Mon, Oct 29 2018, 4:22 PM
Mortgage rates didn't move today, despite a fair amount of underlying market volatility. Rates are able to weather the sorts of storms you hear about ...
Mon, Oct 29 2018, 1:29 PM
The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) says its 2018 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers confirms that student debt balances are an increasing con...
Mon, Oct 29 2018, 10:04 AM
Core global bond markets--led by German Bunds and US Treasuries--have been trending lower fairly reliably. For European bonds, that rally has occupie...
Mon, Oct 29 2018, 8:59 AM
We have a whole generation of home buyers who have never seen a 5% mortgage rate, and interesting thought. We’re not in the “An ARM is better” territo...
Fri, Oct 26 2018, 5:42 PM
Interest rates that have generally been rising for a any period of time can catch a break for many reasons. Sometimes it's Italian political drama ...
Fri, Oct 26 2018, 2:08 PM
Mortgage rates fell decisively today--at least in the context of the recent range--thanks primarily to heavy losses in the stock market. Stocks are fa...
Fri, Oct 26 2018, 10:31 AM
Freddie Mac reported this week that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 2.3 percent in September. The portfolio balance at...
Fri, Oct 26 2018, 10:29 AM
Well, I'm a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona and such a fine sight to see. What if you want to put down roots there? The town, 3 and a half ho...
Fri, Oct 26 2018, 8:31 AM
Everything continues to be fairly unidimensional for bonds this week with the dimension in question being that of the equities market. In terms of re...
Thu, Oct 25 2018, 5:32 PM
The best way to look at today is as a more sober attempt to hold the lowest yields in more than 3 weeks . The only day that's ended any better for...
Thu, Oct 25 2018, 4:27 PM
Mortgage rates were unchanged yet again , making this the third day in a row at essentially the same levels. Strikingly, underlying market movement wa...
Thu, Oct 25 2018, 3:12 PM
As part of an upgrade to its Desktop Underwriter (DU) that will be issued over the December 8 weekend, Fannie Mae says there will be some adjustments ...
Thu, Oct 25 2018, 10:26 AM
The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) just issued the first positive pending home sales report in months . Pending sales, a leading indicator fo...
Thu, Oct 25 2018, 9:24 AM
The IRS ruled on the tax treatment of business meals? True .) Congressional Bank buying McClean Mortgage? (Rumor.) A loan officer at Umpqua stealing a...
Thu, Oct 25 2018, 9:07 AM
With slightly weaker levels overnight, the rest of the day becomes a fight to maintain the gains seen so far this week. The easiest and most basic ob...
Wed, Oct 24 2018, 4:56 PM
Yesterday was ' neat ' for a while--at least in the morning hours when massive stock losses helped bonds achieve their best levels in weeks. Then sto...
Wed, Oct 24 2018, 4:22 PM
Mortgage rates were roughly unchanged today. That's an appalling reality considering the movement in underlying bond markets. Bonds--specifically, mor...
Wed, Oct 24 2018, 11:06 AM
New home sales managed to pull out a gain last time they were reported. The question was, with an improving inventory but rising interest rates, could...
Wed, Oct 24 2018, 10:26 AM
Mortgage delinquencies surged by 13.2 percent in September, the largest single-month increase since November 2008. But despite the ominous connotation...
Wed, Oct 24 2018, 10:24 AM
Like most measures of monthly home price appreciation, the Federal Housing Finance Agency's House Price Index (HPI) has slowed in recent months but no...
Wed, Oct 24 2018, 9:06 AM
Lenders, investors, and servicers don’t like bankruptcy, and for good reason. Thank you to Brian B. up in New Jersey who sent along this note about ho...
Wed, Oct 24 2018, 8:49 AM
For nearly a week, 10yr Treasury yields had been treating 3.18% as a floor (3.178% was the lowest close over the past 4 days. That arguably changed ...
Wed, Oct 24 2018, 8:47 AM
Mortgage applications rose during the week ended October 19, an increase the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) attributed to a rebound from the Colum...
Tue, Oct 23 2018, 5:49 PM
What a frustrating day! Yes, it's true that bonds ended up in positive territory at the close, but it would have almost been better to endure a modes...
Tue, Oct 23 2018, 5:05 PM
Mortgage rates didn't move much for the second day this week. Unlike yesterday, there was a relatively massive amount of volatility in underlying fina...
Tue, Oct 23 2018, 4:56 PM
Duration is a key variable in deciding value to bond investors investors. In fact, many investors have a duration target for their portfolio. Duratio...
Tue, Oct 23 2018, 11:53 AM
Remember the old Point/Counterpoint segment on CBS's 60 Minutes? Two political commentators, a far right conservative and an equally lefty liberal arg...
Tue, Oct 23 2018, 9:56 AM
Historically the FHFA, and with it Freddie and Fannie, announce official loan levels for the following year soon after Thanksgiving . (There are alway...
Tue, Oct 23 2018, 9:17 AM
Yesterday was boring and uneventful. Bonds seemed to be trying everything in their power to remain range-bound and avoid breaking out of the consol...
Mon, Oct 22 2018, 5:26 PM
As of October 16th, we'd been tracking the most recent consolidation in bond yields (and stocks for that matter) waiting for a breakout to suggest the...
Mon, Oct 22 2018, 4:52 PM
Mortgage rates didn't move much today. Lenders who made changes to Friday's rate sheets generally did so toward slightly higher rates. Actually, it wo...
Mon, Oct 22 2018, 9:24 AM
Residential mortgage bankers are notoriously bad at actually retiring. They usually seem to come back as teachers, consultants, remodelers, etc. But p...
Mon, Oct 22 2018, 8:47 AM
The basic candlestick or bar chart that the average bond analyst uses to track 10yr Treasury yields is doing a good job of capturing the current oppos...
Fri, Oct 19 2018, 8:07 PM
Fannie Mae's Economic and Strategic Research (ESR) group is still expecting that economic growth will "likely" be solid in the third quarter, but they...
Fri, Oct 19 2018, 8:04 PM
The share of closed loans originated for home purchase continues to inch higher. Ellie Mae, in its September Origination Insight Report , says that sh...
Fri, Oct 19 2018, 8:02 PM
Bonds were stuck between a rock and a hard place today. Actually they were stuck between stocks and a European place. Stocks made a case for a bond ...
Fri, Oct 19 2018, 3:25 PM
Mortgage rates failed to extend yesterday's modest improvement, moving modestly higher by the end of the day. This takes the average lender very close...
Fri, Oct 19 2018, 11:02 AM
Existing home sales slipped in September, following a month in which sales were almost totally flat. The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said ...
Fri, Oct 19 2018, 10:02 AM
Everyone, and their brother, knows that the costs for builders to build a home are increasing. Politics aside, it turns out that the tariff changes ar...
Fri, Oct 19 2018, 8:54 AM
We've talked a bit (in this commentary and in the live chat on MBS Live ) about the similarities between the October sell-off and one seen in April/M...
Thu, Oct 18 2018, 5:04 PM
Bond markets began the day almost perfectly unchanged relative to yesterday's latest levels. That means the nasty little afternoon selling spree was ...
Thu, Oct 18 2018, 4:17 PM
Mortgage rates recovered most of yesterday's losses today, following turmoil in European financial markets. What does Europe have to do with rates in ...
Thu, Oct 18 2018, 1:47 PM
Evidence is growing that the housing market is cooling, and Zillow is adding to the pile of proof. However, its contribution points more to a slowdown...
Thu, Oct 18 2018, 1:44 PM
Anyone who has ever worked as a real estate agent will understand the real reasons behind a new finding from the National Association of Realtors® (NA...
Thu, Oct 18 2018, 12:37 PM
Whether it is reducing the number of cookies in a package and keeping the price the same or putting less ounces of cereal in a box and keeping the pri...
Thu, Oct 18 2018, 9:44 AM
What is a pivot point? In our primer on the topic, I talk mostly about levels that have repeatedly offered resistance or support to bond yields, but ...
Wed, Oct 17 2018, 6:10 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher at a quicker pace today, following the release of the Minutes from the most recent Fed meeting. But correlation isn't nece...
Wed, Oct 17 2018, 5:06 PM
Hindsight really is 20/20, and foresight wasn't too bad either. Either way, the picture is becoming clearer as bond yields move back toward recent hi...
Wed, Oct 17 2018, 10:05 AM
All three reports on residential construction activity in September were disappointing, but no more so than any of the other housing data that speaks ...
Wed, Oct 17 2018, 9:57 AM
There are only so many ways to say that bonds are range-bound and waiting for the motivation to break that range. Could it be the Fed Minutes today...
