Mon, Mar 6 2023, 9:11 AM
Some things are nearly timeless, like this annual list of “10 Things to Do,” most of which can be applied any year. Here in Las Vegas, the time of sun...
Fri, Mar 3 2023, 4:43 PM
It's not a decisive victory, but rather, a nice way to end a week that had previously seen rates pushed over 7% for the first time in months. The bon...
Fri, Mar 3 2023, 4:36 PM
Bonds Start Strong and Finish Stronger Despite Decent Data
Today's trading action flew in the face of the pr...
Fri, Mar 3 2023, 1:43 PM
Bonds rallied nicely in the overnight session and extended the gains in the first few hours of domestic trading. The ISM Services data came in just a...
Fri, Mar 3 2023, 9:53 AM
I won’t sugar coat this. Here’s some rough news for lenders and LOs: With plenty of quant jocks to slice and dice numbers, Goldman Sachs tells us that...
Thu, Mar 2 2023, 3:26 PM
5 Minutes of Selling, Then Sideways All Day
Bonds were moderately weaker overnight with EU inflation data le...
Thu, Mar 2 2023, 3:14 PM
Mortgage rates have been hit hard on two fronts over the past month. The first front is the obvious one: the bond market has moved in a way that forc...
Thu, Mar 2 2023, 12:14 PM
Rates are surging higher yet again. It wasn't necessarily destined to be the case. In fact, rates could just as easily be moving lower. the problem...
Thu, Mar 2 2023, 9:34 AM
Hey, why wouldn’t you want to join the Mortgage Action Alliance? It doesn’t cost you a penny, and there’s strength in numbers. Signing up takes about ...
Wed, Mar 1 2023, 5:09 PM
If you want to see higher 30yr fixed mortgage rates, you'd have to go back to November 9th, 2022 after today. To be fair, that's been true on several...
Wed, Mar 1 2023, 5:04 PM
Unfriendly Breakout Driven by Data
Bond yields had been pushing up against 3.98% (10yr Treasury) for the pas...
Wed, Mar 1 2023, 10:38 AM
I have news for you, and I hope that I’m not bursting anyone’s bubble here. If a meat packer could sell the delicious looking meat that you see in the...
Wed, Mar 1 2023, 10:16 AM
"Resilience" has been the theme of the past several trading days as 10yr yields have held the ceiling at 3.98%. That ceiling is now facing its most l...
Wed, Mar 1 2023, 8:45 AM
The volume of mortgage application activity for both refinancing and purchasing fell again last week. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its ...
Tue, Feb 28 2023, 4:08 PM
At face value, today was a loss for mortgage rates. The average lender is quoting a slightly higher rate for conventional 30yr fixed scenarios compar...
Tue, Feb 28 2023, 3:59 PM
More Signs of Resilience Amid Month-End Buying Spree
It was a generally resilient day for the bond market af...
Tue, Feb 28 2023, 3:38 PM
FHFA and S&P Case Shiller each released their monthly home price indices (HPIs) for December this morning. These are the two most widely followed HPI...
Tue, Feb 28 2023, 9:54 AM
The message from today's overnight trading session is clear: European yields have broken well above their most recent ceiling after hotter inflation d...
Tue, Feb 28 2023, 8:28 AM
“Life was much easier when apple and blackberry were just fruits.” But perhaps not as interesting. Here’s what happens when you put a West Coast MI re...
Mon, Feb 27 2023, 4:31 PM
Mortgage rates began the new week on a modestly positive note. The average lender is now quoting conventional 30yr fixed loans at a slightly lower ra...
Mon, Feb 27 2023, 4:08 PM
Bonds Hold Ground Despite Onslaught of Corporate Issuance
The day began with bonds rallying back into positi...
Mon, Feb 27 2023, 11:29 AM
Many times, we can't categorize a week of bond trading without seeing how the subsequent week begins. With that in mind, last week is increasingly lo...
Mon, Feb 27 2023, 11:27 AM
Not only did pending home sales increase for the second month in a row in January, but the increase was the largest since the June 2020 rebound from t...
Mon, Feb 27 2023, 10:17 AM
Here in Las Vegas (Why did the Dalai Lama go to Las Vegas? Because he loves Tibet) the population is about 650,000 with all manners of housing, subdiv...
Fri, Feb 24 2023, 5:10 PM
Fri, Feb 24 2023, 5:08 PM
Weaker After PCE Data, But it Could Have Been Worse
PCE Inflation data has been relegated to an "occasional ...
Fri, Feb 24 2023, 1:19 PM
New home sales edged a little further out of a lengthy slump in January, topping 600,000 units for the second straight month. The U.S. Census Bureau a...
Fri, Feb 24 2023, 12:31 PM
Both Wednesday and Thursday saw bonds hold their ground and make modest intraday improvements. Both days contributed to the possibility that Tuesday'...
Fri, Feb 24 2023, 10:32 AM
As attendees from the MBA’s servicing conference headed home this week, they may have learned that some airport lounges are cutting back on free guest...
Thu, Feb 23 2023, 4:01 PM
We keep pretty timely track of mortgage rates around here--timely enough to account for several changes on any given day. As such, we mean it when we...
Thu, Feb 23 2023, 3:52 PM
Ceiling Signs or Is It a Trap?
Bonds began the day in weaker territory with extra selling signals following ...
Thu, Feb 23 2023, 12:41 PM
At some point during the current selling spree, bonds will find a point of equilibrium where traders feel they've adequately protected themselves from...
Thu, Feb 23 2023, 10:05 AM
Remember, not all math puns are terrible...just sum. Analyzing residential servicing is a combination of math and psychology. If you were an instituti...
Wed, Feb 22 2023, 5:25 PM
The Federal Reserve directly controls the shortest term lending rates. Mortgage rates are dictated by longer-term bonds in the open market, but trade...
Wed, Feb 22 2023, 3:55 PM
This Is How They Get Ya!
Bonds weathered the storm of a Treasury auction and the Fed meeting minutes today w...
Wed, Feb 22 2023, 2:14 PM
Earlier this morning, HUD released details of a long-anticipated plan to reduce the annual MIP (mortgage insurance premiums) that are currently charge...
Wed, Feb 22 2023, 12:05 PM
When you see the phrase "Fed Minutes" don't confuse it for the "Fed Announcement." Both events involve a Fed meeting, but one of these things is not ...
Wed, Feb 22 2023, 10:27 AM
The MBA’s servicing conference is taking place, and it is an important subject, along with the impact of the 30bp cut in MIP for FHA borrowers. Owning...
Wed, Feb 22 2023, 8:35 AM
Mortgage application volume took a big hit last week. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Index, a measure of that volume...
Tue, Feb 21 2023, 4:15 PM
On November 9th, 2022, the average lender was quoting 30yr fixed rates well over 7%. On day later, that figure dropped to 6.625%. It was one of the ...
Tue, Feb 21 2023, 4:05 PM
Data Fuels Ongoing Scramble Toward Higher Rates
Almost the entire month of February has been a mad dash from...
Tue, Feb 21 2023, 2:21 PM
Existing home sales data was released this morning by the National Association of Realtors for the month of January. It was fairly close to forecasts...
Tue, Feb 21 2023, 11:49 AM
Heading into the 3 day weekend, we knew there was a risk that Friday's rally was driven by position squaring (i.e. traders buying bonds in order to co...
Tue, Feb 21 2023, 10:24 AM
Not every house is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, single story subdivision home. Appraisers and underwriters aren’t big fans of places that aren’t, due to the l...
Fri, Feb 17 2023, 4:20 PM
Legit Buying Demand or Position Squaring?
"Position squaring" is fancy market jargon that refers to closing ...
Fri, Feb 17 2023, 10:07 AM
Nature is full of trivia. The moon moves about two inches away from the Earth each year. The Earth gets 100 tons heavier every day due to falling spac...
Fri, Feb 17 2023, 9:42 AM
The current landscape is fairly simple. The bond market has been in the midst of a "repricing" event following the jobs report at the beginning of th...
Thu, Feb 16 2023, 3:31 PM
Another Day, Another Sell-Off
Bonds may not have sold off in an overly excessive manner today, but they sold...
Thu, Feb 16 2023, 2:53 PM
First off, I apologize. You're right. How would I know exactly what you've been told about mortgage rates today? I can only draw the same sort of g...
Thu, Feb 16 2023, 2:35 PM
It seems that most of the stories I write on home sales and construction numbers begin with a slightly different iteration of the same core thought: t...
