Wed, Dec 16 2020, 9:36 AM
A recent spate of positive news has allowed Fannie Mae to upgrade several pieces of its economic forecast this month. The approval of at least one COV...
Wed, Dec 16 2020, 9:35 AM
Twenty-three housing and economic experts have told the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) they expect the post-pandemic economic rebound to cont...
Wed, Dec 16 2020, 9:33 AM
Fiscal stimulus has been a hot topic for the bond market since the pandemic first kicked into a high enough gear to require fiscal support for the US ...
Tue, Dec 15 2020, 5:12 PM
Mortgage rates were mixed today, depending on the lender. The bond market--the driving force behind interest rate movement--was stronger yesterday. Ma...
Tue, Dec 15 2020, 4:59 PM
What Exactly Might The Fed Do Tomorrow and Why Should We Care?
MBS suffered, somewhat, from supply/demand is...
Tue, Dec 15 2020, 10:12 AM
“We were so poor when I was a kid that we couldn’t afford tinsel. We had to wait for Grandpa to sneeze.” At the opposite end of the economic spectrum,...
Tue, Dec 15 2020, 9:54 AM
With the exception of a surprise stimulus plan announcement or a huge departure from expectations in certain economic reports, the bond market is lock...
Mon, Dec 14 2020, 3:15 PM
Bonds Catch a Break From Downbeat Headlines; Fed Still in Focus
Wednesday's Fed announcement is the biggest ...
Mon, Dec 14 2020, 9:11 AM
Between vaccines, Brexit, covid surges, covid lockdowns, holiday retail, and various political headlines, it seems like the market should have a diver...
Fri, Dec 11 2020, 5:58 PM
An Epic Tale of Mortgage Rates vs MBS vs Treasuries
Risks are beginning to mount for the rate outlook--at le...
Fri, Dec 11 2020, 11:33 AM
The various types of foreclosure filings - default notices, scheduled auctions, and actual lender repossessions - declined in November. RealtyTrac, a ...
Fri, Dec 11 2020, 10:26 AM
The past few months have seen several troubling, but not unexpected developments for the long-term rate outlook. While they're not the type of thre...
Thu, Dec 10 2020, 4:06 PM
Bonds Are Getting Ready to Move, Probably
Bonds are always moving, to some extent, but they haven't moved ou...
Thu, Dec 10 2020, 4:05 PM
It's old news that 2020 is unprecedented for a lot of bad reasons, but how about a few that aren't so bad? As is often the case when anything causes m...
Thu, Dec 10 2020, 10:08 AM
One interesting theme that's emerging in December is that of weaker economic data actually hurting the bond market. This is certainly not in the conv...
Thu, Dec 10 2020, 9:59 AM
“My ability to remember song lyrics from the 80s far exceeds my ability to remember why I walked into the kitchen.” The Baby Boomers are certainly rid...
Thu, Dec 10 2020, 9:48 AM
Homeowner equity rose again in the third quarter of 2020, reaching the highest total in over six years. CoreLogic's quarterly report on that asset say...
Wed, Dec 9 2020, 4:47 PM
MBS-Specific Volatility Today, But No Major Change to Bigger-Picture
A fresh (or perhaps "slightly less stal...
Wed, Dec 9 2020, 4:46 PM
While all is easily forgiven in light of all-time low rates, the pandemic made a mess of the mortgage market in many ways. Most messes have been resol...
Wed, Dec 9 2020, 10:05 AM
Last night, a new stimulus plan was floated to Pelosi by Mnuchin. In theory, it includes provisions for several democratic sticking points, thus offe...
Wed, Dec 9 2020, 10:04 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said access to mortgage credit improved in November for the first time in several months but is still only abou...
Wed, Dec 9 2020, 9:58 AM
I’m gonna ask my Mom if that offer to “slap me into next year” is still on the table. It’s great to be a lender in 2020, and should be into 2021, but ...
Tue, Dec 8 2020, 4:47 PM
Bond Watchers Clearly Can't Choose The Wine in Front of ______
There are quite a few potential justification...
Tue, Dec 8 2020, 10:52 AM
After climbing for three straight months Fannie Mae's Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) stalled in November , declining 1.7 points to 80.0. The ind...
Tue, Dec 8 2020, 10:50 AM
By mid-November, bonds were rallying after hitting their weakest levels since the start of the pandemic. Due to the timing (i.e. heading into a holid...
Tue, Dec 8 2020, 10:41 AM
Huh? Talk of a government shut down? Again? Are you the typical lender off to a record December, after setting records in November, October, September...
Tue, Dec 8 2020, 8:39 AM
While the rate of non-current loans remained sharply higher than a year ago, CoreLogic reports that serious delinquencies , loans more than 89 days pa...
Mon, Dec 7 2020, 4:59 PM
You might think you know mortgage rates. You might make assumptions about where they'll go and what they'll do based on past precedent. For decades, y...
Mon, Dec 7 2020, 4:19 PM
Bond Market Threats on Hold For Now, But Still Lurking
Brexit-related headlines helped the bond market recov...
Mon, Dec 7 2020, 1:51 PM
The pandemic keeps manifesting itself in the housing market in small but potentially significant ways and there was another data point in Black Knight...
Mon, Dec 7 2020, 9:48 AM
It was impossible to avoid Brexit-related headlines in 2016. Indeed, they were the driving force behind Treasury yields hitting new all-time lows at ...
Mon, Dec 7 2020, 8:54 AM
Large-scale mortgage in-person conference activity, and official mortgage business travel, appears to be shut down until at least the summer of 2021. ...
Fri, Dec 4 2020, 6:03 PM
Big Bond Spike, Mortgage Rate Defiance, Lock or Float?
Today was characterized by an aggressive spike in 10y...
Fri, Dec 4 2020, 5:53 PM
Mortgage loans ultimately "turn into" bonds and those bonds have a certain value to investors. When those values change, so do the rates offered by mo...
Fri, Dec 4 2020, 1:55 PM
A noted housing researcher has analyzed the current frenzy of home buying and the rapidly escalating prices since the country emerged from its short-l...
Fri, Dec 4 2020, 10:45 AM
The cause and effect relationship between NFP (the "non-farm payrolls" component of the big jobs report) and the bond market is a tale as old as time....
Fri, Dec 4 2020, 10:27 AM
Mortgage forbearances for homeowners affected financially by the pandemic declined slightly over the past week. Black Knight said that there were 200,...
Fri, Dec 4 2020, 10:23 AM
Have you ever wondered why so many lottery winners go broke? If they had any financial sense, they wouldn’t have bought a lottery ticket in the first ...
Thu, Dec 3 2020, 4:43 PM
Tomorrow brings the month's most important economic report: the Employment Situation, often referred to simply as "the jobs report." No other piece of...
Thu, Dec 3 2020, 4:29 PM
Bonds Find Their Range Ahead of Jobs Report
The first 2 days of the month (yesterday and the day before) wer...
Thu, Dec 3 2020, 1:09 PM
An analysis published on Black Knight's blog indicates that rents and home prices don't always rise or fall in tandem. The company says comparing tren...
Thu, Dec 3 2020, 10:09 AM
With the COVID pandemic, it doesn’t quite seem like we’re in the middle of pro football season, although apparently the folks in Jacksonville will do ...
Thu, Dec 3 2020, 9:19 AM
What is a "dip buyer?" A "dip" refers to a drop in the price of an asset in the financial markets. In this case, a dip in bond prices would correspo...
Wed, Dec 2 2020, 4:19 PM
Although it was the focus of yesterday's discussion , the ability of the mortgage market to hold steady in the face of bond market weakness continues ...
Wed, Dec 2 2020, 4:06 PM
Breaking Down The Crazy Relationship of MBS, Mortgage Rates, and Treasuries
Bonds showed up to sell today--a...
Wed, Dec 2 2020, 3:08 PM
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has published its 2021 Forward Mortgage Limits for FHA loans. The FHA limits are based on the Fe...
Wed, Dec 2 2020, 11:17 AM
Fun with numbers for Hump Day! Numbers were behind HP’s decision to leave California for Houston. Thank you to Len T. who sent a great chart of the na...
Wed, Dec 2 2020, 9:25 AM
Following yesterday's sharp losses, the bond market didn't do much overnight, nor is it doing much to push back in the other direction this morning. ...
Wed, Dec 2 2020, 8:08 AM
There was the usual disruption to mortgage application activity during the Thanksgiving holiday week that ended November 27, although the volume, espe...
Tue, Dec 1 2020, 4:06 PM
Serious Sell-Off in Bonds. Time to Panic?
A new month brought in new momentum for the bond market--a lot of...
