Tue, Dec 1 2020, 10:08 AM
In equity news, despite some predictions to the contrary , the market had its best month since 1987. This, in the face of renewed layoffs and economic...
Tue, Dec 1 2020, 9:34 AM
Remember the end of July? We were worried that an entire month of gains in bonds could give way to a momentum shift in August. It did. September br...
Mon, Nov 30 2020, 4:43 PM
Although many mortgage lenders were technically open for business last Friday, it's a well-known unofficial holiday. Mortgage rate movement requires b...
Mon, Nov 30 2020, 4:19 PM
Uneventful Month-End Day For Bonds, But MBS Outperform
Final trial results for Moderna's vaccine (it's still...
Mon, Nov 30 2020, 11:22 AM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has released the new conforming loan limits which will be in place next year for mortgages acquired by the G...
Mon, Nov 30 2020, 11:12 AM
While this COVID-19 positive year has certainly been an exception, spring is usually considered the optimum time , on both sides of the transaction, t...
Mon, Nov 30 2020, 10:44 AM
Pending home sales, which ended a four-month streak of gains in September with a 2.2 percent decline, slipped further in October. The National Associa...
Mon, Nov 30 2020, 10:08 AM
Thanksgiving week can't ever be fully trusted to provide an accurate glimpse of market momentum. In this year's case, it didn't really say much anywa...
Mon, Nov 30 2020, 9:51 AM
Thank you to Tracy C. sent, “An unemployed court jester is nobody’s fool.” There are millions of unemployed U.S. citizens, and the CFPB, HUD, and othe...
Fri, Nov 27 2020, 9:21 AM
For the US bond market, the day after Thanksgiving is frequently a reflection of the EU bond market. Strength in EU bonds translated to 10yr yields im...
Fri, Nov 27 2020, 9:17 AM
Despite a second consecutive modest weekly increase , the number of loans in forbearance continue to trend well below those at the peak of the COVID-1...
Fri, Nov 27 2020, 9:17 AM
Left over pumpkin pie for breakfast today? Have you begun your company’s Holiday Cookbook yet? (Help corporate culture by sending an email, ad a recip...
Wed, Nov 25 2020, 3:44 PM
Fed Minutes Hurt MBS, But Not Quite As Badly As It Seemed
Today's Fed Minutes offered a more detailed accoun...
Wed, Nov 25 2020, 11:47 AM
Freddie Mac reported this week that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 25.7 percent in October compared to a 17.5 percent...
Wed, Nov 25 2020, 11:25 AM
Sales of newly constructed single-family homes slipped slightly in October; the second month sales have declined. The U.S. Census Bureau and Departmen...
Wed, Nov 25 2020, 10:12 AM
Here it is! The trading community's ONE guaranteed chance of the year for a 4.5-day weekend. Even though Wednesday is never officially designated as...
Wed, Nov 25 2020, 9:36 AM
Second only to the excitement of the new phone book coming, the new conforming loan limit is $548,250 for 2021 , up from $510,400 in 2020, and some in...
Wed, Nov 25 2020, 9:21 AM
Refinancing increased its already overwhelming dominance of the mortgage market during the week ended November 20. The Mortgage Bankers Association (M...
Tue, Nov 24 2020, 4:44 PM
Modest Weakness Persists as Markets Rotate Back Toward Risk
Whether we want to pin the blame on Trump's will...
Tue, Nov 24 2020, 4:42 PM
If you follow the MBS Commentary channel on this site, you will have already seen most of the following, but it's relevant for consumers as well. As f...
Tue, Nov 24 2020, 1:30 PM
If you'd like to read the official FHFA press release, here you go, but here's the skinny on the new conforming loan limit of $548,250 for 2021, up fr...
Tue, Nov 24 2020, 11:14 AM
Annual price increases in September were quite literally off the charts . Both the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Index and the Housing Market In...
Tue, Nov 24 2020, 10:59 AM
Remember when you drove to work every day? For non-mortgage kicks, here’s a site where you can take a virtual drive through dozens of cities around th...
Tue, Nov 24 2020, 10:02 AM
With very little by way of significant data or events as far as financial markets are concerned, today's most interesting revelation will be FHFA's an...
Mon, Nov 23 2020, 5:01 PM
Everything is relative when it comes to following day-to-day movements in mortgage rates . Yes, they're technically higher than they were on Friday af...
Mon, Nov 23 2020, 4:34 PM
Bond Market Weakness Introduce Risk of In-Range Bounce
Bonds were weaker overnight following European econom...
Mon, Nov 23 2020, 1:39 PM
A recent survey by Lending Tree found that nearly half of Americans are thinking about moving in the not-to-distant future and it appears that the COV...
Mon, Nov 23 2020, 10:18 AM
Any time there's at least a moderate amount of movement in the overnight session, a consensus typically emerges as to the key driver of said movement....
Mon, Nov 23 2020, 10:07 AM
Black Knight, in its "first look" at the month's loan data, says that mortgage delinquencies improved for the fifth consecutive month in October. The ...
Mon, Nov 23 2020, 10:02 AM
Sunday morning I was trying to explain to my cat Myrtle how the total cost of rescuing a stranded Matt Damon in all of his films (think Saving Private...
Fri, Nov 20 2020, 3:43 PM
Bonds Are Boring Today, So Let's Talk About 1.5 UMBS
Treasuries did little to react to a smattering of poten...
Fri, Nov 20 2020, 12:07 PM
The forbearance plan rolls expanded slightly over the past week, reversing two weeks of falling numbers. Black Knight said the total of loans in appro...
Fri, Nov 20 2020, 11:18 AM
There are no significant events on the economic calendar today, and it is the last full trading day of the last full trading week before the winter ho...
Fri, Nov 20 2020, 10:10 AM
Many years ago I was hanging out with George Clooney and made the mistake of telling him, “Look, you’ll never amount to much as an actor. You’d be muc...
Thu, Nov 19 2020, 5:27 PM
Ellie Mae said the interest rate across all closed loans dropped below 3 percent for the first time in the nine years the company has been tracking th...
Thu, Nov 19 2020, 5:24 PM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has reached another milestone as it tries to resolve the 12-year conservatorship of the GSEs. On Wednesday i...
Thu, Nov 19 2020, 4:40 PM
August 4th, 2020 was the best day ever for mortgage rates . That's when we hit the lowest all-time lows we've ever seen, and none of the most prevalen...
Thu, Nov 19 2020, 4:24 PM
Tame Trading Day Leaves Outlook Intact
The bond market has been in a bullish consolidation pattern since las...
Thu, Nov 19 2020, 11:10 AM
The hot home sales market continued unabated in October. The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) reports that existing home sales grew for the fif...
Thu, Nov 19 2020, 9:24 AM
The bond market has entered a period of consolidation after the recent run up toward 1.0% in 10yr yields. Whether we're looking at the market action ...
Thu, Nov 19 2020, 9:01 AM
“Life is like a helicopter. I don’t know how to operate a helicopter.” Remember how exciting it was when the technology of spellcheck came along? (Peo...
Wed, Nov 18 2020, 5:22 PM
Mortgage rates were little-changed yesterday--a fact that was ultimately at odds with underlying market movement by the end of the day. What does that...
Wed, Nov 18 2020, 4:57 PM
Yields Give Up Early Lead But Remain Near 2-Week Lows
Today ended up being about as big of a roller coaster ...
Wed, Nov 18 2020, 3:18 PM
Freddie Mac has published research examining the characteristics of borrowers who took advantage of the availability of forbearance plans in the early...
Wed, Nov 18 2020, 3:16 PM
Residential construction data for October was mixed. The U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development reported that the rate of ...
Wed, Nov 18 2020, 10:33 AM
Bonds are making a case for a bigger picture bounce with 10yr yields turning a corner just before hitting the epic psychological barrier of 1.0%. Mor...
Wed, Nov 18 2020, 9:13 AM
If you had 20 million close friends, and each one owed $500k on their house, the total would be $10 trillion of mortgage debt. Coincidentally, that is...
Wed, Nov 18 2020, 9:06 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA's) November 2020 economic forecast ups the ante from its rosy October version. Its revisions are due to the st...
Wed, Nov 18 2020, 9:03 AM
Despite a healthy upward bump in purchase applications, overall mortgage volume declined last week. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Ma...
Tue, Nov 17 2020, 4:20 PM
Mortgage rates were little-changed today, with the average lender only microscopically better than yesterday. That means few loan seekers will notice ...
