Wed, Apr 29 2020, 11:06 AM
Everyone knew that the March pending home sales report, the first real measure of the impact of the COVID-19 impact on the residential real estate mar...
Wed, Apr 29 2020, 10:42 AM
This morning, GDP came out at -4.8%, the lowest reading since Q1, 2009. The Fed announcement and press conference will be out this afternoon. But th...
Wed, Apr 29 2020, 10:26 AM
While in captivity it is important to observe the impact of your words during meal times. (Warning: Rated R for language.) Measuring the financial imp...
Wed, Apr 29 2020, 8:16 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported a second strong week for purchase applications last week although refinancing continued to dominate th...
Tue, Apr 28 2020, 6:24 PM
Mortgage rates moved down nicely last week and have either maintained or improved upon those levels this week. The catch is that the good times aren't...
Tue, Apr 28 2020, 6:24 PM
The U.S. Homeownership Rate reached its highest level in nearly seven years in the first quarter of 2020. The Census Bureau said the rate, 65.3 percen...
Tue, Apr 28 2020, 10:04 AM
In what will probably prove to be the last full month of normal home sales for a while , prices of homes accelerated significantly. The S&P CoreLogic ...
Tue, Apr 28 2020, 9:24 AM
Trillions of dollars of stimulus on the Fiscal side and many additional trillions of liquidity on the monetary side of the equation are helping stocks...
Tue, Apr 28 2020, 9:05 AM
Freddie Mac reported this week that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 9.2 percent in March, up from a 5.5 percent gain i...
Tue, Apr 28 2020, 8:55 AM
Folks will sometimes ask me, “It’s a mystery: What kind of preparation do you do before writing your daily commentary?” Although no one has ever filme...
Mon, Apr 27 2020, 11:52 AM
Freddie Mac has laid out options that borrowers who have been granted forbearance on its loans have when it comes to repayment. The company's CEO Davi...
Mon, Apr 27 2020, 9:16 AM
After weeks and weeks spent discussing the impacts on growth surrounding coronavirus, we're only now getting to the very first release of GDP for Q1. ...
Mon, Apr 27 2020, 9:00 AM
My Saturday was going pretty well until I realized it was Sunday. Remember when Zillow was going to take over the mortgage business? Or Amazon was goi...
Fri, Apr 24 2020, 11:34 AM
Given the size and scope of the unemployment/forbearance issue, mortgage investors have been rightfully concerned about the timeliness of payments, an...
Fri, Apr 24 2020, 9:52 AM
March is typically the strongest month of the year for mortgage performance, probably because, according to Black Knight the receipt of tax refunds al...
Fri, Apr 24 2020, 9:19 AM
While in captivity, it is important that your home have the right ambiance, and emanate a welcoming feeling . Real estate agents are good at helping s...
Thu, Apr 23 2020, 6:23 PM
Let's get caveats out of the way upfront. No conversation about mortgage rates would be complete without a reminder that some lenders are very far rem...
Thu, Apr 23 2020, 2:21 PM
Two Urban Institute (UI) researchers pose a pertinent question in a recent paper. Laurie Goodman and Aaron Klein ask, "What is the purpose of the Fed ...
Thu, Apr 23 2020, 11:59 AM
The Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development's report on new home sales in March is the first real time indication of the impact ...
Thu, Apr 23 2020, 10:16 AM
Other than things like a mother’s love, most things have prices, and Fannie and Freddie set theirs for buying loans in forbearance in the form of tack...
Thu, Apr 23 2020, 10:03 AM
I'm making an executive decision. It's time to simplify the discussion even more than we already have when it comes to what's freaking the mortgage...
Wed, Apr 22 2020, 1:24 PM
The initial House draft of the CARES Act included a provision that Fed and Treasury would "extend credit to mortgage servicers that have liquidity nee...
Wed, Apr 22 2020, 10:56 AM
In its early April survey of builders for its Housing Market Index the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) added questions about the impact o...
Wed, Apr 22 2020, 10:52 AM
House price growth continued to accelerate through February on the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA's) Housing Price Index with the U.S. index p...
Wed, Apr 22 2020, 10:01 AM
While in captivity it is important to amuse oneself . And here’s a tender song – the video is only 30 seconds. By the way, the residential industry is...
Wed, Apr 22 2020, 9:36 AM
While there may be a good amount of drama and suspense when it comes to watching coronavirus take its toll on the economy, there's no mystery. This ...
Wed, Apr 22 2020, 8:26 AM
Purchase application volume was up slightly last week, the first gain since early March. Refinancing and overall volume, however, were flat. The Mortg...
Tue, Apr 21 2020, 12:31 PM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has clarified the obligations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's (the GSEs') servicers to investors during the ...
Tue, Apr 21 2020, 11:33 AM
Existing home sales fell back last month from their unexpectedly good performance in February, but still maintained their long record of annual increa...
Tue, Apr 21 2020, 10:17 AM
There are now two entities tracking forbearance statistics on a regular basis, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and Black Knight. The informatio...
Tue, Apr 21 2020, 9:58 AM
Another stimulus package is in the headlines but no one is talking about inflation being a concern with near-term oil futures prices actually below ze...
Tue, Apr 21 2020, 9:22 AM
Given that yields are in an extremely low range with no past precedent, it's easy to glance at the chart, shrug one's shoulders, and conclude "oh well...
Tue, Apr 21 2020, 8:28 AM
Single-family homes now provide half of all rental units in the U.S. CoreLogic's Single Family Rental Index (SFRI) recorded an annual gain of 3.3 perc...
Mon, Apr 20 2020, 5:56 PM
While the industry has come to terms with recent challenges in terms of day-to-day volatility, mortgage rates remain higher than they otherwise would ...
Mon, Apr 20 2020, 9:53 AM
This week is relatively limited in terms of economic data. We will get our first look at big home sales reports for March (both "New" and "Existing")...
Mon, Apr 20 2020, 9:31 AM
As oil prices plummet this morning, while in captivity, uninterrupted sleep is a good thing. I know for a fact that the staff of the Mortgage Bankers ...
Fri, Apr 17 2020, 6:22 PM
Mortgage rates continue showing a willingness to play by at least a few of the same rules that typically apply. Most of the rules went out the window ...
Fri, Apr 17 2020, 3:21 PM
There was a sharp sell-off in the bond market on Friday afternoon--at least relative to the day's relatively calm trading patterns--as the Fed once ag...
Fri, Apr 17 2020, 1:33 PM
It is only a little more than a month into the COVID-19 crisis, but mortgage forbearances are already adding up. Black Knight has begun tracking that ...
Fri, Apr 17 2020, 12:59 PM
Fannie Mae's April Economic Developments summary is, like Freddie Mac's, relatively optimistic only because they see the impact of the pandemic as bei...
Fri, Apr 17 2020, 9:46 AM
If I accidentally jinxed it, the damage was already done in yesterday's MBS Huddle video, so we might as well talk about it. "Talk about what," you m...
Fri, Apr 17 2020, 9:28 AM
Declining interest rates in March pushed the refinance share of closed loans higher again according to information in Ellie Mae's March Origination In...
Fri, Apr 17 2020, 9:10 AM
While in captivity, watching the time, and waiting for release , can seem like forever. We’re always waiting for something, whether it is the CFPB rol...
Thu, Apr 16 2020, 1:44 PM
Is it possible that home buyers are adjusting more quickly to this brave new virus-driven world than was hoped? Will Americans now do the whole home p...
Thu, Apr 16 2020, 10:41 AM
While the March residential construction report from the U.S Census Bureau is grim, one can find a small glimmer of optimism in the fact that, while h...
Thu, Apr 16 2020, 10:25 AM
Coronavirus has made for some of the biggest market movement and volatility in the history of financial markets. It's also resulted in a wide range o...
Thu, Apr 16 2020, 9:16 AM
Unlike 2008, when, arguably, the lenders, banks, and investment banks, via lending & underwriting policies and lax securitization procedures, were the...
Wed, Apr 15 2020, 5:16 PM
Mortgage rates had a reasonably calm and logical day--not something we've been able to say very often recently. It was calm in the sense that today's ...
Wed, Apr 15 2020, 1:15 PM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) have made arrangements to share information during the C...
Wed, Apr 15 2020, 10:42 AM
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said its Housing Market Index (HMI), which it sponsors jointly with Wells Fargo, suffered the largest...
