Thu, May 20 2021, 9:49 AM
Wednesday was a bit silly in the sense that a fairly innocuous reference to tapering in the Fed Minutes was blown out of proportion by the time market...
Wed, May 19 2021, 3:51 PM
Mortgage rates began the day in line with yesterday's levels, for the most part. Things changed in the afternoon. Bonds began to deteriorate modestly ...
Wed, May 19 2021, 3:48 PM
Questionable Taper Talk Conclusions Result in Heavy Selling
The word "heavy" requires some qualification. I...
Wed, May 19 2021, 10:58 AM
Face facts: There are many differences between men and women. One of which is that when returning home from the grocery store, women typically are mor...
Wed, May 19 2021, 9:10 AM
Bonds were flat to start the overnight session, but moved higher right at the start of European trading. This has been a major theme in the past few ...
Wed, May 19 2021, 8:45 AM
Mortgage originations are still finding much of their strength in the refinance sector even during those weeks when rates increase. The Mortgage Banke...
Tue, May 18 2021, 3:27 PM
Mortgage rates were at their lowest levels in several months by the beginning of last week. They spent the next several days moving higher (especially...
Tue, May 18 2021, 3:26 PM
Low Volume/Volatility For a Second Straight Day
Although it was last Wednesday that offered the lion's share...
Tue, May 18 2021, 10:50 AM
Housing starts fell back from the annual rate of 1,733,000 units reported for March. Residential starts in April were down 9.5 percent to a seasonally...
Tue, May 18 2021, 9:26 AM
The guy I was talking to yesterday asked about my background. I gave him a detailed history of my upbringing, my education, work experience, and why I...
Tue, May 18 2021, 9:09 AM
Today's only notable economic release is helping the bond market get off to a stronger start today. New Residential Construction, came out weaker tha...
Mon, May 17 2021, 4:03 PM
Super Slow Day; Still Waiting For Breakout
Whether it's the narrow range between 1.62 and 1.68% in 10yr yiel...
Mon, May 17 2021, 11:05 AM
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said new home builders are not losing faith in the market for new homes despite their growing concern...
Mon, May 17 2021, 11:00 AM
Here is a dab of trivia to start the week. There are only about 2,000 heart transplants every year in the United States. So, on average, that’s only a...
Mon, May 17 2021, 9:24 AM
Q4, 2020 was all about yields moving higher at a gradual pace. Same story for Q1, 2021, but at a much quicker pace. If Q2, 2021 has a them, it's bee...
Fri, May 14 2021, 4:32 PM
Weaker Retail Sales Casts Vote For Range-Holding
Wednesday's CPI data was akin to some passionate political ...
Fri, May 14 2021, 10:20 AM
Let me start Friday with an apology… to Alaska. (I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.) Jul...
Fri, May 14 2021, 9:42 AM
Wednesday's CPI data was akin to some passionate political orator making a case for the country to go to war against low rates. Yesterday's 30yr bond...
Thu, May 13 2021, 4:40 PM
That applications for mortgages to purchase newly constructed homes rose 30.8 percent in April compared to a year ago is not a particularly useful pie...
Thu, May 13 2021, 4:35 PM
It's Thursday and, thus, time once again to check in with the slew or mortgage rate headlines that typically follow the release of Freddie Mac's weekl...
Thu, May 13 2021, 3:49 PM
Supply Storm Weathered (Could Have Been Worse)
After yesterday's brisk sell-off in the bond market, today's ...
Thu, May 13 2021, 10:44 AM
People around the nation are “voting with their feet.” Illinois: Seven straight years of population declines . California: Losing population during a ...
Thu, May 13 2021, 10:10 AM
Bonds are off to a much better start today vs yesterday (it wouldn't take much, consider yesterday was the worst day in 2+ months). This morning's pr...
Wed, May 12 2021, 4:35 PM
After bottoming out at 2 month lows late last week, mortgage rates have been heading higher. At first, the move was relatively gradual, but the pace i...
Wed, May 12 2021, 4:20 PM
Inflation Data Throws Down Gauntlet. Markets Panic
It's easy enough to imagine or even expect that near-term...
Wed, May 12 2021, 10:51 AM
After last Friday's weaker jobs report, bonds rallied at first, but then bounced into weaker territory in just a few hours. That failure meant bond y...
Wed, May 12 2021, 10:41 AM
Is Better.com worth $7.7 billion , as indicated by the SPAC deal announced yesterday? I guess things are worth the price at which a willing buyer and ...
Wed, May 12 2021, 10:35 AM
Mortgage application volume rose for the first time since mid-April last week. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Index,...
Wed, May 12 2021, 8:07 AM
Metro area home prices rose sharply in the first quarter of 2021 and virtually every part of the country was impacted. The National Association of Rea...
Wed, May 12 2021, 8:05 AM
Access to mortgage financing improved in April, driven by a large gain in the availability of both conforming and jumbo mortgages. The Mortgage Banker...
Tue, May 11 2021, 4:02 PM
Bonds Still Struggling. 10yr Staging For a Bigger Move?
After holding ground admirably overnight despite the...
Tue, May 11 2021, 3:47 PM
Mortgage rates had enjoyed a solid little run for almost all of April and again in the first week of May. By last Thursday, they were at their lowest ...
Tue, May 11 2021, 10:42 AM
Mortgage delinquency rates ticked up slightly in February, the first increase since August 2020 . CoreLogic said the national delinquency rate at the ...
Tue, May 11 2021, 10:40 AM
The real estate and lending industries operate in a world filled with laws, lawsuits, and regulators. (The latest example is REX’s suit against Zillow...
Tue, May 11 2021, 10:08 AM
Bonds lost ground moderately yesterday and blame was most easily assigned to the broad notion of "supply." More specifically, a record-setting round ...
Mon, May 10 2021, 4:02 PM
Heavy Issuance Weighs on Bonds
We knew bonds would be skittish about Treasury auctions this week, but the de...
Mon, May 10 2021, 11:34 AM
Fannie Mae has conducted the National Housing Survey every month since 2011. Among its most prominent questions are those relating to home buying and ...
Mon, May 10 2021, 11:28 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports that the percentage of non-current mortgages dropped by 35 basis points (bps) in the first quarter of 2...
Mon, May 10 2021, 10:09 AM
Here at the MBAG event in Northern Florida some of the topics of conversation is the economy, the inability to predict interest rates, families, and l...
Mon, May 10 2021, 9:44 AM
The week gets off to a slow start without any significant data on tap for Monday or Tuesday. The Treasury auction cycle becomes more relevant on Wedn...
Fri, May 7 2021, 3:44 PM
Bonds Fail to Capitalize on Super Weak Jobs Report
Nonfarm Payrolls came in at 266k compared to a median for...
Fri, May 7 2021, 11:37 AM
In a recent post on the National Association of Home Builder's (NAHB's) Eye on Housing blog, chief economist Paul Emrath said rising softwood lumber p...
Fri, May 7 2021, 10:15 AM
There was a sharp decline in the number of loans in forbearance during the week ended May 4. Black Knight says this has come to be the norm during the...
Fri, May 7 2021, 10:11 AM
It’s Friday, so how ‘bout some non-mortgage supply and demand stuff? Let me start with an apology to Willie Mays’ family (who may or may not read this...
Thu, May 6 2021, 4:06 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower today, bringing the average lender to the best levels since late February. Despite the milestone, the day-over-day movement...
Thu, May 6 2021, 3:50 PM
Lock/Float Considerations Ahead of Jobs Report
Bonds made it through Thursday without any notable volatility...
Thu, May 6 2021, 10:47 AM
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) have provided details for their streamlined refinance programs that were originally announced by the Federal Hou...
Thu, May 6 2021, 10:44 AM
Another home price index shows double digit annual price increases, this time for March, and the CoreLogic HPI also has the highest month-over-month g...
Thu, May 6 2021, 10:44 AM
While the market is digesting the implications Rocket’s earnings (the shares are down in pre-market trading), remember when, in March 2020, it was as ...
Thu, May 6 2021, 10:13 AM
Thursday kicked off with several potential bond market threats. Asian markets fired up again after a week of holidays. The influx of volume could ea...
