7 2022, 4:03 PM
Is It The Jobs Report, The Fed, or Something Else?
It's been quite a week of losses for the bond market. Wh...
Fri, Jan 7 2022, 11:24 AM
Nonfarm payrolls came in at 199k versus a median forecast of 400k. On almost any NFP Friday before the pandemic, this would be worth some positivity ...
Fri, Jan 7 2022, 10:52 AM
Anyone born around this time is a Capricorn, and if you believe in horoscopes, they are the most patient and careful, and they are down-to-earth for e...
Fri, Jan 7 2022, 10:06 AM
The Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPB) says the big three credit reporting companies are still not playing well with others . A new report...
Thu, Jan 6 2022, 4:18 PM
Stability, But at a Cost; Does NFP Matter Tomorrow?
In terms of intraday volatility, today was arguably the ...
Thu, Jan 6 2022, 3:53 PM
Regular readers know that we're fond of setting the weekly record straight in cases where day-to-day rate movements paint a drastically different pict...
Thu, Jan 6 2022, 12:22 PM
After watching the same consolidation pattern for the past few months and feeling that yields were safely below the upper boundary, that boundary has ...
Thu, Jan 6 2022, 11:26 AM
Today is about the day when you have to think twice about wishing anyone, “Happy New Year.” Okay, maybe tomorrow. There’s a lot of news out there to s...
Wed, Jan 5 2022, 4:39 PM
Big Sell-Off Following Fed Minutes
Even though the bond market thought it knew all it needed to know about t...
Wed, Jan 5 2022, 3:58 PM
The following represents only a portion of the full list of newswire headlines associated with today's Fed Minutes release, but these are likely the m...
Wed, Jan 5 2022, 2:32 PM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) took steps today to meet one of the goals set forward in its 2022 Scorecard for the GSEs Fannie Mae and Fred...
Wed, Jan 5 2022, 10:33 AM
U.S. travelers to Hong Kong have had better days, with Hong Kong banning travel from the U.S. Chicago schools (with over 300,000 students) have had be...
Wed, Jan 5 2022, 10:26 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) closed, as they usually do, for the two-week holiday period. Its weekly report on mortgage application volume c...
Tue, Jan 4 2022, 4:49 PM
Mortgage rates had been drifting modestly higher in general in the past 2 weeks, but the pace is accelerating in the new year. For some lenders, this...
Tue, Jan 4 2022, 4:30 PM
Bonds Still Selling, But at a Slower Pace
In terms of volume, participation, and holiday closures, today was...
