Fri, Aug 14 2020, 5:46 PM
Some mortgage companies have generated buzz by advertising 30yr fixed rates of 1.99%. While it is possible to obtain such a rate, there is definitely ...
Fri, Aug 14 2020, 10:11 AM
Hundreds of thousands of people in the lending industry, their borrowers, and vendors are grappling with the refi price hit announced Wednesday evenin...
Fri, Aug 14 2020, 10:05 AM
Two entities, Black Knight and the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) have been tracking loans in forbearance plans since the start of the pandemic. T...
Fri, Aug 14 2020, 9:57 AM
First thing's first, any conversation about rates in a mortgage market context would be incomplete without considering this week's regulatory drama. ...
Thu, Aug 13 2020, 6:04 PM
At face value, the bonds that underlie the mortgage market didn't sustain too much damage today. If there was nothing else to inspire lender rate chan...
Thu, Aug 13 2020, 5:42 PM
Mortgage Market Rocked by Instant Doubling of Regulatory Fees
Consider this: the average guaranty fee (charg...
Thu, Aug 13 2020, 12:14 PM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is predicting another strong month for new home sales. The association says its Builder Application Survey (BAS...
Thu, Aug 13 2020, 12:14 PM
This began as my normal daily "day ahead" article, but as you can see based on the time of day and the following content, it turned into something els...
Thu, Aug 13 2020, 10:39 AM
Follow the money! The “talking heads” are analyzing the fact that President Donald Trump donated $6,000 to Kamala Harris' 2014 campaign for reelection...
Thu, Aug 13 2020, 8:15 AM
Home prices continued to rise during the second quarter of the year, although at a slower pace than before the advent of the pandemic. The National As...
Wed, Aug 12 2020, 9:04 PM
In what can only be described as a cash grab, Fannie and Freddie's regulator just announced a new tax on refinances. Granted, it's not technically a t...
Wed, Aug 12 2020, 8:59 PM
In what can only be described as a cash grab, Fannie and Freddie's regulator just announced a new tax on refinances. Granted, it's not technically a ...
Wed, Aug 12 2020, 4:56 PM
Mortgage rates jumped yesterday at the fastest pace in more than 2 months. While that isn't necessarily the end of the world when a 30yr fixed can sti...
Wed, Aug 12 2020, 3:33 PM
Bond Market Breakout is Here (The Bad One)
For days--and especially since last Friday--we've been increasing...
Wed, Aug 12 2020, 9:55 AM
There is a ton of uncertainty about rates and the economy in the bigger picture. That uncertainty jives with a broad sideways trend in an all-time lo...
Wed, Aug 12 2020, 9:05 AM
Dating in college is a matter of many things. I mention this because I wondered what colleges were recommending about COVID, and the University of Geo...
Wed, Aug 12 2020, 8:52 AM
Refinancing rebooted again last week, driving overall mortgage applications volume higher after two weeks of dwindling volume. The Mortgage Bankers As...
Tue, Aug 11 2020, 5:10 PM
With most lenders still easily able to quote a 30yr fixed under 3% , mortgage rates are very low in outright terms. But relative to the recent trend a...
Tue, Aug 11 2020, 4:23 PM
Bond Market Breakout is Here (The Bad One)
For days--and especially since last Friday--we've been increasing...
Tue, Aug 11 2020, 11:22 AM
COVID-19 continued to impact mortgage performance in May. CoreLogic said the number of loans in each stage of delinquency, with the exception of those...
Tue, Aug 11 2020, 10:12 AM
For days--and especially since last Friday--we've been increasingly worried that the 2-month bond rally was running out of steam and at risk of a reve...
Tue, Aug 11 2020, 9:40 AM
Me: “I want to travel.” Bank account: “Where? To work?” Think of people in their 20s and 30s. They’ve grown up with 9/11, the Financial Crisis, and no...
Mon, Aug 10 2020, 4:17 PM
New research by dv01, a loan data agent (LDA) providing securitization reporting and analytics on consumer unsecured, mortgage, small business, and st...
Mon, Aug 10 2020, 4:13 PM
Treasuries Looking Nervous, But MBS Outperform
Treasury yields are attempting to move up and over the techni...
Mon, Aug 10 2020, 9:22 AM
August began with bonds pushing several positive boundaries. 10yr yields had just broken a technical floor at .57//58 and 2.0 UMBS were enjoying a su...
Mon, Aug 10 2020, 9:08 AM
“Paranoia is out of control: This morning, while reviewing this commentary, I sneezed in front of my laptop and the anti-virus software started a scan...
Fri, Aug 7 2020, 3:01 PM
More Defensive After Jobs Report, But Not Necessarily Because of it
The jobs report was hard-pressed to live...
Fri, Aug 7 2020, 2:38 PM
Fannie Mae's Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) faltered a bit in July as it tried to recover from its 29.5-point aggregate plunge in March and Apri...
Fri, Aug 7 2020, 9:12 AM
Let me get this straight. It’ll take a year or two for a cure for a virus that can be killed with hand sanitizer, soap, and hot water? COVID is drivin...
Fri, Aug 7 2020, 8:30 AM
There was a significant decline in the number of active COVID-19 related forbearance plans over the past week, but that decrease did not necessarily m...
Fri, Aug 7 2020, 8:29 AM
No other piece of scheduled monthly economic data has a better track record of influencing the bond market than nonfarm payrolls. There are stretches...
Thu, Aug 6 2020, 5:05 PM
There are quite a few more new stories than normal about mortgage rates today. Most of them are wrong. This one is not, and it's pretty easy to see wh...
Thu, Aug 6 2020, 4:49 PM
Bonds Generally Consolidating Ahead of Jobs Report
MBS were higher today, but for the week as a whole, they'...
Thu, Aug 6 2020, 11:43 AM
Foreign buyers cut back their investment in U.S. residential properties over the 12 months that ended in March. It was the second year-over-year decli...
Thu, Aug 6 2020, 10:07 AM
Yesterday's bond market weakness prompted a conversation about the limits of the current rally. It went a little something like this (<----that's a l...
Thu, Aug 6 2020, 9:21 AM
Originators and lenders are having a great summer from income and profitability perspectives. The thick margins are making managers look like champs, ...
Wed, Aug 5 2020, 5:18 PM
Mortgage rates cooled off today, rising for the first time since July 27th for the average lender. Between now and then we've seen a string of what ha...
Wed, Aug 5 2020, 4:07 PM
Is The Rally Meeting Resistance or Just Consolidation?
With modest overnight weakness and a small negative r...
Wed, Aug 5 2020, 9:58 AM
Home prices increased in June at the fastest pace in more than seven years. CoreLogic said its Home Price Index (HPI) rose 1.0 percent from May, the l...
Wed, Aug 5 2020, 9:31 AM
With modest overnight weakness and a small negative reaction to this morning's headlines (ADP and Treasury issuance), bonds may be encountering some m...
Wed, Aug 5 2020, 9:23 AM
Since eating inside a restaurant is problematic, now’s the perfect time to eat better at home, get fit, and stay healthy. Never mind: Who are we tryin...
Wed, Aug 5 2020, 8:20 AM
Mortgage application volume declined during the week ended July 31 even as mortgage interest rates reached another all-time low. The Mortgage Bankers ...
Tue, Aug 4 2020, 4:51 PM
Mortgage rates are on a tear, with the average lender easily hitting new all-time lows today. How low is that? At this point it's safe to say that any...
Tue, Aug 4 2020, 4:11 PM
Bonds Continue Pushing The Record Pace, But MBS Are Lagging
Yesterday we asked what would come next for bond...
Tue, Aug 4 2020, 10:11 AM
Sure, you’re making bank now, but are you planning for next year? Is your company doing anything to “team up”? Many lenders, vendors, and real estate ...
Tue, Aug 4 2020, 9:49 AM
While there's no way to know how the day will wrap up for the MBS market, we know how it's starting out. We also know how 4 of the past 5 days have s...
Mon, Aug 3 2020, 4:31 PM
Construction spending held firm in June, inching down fractionally from the May level and increasing a bit compared to June 2019. The U.S. Census Bure...
Mon, Aug 3 2020, 4:31 PM
Bonds Defend New Territory
Now that bonds have broken through previous resistance levels (.58 in 10yr yields...
Mon, Aug 3 2020, 11:56 AM
In the second quarter of 2020, 11 percent of American adults were planning on purchasing a home over the next 12 months, and of those, almost half wer...
Mon, Aug 3 2020, 11:52 AM
The last report from Freddie Mac put its 30-year fixed rate mortgage (FRM) at 2.99 percent, up 1 basis point from the all-time low. Black Knight, in i...
