Mon, Nov 4 2019, 8:23 AM
While mortgage performance continues to be the best in many years , with the national delinquency rate down to 3.53 percent and record low foreclosure...
Mon, Nov 4 2019, 8:08 AM
Total expenditures on construction in the U.S. moved slightly higher in September but is lagging behind year-earlier figures. The annual losses are co...
Fri, Nov 1 2019, 5:24 PM
Bonds were stronger overnight, riding a wave of buying demand on the heels of yesterday's weak econ data and US/China trade deal uncertainty. Some ma...
Fri, Nov 1 2019, 4:14 PM
Mortgage rates held steady today after moving sharply lower yesterday. "Sharply," in this context, means that many lenders saw rates move lower by as ...
Fri, Nov 1 2019, 9:41 AM
Bonds rallied big yesterday on a combination of factors. These included a rejection of the Trump administration's claimed timeline for the US/China t...
Fri, Nov 1 2019, 9:02 AM
Welcome to “Bring Your Kid’s Candy to Work” Day, when candy bowls at receptionist’s desks and lunchrooms are brimming with treats worth a gander. What...
Fri, Nov 1 2019, 8:25 AM
Freddie Mac's end-of-the-month forecast for October was exceptionally brief, perhaps in recognition that it has all been said before. The economy is s...
Thu, Oct 31 2019, 5:59 PM
Most of the month of October was rotten for the bond market. Material progress on the trade deal, a leveling-off of economic data deterioration, and ...
Thu, Oct 31 2019, 5:10 PM
Mortgage rates dropped like a rock today . This has absolutely nothing to do with yesterday's Fed rate cut, a little to do with the market reaction to...
Thu, Oct 31 2019, 11:55 AM
Both of the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) posted strong earnings in the third quarter of the year. Freddie Mac announced comprehensive incom...
Thu, Oct 31 2019, 9:06 AM
Halloween already! Who wouldn’t want to live in the scary Tombstone, AZ, Sleepy Hollow, NY, Kill Devil Hills, NC, Yellville, AR, Transylvania County, ...
Thu, Oct 31 2019, 8:35 AM
Chicago PMI isn't always more important that PCE inflation. After all Core PCE is the Fed's favorite big-picture inflation reading (the thing they wa...
Wed, Oct 30 2019, 3:52 PM
First things first: the Fed cut its policy rate today, but that doesn't mean they cut mortgage rates . Why? Because they can't and they don't--especia...
Wed, Oct 30 2019, 2:07 PM
The Census Bureau reports that the homeownership rate, while up fractionally in the third quarter of this year compared to Quarter 2, was essentially ...
Wed, Oct 30 2019, 2:02 PM
Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in July September indicates that the labor market remains strong and that economic...
Wed, Oct 30 2019, 10:08 AM
The bond market had a decent enough day yesterday as it managed to hold steady-to-slightly-stronger versus Monday's ugly closing levels. "Supply" (ak...
Wed, Oct 30 2019, 9:07 AM
Partnerships and acquisitions are flying around like monkeys in the Wizard of Oz. (Okay, that was a reach, but I saw it in the bookstore yesterday so ...
Wed, Oct 30 2019, 8:33 AM
Mortgage originations in 2019 appear to be headed for their best year since 2007 . Make Fratantoni, chief economist and senior vice president of the M...
Wed, Oct 30 2019, 8:11 AM
Mortgage applications managed a tiny increase during the week ended October 25 even as interest rates moved slightly higher. The Mortgage Bankers Asso...
Tue, Oct 29 2019, 5:33 PM
The only way to read anything overly dramatic into today's bond trading would simply be to observe where it falls in the bigger picture. In other wor...
Tue, Oct 29 2019, 4:36 PM
You may have heard that the Federal Reserve is highly likely to cut rates this week. That is true. It's happening tomorrow . It would be a big surpris...
Tue, Oct 29 2019, 10:30 AM
Pending home sales posted a solid increase for the second straight month in September, more than doubling analysts' expectations. The National Associa...
Tue, Oct 29 2019, 9:48 AM
Rapid price gains, long dominated by cities in the West, appear to be shifting to the Southeast, at least those reflected in the S&P CoreLogic Case-Sh...
Tue, Oct 29 2019, 9:28 AM
Yesterday saw the bond market sell off in a fairly frustrating way. Granted, there was some justification for the initial overnight weakness courtesy...
Tue, Oct 29 2019, 8:19 AM
As noted in the commentary very early yesterday, a shade ahead of the actual details, the big news was the HUD/DOJ/False Claims Act announcement. Cutt...
Tue, Oct 29 2019, 8:10 AM
The U.S. Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Monday setting out t...
Mon, Oct 28 2019, 5:32 PM
Mortgage rates increased again today as lenders continued to get caught up with 2 days of bond market weakness. When bonds are weaker, prices are movi...
Mon, Oct 28 2019, 9:52 AM
Last Friday's morning commentary wasn't necessarily fun to read for fans of low rates, but it was important to digest for those that want to be prepar...
Mon, Oct 28 2019, 8:28 AM
The Bank of Russia has reduced its benchmark interest rate to 6.5% from 7%, the sharpest cut in two years, and the EU has granted a Brexit extension t...
Fri, Oct 25 2019, 4:56 PM
Let's face it. It makes sense for the average bond trader to be more indecisive than normal right now. A no-deal Brexit was avoided this week (bad f...
Fri, Oct 25 2019, 3:44 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower for 3 days in a row as of yesterday afternoon. But that trend was likely to reverse based on the timing of yesterday's mark...
Fri, Oct 25 2019, 11:32 AM
Freddie Mac reported this week that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 10.7 percent in September, down from 12.9 percent ...
Fri, Oct 25 2019, 11:17 AM
In about 2 weeks, the big bond rally of 2019 will officially be 1 year old (because it actually began in the 2nd week of November). This has been a u...
Fri, Oct 25 2019, 8:44 AM
There are plenty of well-paid people in the mortgage biz. It is good to keep things in perspective: The U.S. median household income was $63,179 in 20...
Thu, Oct 24 2019, 4:17 PM
At a few points in the past 2 days, it looked as if bonds were finally ready to move back toward lower yields after 2 weeks spent moving fairly quickl...
Thu, Oct 24 2019, 3:43 PM
Mortgage rates dropped at a modest pace for the 3rd straight day on Thursday. This brings them back in line with levels seen at the end of last week. ...
Thu, Oct 24 2019, 12:07 PM
With only one week until Halloween we are reminded that time flies. Dating back 2,000 years to the Celtic festival of Samhain, Halloween is an ancient...
Thu, Oct 24 2019, 11:00 AM
Homeowners continued to reduce and/or retire their mortgage debt at an accelerated clip in September according to Black Knight's "first look" at the m...
Thu, Oct 24 2019, 10:58 AM
New home sales came in at a respectable seasonally adjusted annual rate of 701,000 in September, down only 0.7 percent from the revised rate of 706,00...
Thu, Oct 24 2019, 8:31 AM
Yesterday was fairly uneventful as global markets generally cooled off after 2 big days of Brexit-related volatility at the beginning of the week. Fo...
Wed, Oct 23 2019, 5:04 PM
Mortgage rates moved a bit lower yesterday after hitting the highest levels in more than a month the day before. They kept the positive trend going to...
Wed, Oct 23 2019, 11:19 AM
Fannie Mae asked lenders, as part of its third quarter Mortgage Lender Sentiment Survey about their digital transformation efforts. The company says t...
Wed, Oct 23 2019, 11:08 AM
Home price increases slowed appreciably in August. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) said its House Price Index (HPI) was up 4.6 percent on an...
Wed, Oct 23 2019, 9:38 AM
Yesterday saw bonds respond almost exclusively to Brexit-related headlines (read THIS RECAP for a synopsis of the day's events and Brexit's impact on ...
Wed, Oct 23 2019, 9:08 AM
Last week the Mortgage Bankers Association’s survey showed that retail applications dropped almost 12% last week from the week before. Refis were down...
Wed, Oct 23 2019, 8:18 AM
Mortgage rates increased last week. Mortgage application activity, however, did not. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite ...
Tue, Oct 22 2019, 5:42 PM
First things first: all of the volatility we're about to discuss has been occurring inside a fairly narrow range in the slightly bigger picture. More...
Tue, Oct 22 2019, 4:38 PM
Mortgage rates recovered just a bit today after hitting the highest levels in more than a month yesterday. The inspiration for much of the recent upwa...
Tue, Oct 22 2019, 4:37 PM
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case challenging the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The case "Seila Law ...
Tue, Oct 22 2019, 11:00 AM
Sales of existing homes, which had posted advances in both July and August, fell back in September. The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said s...
