Mon, Jan 14 2019, 9:55 AM
My cat Myrtle has never flown coach. She doesn’t have the same complaint I have of airline workers who don’t seem to realize that “full” means full. F...
Mon, Jan 14 2019, 8:39 AM
The government shutdown is now the longest ever, and there are a variety of interesting implications. The first is that multiple economic reports wil...
Fri, Jan 11 2019, 7:12 PM
Core CPI came in at 2.2% today. Back in 2016, this was cause for concern, but now bond markets trade like inflation isn't even a remote concern. What...
Fri, Jan 11 2019, 6:11 PM
Mortgage rates improved today, breaking a 3-day streak with effectively no change. This gets us part of the way back down to the long-term lows achiev...
Fri, Jan 11 2019, 1:42 PM
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) contains a requirement that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (C...
Fri, Jan 11 2019, 10:11 AM
Today's Consumer Price Index was one of the week's only " important " pieces of economic data. Or perhaps we should say it was one of the week's only...
Fri, Jan 11 2019, 10:11 AM
The November Mortgage Monitor from Black Knight focused largely on the shifting of the mortgage market toward purchase originations and the unexpected...
Thu, Jan 10 2019, 5:28 PM
It's hard to fault the bond market for any trading over the past several days. The data and the movement in other markets have both suggested bond ma...
Thu, Jan 10 2019, 4:50 PM
Mortgage rates were unchanged again today, despite moderate weakness in underlying bond markets. Bonds are the primary ingredient used in determining ...
Thu, Jan 10 2019, 11:00 AM
Credit availability suffered an unusually large decline in December. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Mortgage Credit Availability Inde...
Thu, Jan 10 2019, 10:15 AM
The massive stock selling in Q3 2018 was clearly a big deal for bonds. As soon as the first wave of selling hit in stocks, bonds engaged what we refe...
Thu, Jan 10 2019, 9:27 AM
Let’s see… How much does it cost you to produce a residential loan? Pizza for the shippers, underwriter bonuses, copy paper, HP-12C batteries – it all...
Wed, Jan 9 2019, 6:55 PM
The notion of "hope" comes up quite a bit in my daily recap pieces--often because something bad is happening and we hope for it to end or because some...
Wed, Jan 9 2019, 6:29 PM
Mortgage rates held steady today, after moving higher for the past 3 days. Underlying market movement was slightly calmer than it has been in recent d...
Wed, Jan 9 2019, 12:08 PM
As home sales have slowed, attention has shifted to the subject of affordability. The combination of rising home prices and higher interest rates is b...
Wed, Jan 9 2019, 10:31 AM
While the report also looks at how the recent dip in interest rates may impact the demand for refinancing, the main theme of the November 2018 Mortgag...
Wed, Jan 9 2019, 9:28 AM
The co-founder and former CEO of Southwest Airlines, Herb Kelleher, died last week. I mention this because I read his obituary and the article noted h...
Wed, Jan 9 2019, 9:26 AM
While there are no significant scheduled events in play this morning, the afternoon hours bring the 10yr Treasury auction and the " minutes " from t...
Wed, Jan 9 2019, 8:16 AM
Even though the week ended January 4 was shortened by the New Year's holiday mortgage application volume rebounded strongly . The Mortgage Bankers Ass...
Wed, Jan 9 2019, 8:10 AM
As the partial government shutdown continues the National Association of Realtors® contacted a sample of its members to see if the real estate market ...
Tue, Jan 8 2019, 4:36 PM
For several weeks heading into the December Fed announcement, we discussed the impressive Nov/Dec bond market rally and the fact that the Fed would li...
Tue, Jan 8 2019, 3:36 PM
Mortgage rates rose moderately for the 3rd day in a row today, bringing them to the highest levels since December 31st for the average lender. In outr...
Tue, Jan 8 2019, 11:10 AM
Some housing market analysts have found recent trends in construction, home sales, and diminishing affordability disquieting and perhaps early warning...
Tue, Jan 8 2019, 9:28 AM
In some nearby parallel dimension, the letter "f" is option in today's title. We'll have to remember this little trick the next time bonds bounce so ...
Tue, Jan 8 2019, 9:13 AM
In HELOC news, “traditional” lenders know that online lender Prosper plans to offer home equity lines of credit this year. The threats to real estate ...
Mon, Jan 7 2019, 5:32 PM
Bonds had a chance to make the big potential correction of early 2019 a 1-day affair. That would refer, of course, to last Friday's bond market wea...
Mon, Jan 7 2019, 5:08 PM
Mortgage rates were higher again today, extending a 2-day move from the lowest levels since early 2018. The size and pace of the late 2018 improvement...
Mon, Jan 7 2019, 10:51 AM
A few more Americans decided it might be a good time to buy a home in November, but boy did they change their minds in December. Fannie Mae said the n...
Mon, Jan 7 2019, 10:00 AM
Let’s start the first 5-day workweek of 2019 off with something entirely non-mortgage related, although “unintended consequences from revenue-based de...
Mon, Jan 7 2019, 9:52 AM
Will rates be able to remain in the comparatively great territory they entered last week, or does Friday's post-NFP sell-off mean we should be fear...
Fri, Jan 4 2019, 5:16 PM
Yesterday's recap headline spoke of bonds being on fire in a good way. Apparently word got out . Several party poopers arrived with buckets of wate...
Fri, Jan 4 2019, 4:42 PM
Mortgage rates hit the lowest levels in nearly a year as of yesterday afternoon. In general, they've had a one track mind for the better part of two m...
Fri, Jan 4 2019, 11:34 AM
Refinancing activity has probably held up better than expected as interest rates have risen. Refinance applications accounted for more than 40 percent...
Fri, Jan 4 2019, 9:19 AM
It's no secret that the bond market has been on a tear for more than a month. 10yr Treasury yields dropped more than 30 basis points (0.30%) in Decem...
Fri, Jan 4 2019, 9:19 AM
Some view the end of one year and the beginning of another as an artificial construct, created by human intervention. Others take careful note of what...
Thu, Jan 3 2019, 5:08 PM
Bonds hit their best levels in nearly a year today, depending on the security in question. MBS are lagging behind Treasuries for reasons discussed in...
Thu, Jan 3 2019, 4:37 PM
Mortgage rates have been plummeting , depending on your definition of the word. To be sure, the past 2 months have no competition in nearly 3 years. T...
Thu, Jan 3 2019, 9:53 AM
Bonds started the new year off on a strong note yesterday, rallying to the best levels since ____. That blank would be filled in with a distinctly di...
Thu, Jan 3 2019, 9:31 AM
According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR, not the NRA), Americans 36 and younger represented the largest share of home buyers (34%) in 2...
Thu, Jan 3 2019, 8:21 AM
Earlier this week we summarized a new White Paper from Freddie Mae detailing the growing importance of single-family properties within the U.S. rental...
Thu, Jan 3 2019, 8:05 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) office was closed during Christmas Week and did not issue its usual summary of mortgage application activity fo...
Wed, Jan 2 2019, 5:55 PM
Monday's half-day brought 2018 to a strongly positive conclusion for bonds. Today's full session picked up where Monday left off and then some . ...
Wed, Jan 2 2019, 4:49 PM
Mortgage rates didn't have much to celebrate in 2018--at least not until the last few months. But those last few months were quite nice! Despite uncer...
Wed, Jan 2 2019, 10:40 AM
Home prices grew by an estimated 0.4 percent in November according to CoreLogic's Home Price Index (HPI) and were 5.1 percent higher than at the end o...
Wed, Jan 2 2019, 8:49 AM
Last week I noted a STRATMOR study that shows, pretty much year in and year out, that traditionally, 82% of residential production comes from 40% of t...
Wed, Jan 2 2019, 8:31 AM
Overnight market movement was kind to the US bond market, keeping some hope alive for a continuation of recent strength. Rather than an epic rebound ...
Mon, Dec 31 2018, 2:30 PM
When one thinks about renters it is usually clusters of three-story garden style apartments, or high-rise elevator buildings that come to mind. But Fr...
Mon, Dec 31 2018, 2:05 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower again today--this time in a slightly more noticeable way. More than anything, this was a reflection of last Friday's market...
Mon, Dec 31 2018, 9:40 AM
This week promises a slow start due to the early close today and full closure tomorrow, but a strong finish due to Friday's NFP and the simple fact ...
Mon, Dec 31 2018, 8:54 AM
How important is it for lock desk personnel to charge the correct fees for rate lock extensions? Very. Lock mistakes were included in Wells Fargo’s la...
