Fri, Mar 13 2020, 10:22 AM
With the caveat that its Lender Sentiment Survey was conducted in February when the world was a very different place , Fannie Mae says mortgage lender...
Fri, Mar 13 2020, 9:54 AM
Homeowner equity jumped again in the fourth quarter of last year. CoreLogic's report said it found that, among homeowners with mortgages, about 63 per...
Fri, Mar 13 2020, 9:49 AM
Home sellers and potential buyers appear to be having a variety of reactions to the turmoil surrounding the COVID-19 virus with some even viewing it a...
Fri, Mar 13 2020, 8:44 AM
Here’s an economic tidbit for you. The Port of Los Angeles is reporting a 22.9% decrease in cargo volumes for February compared to 2019, with expectat...
Thu, Mar 12 2020, 9:16 PM
In all my years of following mortgage rates I haven't seen anything quite like the current environment. 2008 came fairly close, but the vibe was decid...
Thu, Mar 12 2020, 10:18 AM
Another day, another false start confirmed for the stock market. More specifically, the modest bounce in stocks that was intact on Tuesday afternoon ...
Thu, Mar 12 2020, 9:07 AM
Here’s a sign of the times. “Rob, I would think many lenders are for sale; they just don't know it yet. EPOs, servicing write-downs, renegotiations, m...
Wed, Mar 11 2020, 4:46 PM
Mortgage rates continued a relentless surge higher today. The move began in earnest yesterday for two key reasons: bond market panic and mortgage mark...
Wed, Mar 11 2020, 12:46 PM
Just before 11am, we saw a move in MBS like few we've experienced since the financial crisis. WELL before the correlated move in Treasuries, MBS pric...
Wed, Mar 11 2020, 9:32 AM
Yesterday brought a fairly significant sell-off to the bond market and a slightly less significant rally to the stock market. Granted, the 4% improve...
Wed, Mar 11 2020, 9:13 AM
Mortgage credit availability declined last month, and the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) says it might be the result of too much of a good thing. ...
Wed, Mar 11 2020, 8:58 AM
First, a note of clarification. Yesterday’s commentary mentioned that there was talk of “warehouse banks temporarily suspending funding refi biz.” I r...
Wed, Mar 11 2020, 8:50 AM
Unless you were involved in the housing industry or suffered the loss of your home, you probably didn't notice or have by now forgotten one of the mos...
Wed, Mar 11 2020, 8:41 AM
Following a full committee hearing on Tuesday morning that featured Charles W. Scharf, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President of Wells Fargo & Co...
Wed, Mar 11 2020, 8:19 AM
There was a nearly incomprehensible surge in mortgage applications during the week ended March 6 as mortgage rates hit near record lows. According to ...
Tue, Mar 10 2020, 5:47 PM
Mortgage rates have exploded higher over the past day and a half as the bond market sends threatening signals about a big picture bounce off the recen...
Tue, Mar 10 2020, 9:30 AM
If you're looking at the world through the lens of an epidemiologist, CDC employee, airline CEO, the stock market, the economy, or person over 65 livi...
Tue, Mar 10 2020, 8:55 AM
There sure is a lot going on out there! There is talk of warehouse banks temporarily suspending funding refi biz, lenders charging lock fees, lenders ...
Tue, Mar 10 2020, 8:46 AM
Only one of the six components of Fannie Mae's Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) posted a net gain in February, but the increase in the numbers of ...
Mon, Mar 9 2020, 5:02 PM
Mortgage rates would kindly like to reserve the right not to make sense to you, or anyone else these days. They haven't been pulled in so many directi...
Mon, Mar 9 2020, 11:43 AM
Overnight market panic made for some truly spectacular movement in the bond market with the 10yr Treasury yield down more than 40 bps at one point to ...
Mon, Mar 9 2020, 9:04 AM
As everyone grapples with changing the clock in their car… The world’s shortest horror movie? At 14 seconds, here you go . (Thanks to Kevin K. for tha...
Fri, Mar 6 2020, 7:28 PM
Mortgage rates remain at or near all time lows , but they haven't moved much since hitting them earlier this week--at least on average. In fact, the a...
Fri, Mar 6 2020, 10:58 AM
At the moment I'm typing this, 10yr Treasury yields are 40 basis points lower than they were at the end of last week. This hasn't happened since the ...
Fri, Mar 6 2020, 10:28 AM
The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said its latest study on generational trends in homeownership has found that some homebuying characteristi...
Fri, Mar 6 2020, 9:16 AM
Yesterday, as I was working on my commentary, I looked down. There I was, wearing my WAMU sweatshirt over my Lehman Brother t-shirt, sipping cocoa out...
Thu, Mar 5 2020, 8:57 AM
“Spring Forward” really needs to be a Friday at 4PM thing. At this point most lenders would like another hour instead since most have their hands full...
Thu, Mar 5 2020, 8:00 AM
A bit of a diversion from the typical "Day Ahead" this morning as I came across an interesting assertion while talking about mortgage rates with some ...
Wed, Mar 4 2020, 7:08 PM
Gigantic bond rallies resulting in all-time rate lows have some side effects. One of them is that we subsequently find ourselves wondering if each re...
Wed, Mar 4 2020, 5:21 PM
Mortgage rates have progressively hit newer and lower all time lows every day this week, but there's one massive catch. Rates and fees have been extra...
Wed, Mar 4 2020, 3:37 PM
I was surprised to open up shop this morning and find yields and MBS right about where we left them yesterday afternoon. I was also surprised yesterd...
Wed, Mar 4 2020, 8:52 AM
March 4th: the only day that’s also a command. Lenders across the nation will be seeing plenty of “commands” in their in-boxes asking them for money i...
Wed, Mar 4 2020, 8:33 AM
Interest rates fell along with the stock market last week as fears about the economic impact of COVID-19 sent investors fleeing to the safety of U.S. ...
Tue, Mar 3 2020, 5:03 PM
This is mostly a reprint of a piece I wrote earlier today for the MBS Commentary channel. If you read that one, you've basically already seen what fol...
Tue, Mar 3 2020, 12:42 PM
The Fed announced an emergency rate cut of 50bps today (0.50%). Great! So your mortgage rate could be 0.5% lower, right?
WRONG!
And to be cl...
Tue, Mar 3 2020, 11:01 AM
Home prices nationwide accelerated on an annual basis by 4.0 percent in January according to CoreLogic's Home Price Index (HPI). Annual appreciation h...
Tue, Mar 3 2020, 8:56 AM
Overhead on the phone line. “Uh, hello Morgan Stanley? Remember that $20 million MBS we sold you last month? Can we just forget that ever happened? Or...
Tue, Mar 3 2020, 8:22 AM
Privately funded construction gained 1.5 percent month-over-month, from a seasonally adjusted $1.008 trillion in December to $1.023 trillion in Januar...
Mon, Mar 2 2020, 5:15 PM
There is always that one stomach-churning day that arrives in the midst of an epic bond rally that makes you question everything. Well, perhaps we do...
Mon, Mar 2 2020, 11:34 AM
With Freddie Mac's average rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (FRM) hitting 3.45 percent late last week. Black Knight estimates, in its current Mor...
Mon, Mar 2 2020, 9:58 AM
I'm not an infectious disease specialist. I haven't been staying up all night reading all available literature on coronavirus (CV). But best I can t...
Mon, Mar 2 2020, 9:24 AM
Mortgage rates officially hit all-time lows this morning. Even so, it continues to be the case that Treasury yields (often referred to as the basis fo...
Mon, Mar 2 2020, 8:51 AM
Huh? You don’t know what a “Gig Line” is? Someone’s buttons, belt buckle and zipper should all line up in the Gig Line. (See? And you say you never le...
Mon, Mar 2 2020, 8:39 AM
Some time ago, Freddie Mac's Economic and Housing Research Group raised an alarm over a housing shortage , calling it a crisis and estimating that the...
Fri, Feb 28 2020, 12:09 PM
Freddie Mac reported this week that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 4.3 percent in January , a substantial change from...
Fri, Feb 28 2020, 11:40 AM
This post will focus mostly on the charts, which many of you have requested, as I need to turn my focus toward a few other things (especially when it ...
Fri, Feb 28 2020, 11:37 AM
A recent post on the Urban Institute's (UI's) Urban Wire blog focuses on some overlooked data on FHA's Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program....
Fri, Feb 28 2020, 9:48 AM
We’re almost at the end of February already. Mortgage bankers are funding loans, throwing axes, working overtime, learning about skydiving, all kinds ...
Thu, Feb 27 2020, 6:30 PM
10yr yields were as low as 1.24% and ended the day at 1.27% after a decent amount of volatility. MBS gained almost a quarter point, but mortgage lend...
Thu, Feb 27 2020, 5:26 PM
Mortgage rates hit the lowest levels in 8 years either today or yesterday, depending on the lender, just narrowly edging out the rates seen in early J...
