Thu, Oct 17 2019, 9:34 AM
Yesterday saw a swath of Brexit headlines spark unavoidable bond market weakness just as a weaker reading in the important Retail Sales report suggest...
Thu, Oct 17 2019, 8:57 AM
52% of Agency biz (e.g., Freddie and Fannie) is first-time home buyers. Over at HUD, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), first-time h...
Thu, Oct 17 2019, 8:03 AM
The 30-year note rate on closed mortgages fell to 3.93 percent in September, down from 4.07 percent in August, and along with the decline, the ninth i...
Wed, Oct 16 2019, 6:31 PM
There was a bit of a giveaway in this morning's commentary, titled "Brexit Headlines vs Retail Sales." Indeed, it's "Brexit headlines" that answer th...
Wed, Oct 16 2019, 6:01 PM
Mortgage rates improved modestly today, depending on the lender. Some lenders moved rates higher yesterday due to deterioration in the bond market. Ot...
Wed, Oct 16 2019, 10:30 AM
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), which has held in the mid-to-upper 60 range since May, finall...
Wed, Oct 16 2019, 10:01 AM
While a lot of attention is now focused on Millennials, the country is still aging. A new report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies loo...
Wed, Oct 16 2019, 8:54 AM
Sen. Patrick Moynihan once said, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts.” In a question guaranteed to generate opinions,...
Wed, Oct 16 2019, 8:45 AM
Yesterday saw bonds undo a decent amount of overnight progress to end at the highest yields in nearly a month. 10yr Treasuries broke above the 1.75% ...
Wed, Oct 16 2019, 8:10 AM
Mortgage application volume eked out a slight gain during the week ended October 11 as interest rates became mixed . Purchasing weakened while the vol...
Tue, Oct 15 2019, 4:59 PM
There were two key parts to today's market movement. The first was the general push back against Friday's bond market weakness courtesy of less upbea...
Tue, Oct 15 2019, 4:32 PM
Mortgage rates ended higher for the 4th straight business day on Tuesday, but that wasn't necessarily destined to be the case this morning. After last...
Tue, Oct 15 2019, 10:05 AM
Last week brought a bit of a bumpy ride for bond markets with trade-related news accounting for most of the drama. Things were more uneventful on the...
Tue, Oct 15 2019, 8:52 AM
Scholars disagree on how much sleep we need, what time is the best time to wake up, and what time to go to work. But then again, scholars disagree on ...
Tue, Oct 15 2019, 8:06 AM
The typical first-time homebuyer may not be who you think he or she is. A new report from Zillow says that rather than the young shopper eager to beco...
Mon, Oct 14 2019, 2:51 PM
While declining interest rates are generally viewed as good news for consumers, they aren't without their negatives. Realtor.com's September housing t...
Fri, Oct 11 2019, 6:11 PM
With the exception of the wee hours yesterday morning, the past 2 days have been all about the trade deal. Markets knew Trump and the Chinese vice pr...
Fri, Oct 11 2019, 5:27 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher from Wednesday through the end of the week. Thursday and Friday were especially abrupt as financial markets hurried to get...
Fri, Oct 11 2019, 9:00 AM
Yesterday brought an abrupt confirmation of a bounce in bonds. For 10yr Treasury yields, the scene of the bounce was 1.51% earlier in the week. Mult...
Fri, Oct 11 2019, 8:31 AM
While home prices have surged back from their housing crisis lows, a report from the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) says homes purchased as v...
Fri, Oct 11 2019, 8:22 AM
Fun with HMDA! Compliance folks everywhere know that yesterday the CFPB (“educate through education rather than enforcement”) issued a final rule amen...
Thu, Oct 10 2019, 6:09 PM
Mortgage rates were sharply higher today as the underlying bond market faced heavy selling pressure for a variety of reasons. When investors are more ...
Thu, Oct 10 2019, 6:09 PM
Heading into this week, we looked to today as the biggest potential source of volatility owing to the release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and th...
Thu, Oct 10 2019, 3:01 PM
Fannie Mae's Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) has been relatively volatile in recent months, and September was no exception. The Index set back to...
Thu, Oct 10 2019, 9:15 AM
Yesterday brought moderate weakness for the bond market. Justifying it doesn't have to be any more complicated than technical resistance combined wit...
Thu, Oct 10 2019, 9:12 AM
I am in Chicago with the FHLBank Chicago, and, despite the congestion and energy on the streets, the numbers tell us that the local economy is slowing...
Thu, Oct 10 2019, 8:07 AM
New home prices have been rising since 2012 according to CoreLogic's chief economist Frank Nothaft. Prices in the spring of 2019 were up 2 percent com...
Wed, Oct 9 2019, 5:36 PM
The same old pattern played out today where MBS weren't able to keep solid pace with Treasury movement. This is one of those "for better or worse" ki...
Wed, Oct 9 2019, 4:52 PM
Mortgage rates moved modestly higher today, but remain very close to the lowest levels in nearly a month. The underlying bond market (which dictates r...
Wed, Oct 9 2019, 9:28 AM
In the day just passed, bonds initially tried to erase the weakness seen in Monday's session. They were largely successful in the morning hours, but ...
Wed, Oct 9 2019, 8:41 AM
What’s your price hit for a non-owner-occupied loan? Currently, there are 12 million single-family homes being rented in the United States, 35 percent...
Wed, Oct 9 2019, 8:02 AM
Declining interest rates made for another strong week for mortgage applications . The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Ind...
Tue, Oct 8 2019, 5:26 PM
Bonds were stronger to start the domestic session after European bonds led a rally late in the overnight hours. Trading was flat during the domestic ...
Tue, Oct 8 2019, 4:48 PM
Mortgage rates were slightly lower today despite some volatility in the underlying bond market. Rates have generally been moving lower recently, but t...
Tue, Oct 8 2019, 11:13 AM
Ease of access to jumbo mortgage loans drove the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA's) Mortgage Credit Availability Index higher in September. The In...
Tue, Oct 8 2019, 10:36 AM
Wow, maybe they really mean it this time. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has issued a request for proposals from contractors who would deve...
Tue, Oct 8 2019, 8:59 AM
As Treasury yields head toward the lows of September, and Monday’s bond market holiday, let’s start Tuesday with some “trivia.” Did you know that one ...
Tue, Oct 8 2019, 8:32 AM
In the day just passed, the bond market sold off in rather underwhelming fashion. There was no overt source of pessimism and the pace of movement lac...
Tue, Oct 8 2019, 8:15 AM
One western city has decided to tackle the housing affordability crisis head-on. According to NPR, Reno, Nevada has approved a plan to construct 1,000...
Mon, Oct 7 2019, 5:51 PM
Bonds sold off today, but not excessively, and almost not at all if MBS had anything to say about it. Even Treasuries were fairly close to 'unchanged...
Mon, Oct 7 2019, 5:30 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower every week for the past 3 weeks. They covered a respectable amount of ground during that time and ultimately erased most of...
Mon, Oct 7 2019, 10:08 AM
Even with home prices in most areas now well above their pre-Great Recession highs, affordability is not terribly low by historic measures. Black Knig...
Mon, Oct 7 2019, 9:53 AM
Remember those futuristic movies where humans battle machines? Are we really that far off? Here’s one development: artificial intelligence is transfor...
Mon, Oct 7 2019, 9:24 AM
In the week just passed, the bond market rallied strongly. Weaker economic data--especially the two ISM reports--led the way, ensuring the middle 3 d...
Fri, Oct 4 2019, 4:24 PM
The bureau of labor statistics called and mailed about 60k households a little less than a month ago to ask them about their jobs. Only 3.5% of the w...
Fri, Oct 4 2019, 3:26 PM
Mortgage rates fell nicely this week with modest to moderate gains throughout. As I noted yesterday, this runs counter to the week's average mortgage ...
Fri, Oct 4 2019, 8:29 AM
In the day just passed, the bond market rallied impressively following an exceptionally weak ISM services report. That was the 2nd of the two ISM pur...
Thu, Oct 3 2019, 5:25 PM
Today's ISM services data (technically "non-manufacturing") was one of the week's two biggest reports apart from tomorrow's jobs data. Like it's manu...
Thu, Oct 3 2019, 4:46 PM
The time to build a single-family home, from pulling the permit to hauling away the construction debris, increased slightly in 2018 compared to the pr...
Thu, Oct 3 2019, 4:07 PM
Mortgage rates are much lower today compared to last Thursday, or any other day last week. Despite that fact, major news outlets--even those dedicated...
