Fri, Mar 5 2021, 11:43 AM
As Black Knight has repeatedly predicted, end of February expirations drove the number of mortgage loans in forbearance lower this past week. There wa...
Fri, Mar 5 2021, 11:37 AM
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has proposed to delay the mandatory compliance date of the General Qualified Mortgage (QM) final rule ...
Fri, Mar 5 2021, 10:30 AM
Today began with Nonfarm Payrolls coming in at 379k vs 182k forecast. Last month's numbers were revised up to 166k from 49k. The unemployment rate t...
Fri, Mar 5 2021, 9:59 AM
In the legal field, virtual litigation is thought to be here to stay, vaccine or no vaccine. And as the pandemic continues, and remote hiring continue...
Thu, Mar 4 2021, 5:27 PM
Mortgage rates jumped quickly today after Q&A session with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. What did he say to cause such drama? Actually, it's mo...
Thu, Mar 4 2021, 4:19 PM
Powell Does Exactly What He Was Supposed To (And Bonds Didn't Like It)
From this AM: "some recent analysis h...
Thu, Mar 4 2021, 2:57 PM
There seems to be a fair amount of surprise and confusion surrounding today's bond market sell-off in response to Fed Chair Powell's Q&A with the WSJ....
Thu, Mar 4 2021, 9:56 AM
Welcome to the only day where the date is a command. Owners of shopping malls wish they could command everyone to go shopping in one. When was the las...
Thu, Mar 4 2021, 9:29 AM
Monday and Tuesday brought a stronger start for bonds and, with it, hopes that a broader bounce was in the works. Wednesday dashed those hopes and in...
Wed, Mar 3 2021, 3:51 PM
MBS Outperform, But Bonds Fail To Confirm The Bounce
Tuesday's gains increased odds that a friendly bounce w...
Wed, Mar 3 2021, 10:52 AM
To listen to the audio version of today’s commentary with an interview with STRATMOR Group’s resident recovering accountant Jim Cameron on handy metri...
Wed, Mar 3 2021, 9:30 AM
Bonds had a great day yesterday--not so much because the rally covered a ton of ground, but rather because it helped build a case for the end of the m...
Wed, Mar 3 2021, 8:25 AM
Mortgage application volume rose for the first time in four weeks during the week ended February 26, but it was only a marginal increase. The Mortgage...
Tue, Mar 2 2021, 4:40 PM
In the past 2 decades , there have been 6 months where mortgage rates rose at least 50 basis points. February 2021 was one of them. Moreover, it was o...
Tue, Mar 2 2021, 4:25 PM
Much Better Day For Bonds. Dare We Discuss It?
A fairly flat morning gave way to an afternoon rally, especia...
Tue, Mar 2 2021, 12:22 PM
CoreLogic says home prices in January were 10 percent higher than a year earlier. It was the first double digit increase in the company's Home Price I...
Tue, Mar 2 2021, 10:28 AM
What happens to homeowners and landlords when the federal, state, and local protections put in place during the pandemic go away? The Consumer Financi...
Tue, Mar 2 2021, 10:18 AM
As a kid, magic tricks are amazing because we think there is magic. As an adult, magics tricks are amazing because we know there is no magic. Lenders ...
Tue, Mar 2 2021, 9:34 AM
- The absence of stronger gains this week means bonds remain inside their short-term uptrend (see chart)
- 100% focus on UMBS 2.5 coupon (why?)
...
Mon, Mar 1 2021, 4:00 PM
Construction expenditures started 2021 displaying the same imbalance between the growth of residential and non-residential spending that had dominated...
Mon, Mar 1 2021, 3:57 PM
Too Strong to Give Up Hope. Too Weak to Rest Easy
- New week, new month, new chance for yields to confirm a ...
Mon, Mar 1 2021, 10:13 AM
After Friday's impressive (and much-needed) bounce toward lower yields, the new week/month took on even greater importance than normal as a venue for ...
Mon, Mar 1 2021, 9:36 AM
With the jump up in mortgage rates Thursday, and the move back down Friday, a few lock desk personnel wrote to me over the weekend asking about ways o...
Fri, Feb 26 2021, 5:49 PM
Rising rates have been on the menu for months, but the drama kicked into a higher gear this week. Maybe you heard about this? We've certainly been dis...
Fri, Feb 26 2021, 5:47 PM
Nice Bounce! Now What?
- An early bounce turned into an even bigger, friendlier bounce at the end of the...
Fri, Feb 26 2021, 2:42 PM
Black Knight reports a second increase in the number of loans in pandemic related forbearance plans in as many weeks. Forborne loans rose by 21,000 du...
Fri, Feb 26 2021, 9:28 AM
Huh? Rates don’t continually go down and then stay there for an indefinite period of time? No, they don’t. There’s this opinion piece in the Wall Stre...
Fri, Feb 26 2021, 9:15 AM
Freddie Mac reported this week that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 16.1 percent in January compared to a 22.4 percent...
Fri, Feb 26 2021, 9:11 AM
Deadlines for COVID-19 related relief for borrowers with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (GSE) mortgages were extended by the Federal Housing Finance Agenc...
Thu, Feb 25 2021, 5:28 PM
Mortgage rates WISH they were still at 2.97%--the number conveyed today by Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Freddie's data is accurate when it comes to ca...
Thu, Feb 25 2021, 4:58 PM
Just When You Thought It Wouldn't Get Much Worse
Staggeringly weak day for bonds.
2.0 MBS coupon is now ...
Thu, Feb 25 2021, 10:47 AM
January marked the fifth straight month that the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) has reported a decline in its Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI)...
Thu, Feb 25 2021, 10:44 AM
As hope for a recovery drawing nearer helps push rates higher, Carol K. writes, “I hate it when people ask me what I do for fun because there is no cl...
Thu, Feb 25 2021, 10:37 AM
It got much worse. Bond yields were up more than 8bps by the open with the 10yr just a hair under 1.47%. It might be hard for traders to avoid ringi...
Wed, Feb 24 2021, 4:33 PM
As of today, you'd have to go back to June 2020 to see higher mortgage rates. This is courtesy of an ongoing move in the bond market that has longer-t...
Wed, Feb 24 2021, 4:18 PM
Is It Another Trap and Which Coupon Do I Watch Now?
Yesterday's bond market resilience offered hope for a bo...
Wed, Feb 24 2021, 12:28 PM
New home sales continued the turnaround, started in December, that ended three straight months of slowing sales. The U.S. Census Bureau and Department...
Wed, Feb 24 2021, 9:49 AM
Yesterday saw yields hold at just slightly lower highs on an intraday basis, thus offering a glimmer of hope for a bond bounce. We discussed the risk...
Wed, Feb 24 2021, 9:02 AM
There’s a cost to staying at home as much as we do. I went to the doctor the other day. She told me, “I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news i...
Wed, Feb 24 2021, 8:43 AM
The volume of mortgage applications for both home purchase and refinancing fell for the third straight time during the week ended February 19. The Mor...
Tue, Feb 23 2021, 4:37 PM
Glimmer of Hope in Bonds, But It Might Be a Trap
Bonds started the day in roughly unchanged territory and pr...
Tue, Feb 23 2021, 11:25 AM
Both the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller and The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) report that the country ended the year with more than a 10 percent a...
Tue, Feb 23 2021, 10:56 AM
(To listen to the audio version of today’s commentary, please click here .) Being home schooled was the goodest thing I ever did! Disparities in mortg...
Tue, Feb 23 2021, 10:04 AM
In the past few weeks--and especially the past few days--we've seen a sharp spike in MBS yields relative to Treasury yields. And yes, the Treasury yi...
Mon, Feb 22 2021, 6:06 PM
There are still 4 business days left in the month of February and thus still 4 days for the bond market to undergo an epic recovery that helps mortgag...
Mon, Feb 22 2021, 5:00 PM
Huge Mortgage-Specific Weakness
The rate reset continues. Just when you thought 10yr yields surely couldn't...
Mon, Feb 22 2021, 10:15 AM
Bond yields have been surging higher in February with last week bringing the sharpest losses so far. The move has surprised more than a few market pa...
Fri, Feb 19 2021, 5:54 PM
There's no precedent for the winning streak enjoyed by mortgage rates in the 2nd half of 2020. We've never seen so many new record lows in the same ye...
Fri, Feb 19 2021, 3:22 PM
Surprisingly Swift Selling in The Bond Market; What's Next?
This week has been one of the most surprising se...
Fri, Feb 19 2021, 11:42 AM
Existing home sales started the 2021 with a small increase from the December sale levels, the second consecutive monthly gain. The National Associatio...
