Wed, Jun 24 2020, 9:07 AM
Companies worldwide are grappling with continued travel bans, and how to bring back employees in waves, if at all. Others are re-designing office layo...
Wed, Jun 24 2020, 8:15 AM
The nine-week string of increases in purchase mortgage applications came to an end last week and refinancing volume pulled back as well. Consequently,...
Tue, Jun 23 2020, 4:16 PM
It seems almost melodramatic to refer to any modest increase in mortgage rates these days. If we were to go over each lender's rate sheet with a fine ...
Tue, Jun 23 2020, 4:16 PM
Decent Day For MBS But Broader Trend Remains a Concern
Rates are low. Unless coronavirus wins (or looks like...
Tue, Jun 23 2020, 10:59 AM
After its pandemic-related plunge in April, the rapid recovery of the Housing Market Index, a measure of builder confidence, seems justified by today'...
Tue, Jun 23 2020, 10:21 AM
With its so-called GSE Patch set to expire on January 10, 2021 (unless by some miracle the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) en...
Tue, Jun 23 2020, 10:20 AM
A paper written for the Joint Center on Housing Studies at Harvard University focuses on the causes and effects of mortgage credit tightening in the c...
Tue, Jun 23 2020, 9:15 AM
There are all kinds of things that I don’t, or didn’t, know. For example, the other day I learned that when dogs lap water, they’re actually scooping ...
Tue, Jun 23 2020, 8:42 AM
We've definitely seen Treasuries improve relative to MBS more often than not in the past week or two. The most obvious driving force behind that ph...
Mon, Jun 22 2020, 5:06 PM
Mortgage rates held their ground today, with the average lender in roughly the same shape as they were on Friday. Incidentally, that's great shape! Wh...
Mon, Jun 22 2020, 3:06 PM
Locking vs Floating Remains a Question of Covid vs The Economy
Rates are low. Unless coronavirus wins, rates...
Mon, Jun 22 2020, 11:16 AM
Existing-home sales fell again in May, although only at a little more than half the rate of decline in April. Still, it marked the third month of fall...
Mon, Jun 22 2020, 9:58 AM
Black Knight reports another breathtaking increase in mortgage delinquencies in its "first look" at May loan performance data. The rate, which soared ...
Mon, Jun 22 2020, 9:42 AM
After nearly 100 years, Eskimo Pie ice cream will get a new name . (The name "Eskimo" is commonly used in Alaska to refer to Inuit and Yupik people, a...
Mon, Jun 22 2020, 8:55 AM
The bond market is starting the day fairly flat. Each of the past 4 trading days has seen yields end lower than they began. And over the past two we...
Fri, Jun 19 2020, 4:33 PM
Putting MBS Underperformance in Perspective
Rates are low. Unless coronavirus wins, rates should continue to...
Fri, Jun 19 2020, 4:32 PM
Coronavirus hit markets with unprecedented force in March. Stock prices and bond yields sank. When the outlook grew less dire, markets began moving ba...
Fri, Jun 19 2020, 9:49 AM
The number of homeowners in active forbearance plans fell again this past week. Black Knight estimates there are now 4.6 million people remaining in t...
Fri, Jun 19 2020, 8:55 AM
Lots in the news. Congratulations to the California MBA (and the MBA and lenders everywhere, since nearly 25% of residential loans come from Californi...
Thu, Jun 18 2020, 8:17 PM
Mortgage rates improved modestly today as investors remain cautious amidst rising coronavirus stats in several states. The experience of those states ...
Thu, Jun 18 2020, 3:10 PM
Sideways Victory For Bonds and Rates
We've been tracking both a sideways trend and an uptrend in bond yields...
Thu, Jun 18 2020, 11:28 AM
The dominance of conventional lending continued to grow in May . Ellie Mae's Origination Insight Report says those loans made up 82 percent of origina...
Thu, Jun 18 2020, 10:43 AM
Freddie Mac's Economic and Housing Research Group says say that, heading into summer, the housing market is rebounding from the COVID-19 pandemic's da...
Thu, Jun 18 2020, 9:12 AM
Capital markets folks focus on risk management every day. The public is getting a taste of another kind of risk management when they go to a bar, tatt...
Thu, Jun 18 2020, 8:34 AM
The bond market had been very flat with yields near all time lows since mid-April. If there was any predisposition toward strength or weakness during...
Wed, Jun 17 2020, 5:06 PM
Mortgage rates joined many other sections of financial markets today in doing almost absolutely nothing . Both stocks and bonds were almost perfectly ...
Wed, Jun 17 2020, 4:36 PM
There has apparently been considerable confusion regarding servicer obligations to report to credit agencies regarding loans in forbearance. The origi...
Wed, Jun 17 2020, 4:07 PM
Which Way Do We Go?
Markets continue trying to sort out the prospects for a recovery vs the risk of covid-19...
Wed, Jun 17 2020, 10:49 AM
Residential construction numbers climbed in May after their pandemic-driven collapse in April. The Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urb...
Wed, Jun 17 2020, 8:52 AM
Yesterday afternoon I was doing my quarterly ten minutes of YouTube yoga (“Align those internal organs! “The journey is the reward!”) and my mind wand...
Wed, Jun 17 2020, 8:35 AM
Perspective is always important when considering market movement. Most decent charting software or any responsibly-created custom chart will scale th...
Wed, Jun 17 2020, 8:13 AM
Mortgage Application volumes continued to grow during the week ended June 12 as mortgage rates reached new lows and states allowed more businesses to ...
Tue, Jun 16 2020, 4:21 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher for the 3rd straight business day. That said, last Friday is better described as being a "2nd consecutive day of all-time ...
Tue, Jun 16 2020, 3:58 PM
Economic Hope Squares Off Against Virus Fears (Again)
Markets continue trying to sort out the prospects for ...
Tue, Jun 16 2020, 11:11 AM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released its annual Report to Congress for 2019 on Monday. The report summarizes the FHFA's activities as re...
Tue, Jun 16 2020, 10:45 AM
The COVID-19 outbreak struck a major blow to builder confidence in April. The prospect of widespread shutdowns of businesses and prolonged shelter at ...
Tue, Jun 16 2020, 8:54 AM
What? You aren’t offering a 30-year rate below 3% yet? Better catch up, because that is where the mainstream press is telling borrowers rates are. Of ...
Tue, Jun 16 2020, 8:27 AM
Last week saw stock prices and bond yields fall as markets got back in touch with their recent habit of trading primarily on the coronavirus outlook. ...
Mon, Jun 15 2020, 5:27 PM
Mortgage rates were slightly higher today for the average lender. Additionally, some lenders bumped rates a bit in the middle of the day in response t...
Mon, Jun 15 2020, 3:34 PM
Virus Fears Back in Focus For Markets
Rather than the gradual decline that many had hoped for, we're instead...
Mon, Jun 15 2020, 9:49 AM
The continued high volume of refinancing kept mortgage lenders' outlook for profits relatively high during the second quarter, although it was down sl...
Mon, Jun 15 2020, 9:03 AM
With the increase in COVID cases, plenty are heading back into captivity, and it is important to keep a level head . (What is so hard to understand ab...
Mon, Jun 15 2020, 8:54 AM
The week begins with global financial markets once again defending against coronavirus risks. Case counts were flat in April and most of May. The im...
Fri, Jun 12 2020, 4:55 PM
2 Wild Weeks That Mostly Cancel Each Other Out
What a difference a week makes! Last week, the order of the ...
Fri, Jun 12 2020, 4:54 PM
Mortgage rates plunged well into new all-time lows this week, which is a striking turn of events given the vastly different outlook at the end of last...
Fri, Jun 12 2020, 12:12 PM
Home flipping, defined as buying a home and reselling it (in two arms-length transactions) within a year, accounted for 7.5 percent of all home sales ...
Fri, Jun 12 2020, 11:30 AM
The number of homeowners with mortgages in forbearance has fallen for the second consecutive week. Black Knight reports that, as of June 9, there were...
Fri, Jun 12 2020, 9:38 AM
Yesterday, after 4 straight days of improvements, the bond market easily returned to the trading range that had been intact for 6 weeks (until it was ...
Fri, Jun 12 2020, 9:08 AM
How the heck could anyone value a mortgage company these days? The value is pretty much comprised of its servicing, cash, receivables, and assets (loa...
Thu, Jun 11 2020, 5:48 PM
Mortgage rates plunged well into new all-time lows today. This is a striking turn of events given the vastly different outlook at the end of last week...
