Tue, Mar 3 2020, 8:56 AM
Overhead on the phone line. “Uh, hello Morgan Stanley? Remember that $20 million MBS we sold you last month? Can we just forget that ever happened? Or...
Tue, Mar 3 2020, 8:22 AM
Privately funded construction gained 1.5 percent month-over-month, from a seasonally adjusted $1.008 trillion in December to $1.023 trillion in Januar...
Mon, Mar 2 2020, 5:15 PM
There is always that one stomach-churning day that arrives in the midst of an epic bond rally that makes you question everything. Well, perhaps we do...
Mon, Mar 2 2020, 11:34 AM
With Freddie Mac's average rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (FRM) hitting 3.45 percent late last week. Black Knight estimates, in its current Mor...
Mon, Mar 2 2020, 9:58 AM
I'm not an infectious disease specialist. I haven't been staying up all night reading all available literature on coronavirus (CV). But best I can t...
Mon, Mar 2 2020, 9:24 AM
Mortgage rates officially hit all-time lows this morning. Even so, it continues to be the case that Treasury yields (often referred to as the basis fo...
Mon, Mar 2 2020, 8:51 AM
Huh? You don’t know what a “Gig Line” is? Someone’s buttons, belt buckle and zipper should all line up in the Gig Line. (See? And you say you never le...
Mon, Mar 2 2020, 8:39 AM
Some time ago, Freddie Mac's Economic and Housing Research Group raised an alarm over a housing shortage , calling it a crisis and estimating that the...
Fri, Feb 28 2020, 12:09 PM
Freddie Mac reported this week that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 4.3 percent in January , a substantial change from...
Fri, Feb 28 2020, 11:40 AM
This post will focus mostly on the charts, which many of you have requested, as I need to turn my focus toward a few other things (especially when it ...
Fri, Feb 28 2020, 11:37 AM
A recent post on the Urban Institute's (UI's) Urban Wire blog focuses on some overlooked data on FHA's Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program....
Fri, Feb 28 2020, 9:48 AM
We’re almost at the end of February already. Mortgage bankers are funding loans, throwing axes, working overtime, learning about skydiving, all kinds ...
Thu, Feb 27 2020, 6:30 PM
10yr yields were as low as 1.24% and ended the day at 1.27% after a decent amount of volatility. MBS gained almost a quarter point, but mortgage lend...
Thu, Feb 27 2020, 5:26 PM
Mortgage rates hit the lowest levels in 8 years either today or yesterday, depending on the lender, just narrowly edging out the rates seen in early J...
Thu, Feb 27 2020, 10:19 AM
Pending home sales bounced back last month after an unexpectedly dismal performance ended the prior year. The National Association of Realtors ® said ...
Thu, Feb 27 2020, 9:09 AM
Good morning. 10yr yields are in the 1.2's. All-time lows.
We follow MBS and the 10yr Treasury yield (and other rates, when relevant) here. The f...
Thu, Feb 27 2020, 8:57 AM
I was telling my cat Myrtle that U.S. lenders are continuing to bask in the glow of a great 2019 and a start to 2020 (with March and April now looking...
Wed, Feb 26 2020, 11:12 AM
New home sales had ended 2019 in a much stronger fashion than they had started the year. December sales were at an annual rate of 708,000 (a revision ...
Wed, Feb 26 2020, 10:03 AM
2012 was almost all about the European systemic crisis, although doubts remained about the US economic lift-off as well. All of the above played out ...
Wed, Feb 26 2020, 8:48 AM
Remember the concerns of chaos prior to the UK leaving the European Union? Despite Brexit, the average London house prices increased 2.3% in 2019, the...
Wed, Feb 26 2020, 8:25 AM
There was a new round of interest rate cuts during the week ended February 21, but consumers largely ignored the additional potential for refinancing....
Tue, Feb 25 2020, 4:56 PM
Mortgage rates have been putting on a rather frustrating and exciting show in the month of February. On the one hand, they're at their lowest levels s...
Tue, Feb 25 2020, 12:22 PM
For the purposes of following along with the underlying forces affecting mortgage rates, Freddie Mac MBS essentially never mattered. Fannie had alway...
Tue, Feb 25 2020, 11:04 AM
Both the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price indices and the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA's) House Price Index (HPI) for December provide ...
Tue, Feb 25 2020, 9:43 AM
1.67, 1.50, 1.43, and 1.32% in 10yr Treasury yields... These are the only 4 key levels you need right now. Why are we talking about 10yr yields if t...
Tue, Feb 25 2020, 8:50 AM
People have a choice in financing their home: debt or equity. (Debt, of course, is what supports our industry. Equity, however, has been experimented ...
Mon, Feb 24 2020, 8:24 PM
Yields plummeted overnight and again this morning, giving chase to a massive global stock market sell-off due to rapidly rising coronavirus fears. MB...
Mon, Feb 24 2020, 7:18 PM
Mortgage rates continue to carve out the unlikeliest of victories in 2020 with significant help from coronavirus. The epidemic has taken a year that w...
Mon, Feb 24 2020, 12:20 PM
Builders are finding that acquisition, development, and construction (ADC) loans in the last half of 2019 were both easier to access and less costly. ...
Mon, Feb 24 2020, 10:58 AM
Coronavirus (or nCov for short) made more disconcerting headlines over the weekend and has generally proven itself to be far more capable in that rega...
Mon, Feb 24 2020, 8:52 AM
With the coronavirus driving worldwide markets and politics dominating the headlines, who doesn’t like “easy?” Easy: Krispy Kreme is launching donut d...
Fri, Feb 21 2020, 3:52 PM
Yesterday's mortgage rate commentary noted a fresh move down to the lowest levels in more than 3.5 years . With just a bit more improvement, the same ...
Fri, Feb 21 2020, 11:12 AM
If it's January it must mean fewer home sales. That, at least, has been the recent pattern according to National Association of Realtors (NARs). Exist...
Fri, Feb 21 2020, 9:49 AM
Tighter underwriting and a strong economy seemingly continue to be reflected in mortgage loan performance. In its "first look" at January loan data, B...
Fri, Feb 21 2020, 9:47 AM
The bond market specializes in making bets about future economic realities even as the stock market reflects shorter-term performance of the biggest c...
Fri, Feb 21 2020, 9:32 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said information from its January Builder Application Survey shows applications to finance new home purchases s...
Fri, Feb 21 2020, 8:31 AM
Yesterday’s commentary mentioned that there were “rumors” of Citi re-entering the correspondent channel. I apologize for any confusion. Readers should...
Thu, Feb 20 2020, 4:35 PM
At the start of the overnight session (yesterday night), 10yr yields were up around 1.58%. By 1030am ET, they'd already fallen to 1.525%. Up until t...
Thu, Feb 20 2020, 3:52 PM
Mortgage rates haven't been this low for this long in years--3.5 years to be exact. Brexit was the talk of the town in the middle of 2016 and it resul...
Thu, Feb 20 2020, 10:23 AM
In case you're just joining us, there's a consolidation going on in the bond market. That means yields are trading in a progressively narrower range ...
Thu, Feb 20 2020, 10:20 AM
The slight drop in mortgage rates in January stabilized refinance originations according to the January Origination Insight Report from Ellie Mae. The...
Thu, Feb 20 2020, 8:50 AM
Morgan Stanley buying E-Trade is causing some chatter this morning, and last night’s Democratic debate had plenty of chatter. (Some would use a strong...
Wed, Feb 19 2020, 10:53 AM
Residential construction data was mixed at the kick-off of the new year. Permits increased significantly while both housing starts and completions pul...
Wed, Feb 19 2020, 9:57 AM
Everyone is looking to increase production and cut expenses. MI companies, for example, are re-focusing on their highlighting their value proposition ...
Wed, Feb 19 2020, 9:26 AM
Thinking about the bond market in terms of rates and yields affords certain analytical luxuries. One is the ability to think in "upside down" terms w...
Wed, Feb 19 2020, 8:34 AM
Mortgage loan applications submitted during the week ended February 14 declined for the first time since mid-January. The Mortgage Bankers Association...
Tue, Feb 18 2020, 3:33 PM
Fannie Mae says the U.S. economy appears to be sustaining itself despite both the problems faced by Boeing and the fears about the global impact of th...
Tue, Feb 18 2020, 3:01 PM
Mortgage rates are starting the new week off on a stronger note after concerns over coronavirus impacts moved markets over the weekend. While coronavi...
Tue, Feb 18 2020, 10:40 AM
Builder confidence dipped a notch in February but still remains at elevated levels. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) says its Housing ...
Tue, Feb 18 2020, 9:13 AM
The ability of the bond market to defy the cues seen elsewhere in the financial market has been relatively impressive over the past few weeks. It cou...
