Fri, Oct 9 2020, 8:51 AM
Eddie Van Halen advised, “You only have twelve notes. Do what you want with them.” Twelve is probably the number of undecided voters in the U.S. at th...
Thu, Oct 8 2020, 3:53 PM
After rising at a medium-quick pace to begin the week, the past 3 days have been much calmer by comparison for mortgage rates . Today was the best exa...
Thu, Oct 8 2020, 3:51 PM
Too Soon To Hope For Support?
This week began with a decisive breakout to higher yields in the bond market. ...
Thu, Oct 8 2020, 10:17 AM
This week began with a decisive breakout to higher yields in the bond market. Trump's comments on stimulus have been a key source of volatility althou...
Thu, Oct 8 2020, 9:59 AM
Fannie Mae's Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) continued to rebound from its spring slide , rising for the second straight month. The HPSI, based o...
Thu, Oct 8 2020, 9:01 AM
Illinois, Alaska, and California. This morning’s drama revolves around the next presidential debate (virtual or not) but folklore tells us that it was...
Wed, Oct 7 2020, 4:42 PM
This morning's weekly survey data from the Mortgage Bankers Association showed a nice increase in refinance applications offset by a smaller decrease ...
Wed, Oct 7 2020, 4:39 PM
Dashed Hopes For Bond Bounce After Trump Tweet Reversal
Tuesday was going poorly for bonds until a Trump Twe...
Wed, Oct 7 2020, 9:51 AM
Tuesday was going poorly for bonds until Trump Tweets (instructing his representatives to stop negotiating a stimulus bill) sent markets into a tailsp...
Wed, Oct 7 2020, 9:32 AM
You have a couple workdays under your belt this week, so let’s take a one paragraph break from mortgage stuff. Pumpkin patches are here, and every par...
Wed, Oct 7 2020, 8:41 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said the volume of purchase mortgage applications declined for a second week but refinancing more than recovere...
Tue, Oct 6 2020, 4:20 PM
After falling moderately to start the week, mortgage rates put in a calmer performance on Tuesday. As we discussed yesterday, volatility in the bond m...
Tue, Oct 6 2020, 4:12 PM
Late Day Reversal For Bonds After Trump Stimulus Threat
Today wasn't going too terribly poorly for the bond ...
Tue, Oct 6 2020, 11:25 AM
For too long and, to this day, far too frequently in many circles, market movement is credited to or blamed on oversimplified "cause and effect" rel...
Tue, Oct 6 2020, 11:24 AM
The Urban Institute (UI) estimates that there are about 400,000 homeowners who have become "needlessly delinquent" as a result of the COVID-19 pandemi...
Tue, Oct 6 2020, 10:22 AM
Entry-level priced homes, which continue to be in short supply, are, helping to drive strong price gains. CoreLogic says home prices nationwide, inclu...
Tue, Oct 6 2020, 10:13 AM
Yes, here we are at the 10th month of the year. You know, “Dec” ember. Oh, this is “Oct” ober. There’s a reason. The numerical names of months date ba...
Mon, Oct 5 2020, 4:14 PM
Mortgage rates have been spoiled, relatively, by an extraordinarily calm/narrow trading pattern in the bond market. That's important because the bond ...
Mon, Oct 5 2020, 3:37 PM
Bonds on The Defensive as Range Breakout Looks More Serious
Last week saw yields break higher after being sq...
Mon, Oct 5 2020, 9:26 AM
While overall mortgage delinquencies declined by 0.03 percent from July to August, Black Knight's newest Mortgage Monitor reveals some disquieting inf...
Mon, Oct 5 2020, 9:08 AM
The incredible range trade of Q3, 2020 is well established and, by now, hopefully well understood. The boundaries are clear in terms of 10yr yields w...
Mon, Oct 5 2020, 9:07 AM
Are you sure that the underwriter or processor working from home isn’t working simultaneously, on a different laptop, for another company besides your...
Fri, Oct 2 2020, 4:31 PM
MBS Outperformance is Actually Helping Rates
Overnight news of Trump's covid diagnosis caused some volatilit...
Fri, Oct 2 2020, 11:31 AM
The TRID Rule has been in effect for exactly 5 years (October 3, 2015) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has published an assessment...
Fri, Oct 2 2020, 10:50 AM
By now, most everyone has heard that the president was diagnosed with covid overnight. At face value, this seems like it should be very big news for...
Fri, Oct 2 2020, 9:40 AM
The number of active COVID-19 related forbearance plans grew over the past week according to Black Knight's most recent survey on the subject. The num...
Fri, Oct 2 2020, 8:57 AM
We’re finally in October, which means one thing is certain: that all the cobwebs and dust in my house just became Halloween decorations. Markets don’t...
Thu, Oct 1 2020, 5:28 PM
Mortgage rates were mixed today, depending on the lender. The underlying bond market (which dictates day to day changes in rates) has been more volati...
Thu, Oct 1 2020, 3:52 PM
Bonds Fight To Remain in Ultra-Narrow Range
Yesterday presented a short-term, small scale threat to the bond...
Thu, Oct 1 2020, 11:22 AM
Construction spending expanded again , with residential construction among the healthier sectors. The U.S. Census Bureau put total August public and p...
Thu, Oct 1 2020, 10:58 AM
Fourth quarter already!? Was the third quarter of 2020 the best quarter ever to be in residential lending? Will the fourth quarter beat it? While much...
Thu, Oct 1 2020, 9:24 AM
Before we talk about anything remotely negative for the bond market, let's lay out some context. The technical ceiling in 10yr yields that we'll be e...
Wed, Sep 30 2020, 4:38 PM
Mortgage rates don't just magically appear . Lenders don't choose them arbitrarily. To sustain the pace and scope of the mortgage market in the US (an...
Wed, Sep 30 2020, 4:35 PM
Bonds Finally Make a Move. How Serious Is It?
After more than 2 months of a narrow sideways range and more t...
Wed, Sep 30 2020, 10:04 AM
Contracts for existing home purchases rose for the fourth straight month in August and more than doubled the increase expected by most analysts. The N...
Wed, Sep 30 2020, 9:58 AM
Welcome to the start of Fat Bear Week in Alaska. (There’s even a Park Service bracket with the favorites... expect upsets!) It’s probably easier to fo...
Wed, Sep 30 2020, 9:45 AM
There has been an uncanny amount of sideways momentum in the bond market for months. The range has grown even narrower over the past 3 weeks with ...
Wed, Sep 30 2020, 8:34 AM
Mortgage application volume has fallen into an up and down pattern over the last few weeks and last week went to the negative side. The Mortgage Banke...
Tue, Sep 29 2020, 4:00 PM
Treasury Consolidation Runs Out of Room, But MBS Keep Gaining
MBS continue to outperform due to favorable s...
Tue, Sep 29 2020, 3:59 PM
The average mortgage lender continues to offer top tier conventional 30yr fixed rates in the "high 2% to low 3%" neighborhood. Exactly where any given...
Tue, Sep 29 2020, 11:35 AM
The growth of home prices nationally continued to accelerate in July according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index. T...
Tue, Sep 29 2020, 9:37 AM
The absence of volatility in the bond market cannot be overemphasized at the moment, or during most any moment since mid August. Rather than drift to...
Tue, Sep 29 2020, 8:56 AM
Here's a brief video refresher of our tax code if anyone needs it. If eight months ago someone had told you to pick a country where there is a mudslin...
Mon, Sep 28 2020, 3:49 PM
Jobs Week. Now Can We Break The Range?
The end of the week brings the first Friday of the month (of October!...
Mon, Sep 28 2020, 11:56 AM
Non-conventional lending enjoyed a substantial increase in its share of the market for financing new home purchases in 2019. The National Association ...
Mon, Sep 28 2020, 9:33 AM
The end of the week brings the first Friday of the month (of October!) and thus the big jobs report--the economic data that has ruled all others thr...
Mon, Sep 28 2020, 8:54 AM
Thank you to those who wrote commenting about the Yelp study showing that 164,000 businesses across our nation have closed since March . “Bouncing bac...
Fri, Sep 25 2020, 3:50 PM
Mortgage Rate Update Considering this week's generally positive drift in rates, we shouldn't expect lenders to get less busy any time soon. In recent ...
Fri, Sep 25 2020, 3:50 PM
Treasuries, MBS Back on Same Page After 2 Weeks On Different Paths
MBS prices were generally losing ground, ...
Fri, Sep 25 2020, 10:55 AM
Black Knight said its weekly forbearance survey found the number of mortgages in active forbearance decreasing at an accelerated rate. Those mortgages...
