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...
Wed, Oct 17 2018, 8:46 AM
As thousands of MBA conference attendees head for the DC airports, what’s the chatter? Regulators who want to remind lenders that not being able to af...
Wed, Oct 17 2018, 8:25 AM
Purchase mortgage originations are expected to increase a bit in 2019, but not by enough to offset the continuing decline in refinancing. A forecast f...
Wed, Oct 17 2018, 8:14 AM
Mortgage applications were down last week by the largest seasonally adjusted percentage since September 2017 . The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) ...
Tue, Oct 16 2018, 4:30 PM
The S&P recovered roughly half of its losses from last week today, decisively breaking out of the consolidation pattern that had been in place throu...
Tue, Oct 16 2018, 4:11 PM
Mortgage rates didn't move much today. Some lenders were perfectly unchanged, but the average lender was just slightly higher. That's at odds with und...
Tue, Oct 16 2018, 10:59 AM
Recent research from Trulia shows home price reductions are increasing . The share of homes for sale that have had at least one price cut since being ...
Tue, Oct 16 2018, 10:54 AM
Builder confidence ticked up 1 point in October, rising to 68. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), which produces the NAHB/Wells Fargo H...
Tue, Oct 16 2018, 10:29 AM
What’s not being covered by the mainstream press here at the MBA conference? How about, given the rough financial conditions, monthly (and not quarter...
Tue, Oct 16 2018, 8:40 AM
Waiting... That's all anyone has been doing since last Thursday in financial markets. One day prior, stocks jumped off a cliff and bond yields raced ...
Mon, Oct 15 2018, 5:32 PM
This morning's Retail Sales report was arguably the biggest-ticket of the week in terms of economic data. It speaks to the ongoing level of uncerta...
Mon, Oct 15 2018, 5:13 PM
MBA President and CEO Bob Broeksmit, the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA's) newly installed president and CEO, delivered his inaugural speech to M...
Mon, Oct 15 2018, 4:43 PM
Mortgage rates were sideways to slightly higher today, prolonging a 3-day trend of exceptionally light volatility. The 5 days before that (beginning o...
Mon, Oct 15 2018, 10:27 AM
Freddie Mac is announcing a couple of enhancements to its Loan Advisor underwriting tool. The additional capabilities will allow lenders to automate t...
Mon, Oct 15 2018, 9:08 AM
What’s new here at the MBA’s conference in Washington DC? Plenty of secretive M&A closed-door meetings, continued talk that Ginnie is carefully eying ...
Mon, Oct 15 2018, 9:04 AM
Before last week's stock rout, bonds were stuck in a rut. For four straight sessions, they hit the highest intraday yields since 2011. Even after ...
Fri, Oct 12 2018, 7:07 PM
Referring to the week of bond trading as " crazy " is a bit of a stretch. If we bring stocks into the mix, or if we go back to last Wednesday, it's b...
Fri, Oct 12 2018, 6:41 PM
Mortgage rates held relatively steady today, finally leveling off after two solid days of improvement driven by the week's big stock market sell-off. ...
Fri, Oct 12 2018, 11:35 AM
Mortgage denial rates ebb and flow with the economy, with lenders appetite for risk, and sometimes with the pressure lenders feel to make loans. Denia...
