Wed, Aug 15 2018, 9:13 AM
Bond prices and mortgage rates, like nearly every commodity, are driven by supply and demand. I mention this because early last week prices of US gove...
Wed, Aug 15 2018, 8:09 AM
It was another week of decline for mortgage applications as those for home purchase slid for the fifth week in a row. The overall volume of applicatio...
Tue, Aug 14 2018, 4:30 PM
Bonds began the day in moderately weaker territory as Turkish tensions eased overnight. That certainly wasn't the only game in town as far as market ...
Tue, Aug 14 2018, 3:04 PM
Mortgage rates were sideways to slightly higher today, depending on the lender. With the exception of the past two days, this leaves us at the best le...
Tue, Aug 14 2018, 11:14 AM
The effects of Hurricane Irma continue to be felt in the Southeast, with Florida the only state to report an increase in its delinquency rate in May. ...
Tue, Aug 14 2018, 9:24 AM
Turkish Lira bounced in the overnight session--not in any epic fashion, but enough to result in a bit of spillover for stocks/bonds. 10yr yields rose...
Tue, Aug 14 2018, 8:56 AM
A Zen master visiting NYC approaches a hot dog vendor and says, "Make me one with everything." The hot dog vendor fixes a hot dog and hands it to the ...
Mon, Aug 13 2018, 5:29 PM
Another day, another chance for market watchers and pundits of all types to make mountains out of Turkish molehills. Yes, the financial crisis in Tur...
Mon, Aug 13 2018, 5:03 PM
Mortgage rates stayed steady at the lowest levels in more than 3 weeks as financial markets are still accounting for additional risks relating to Turk...
Mon, Aug 13 2018, 9:34 AM
Did anyone else have to sit through the drug addiction video (or was it a book?) in grade school (or was it middle school?) where the main character k...
Mon, Aug 13 2018, 8:54 AM
Don’t think that correct mortgage documentation is important? Think again, or ask Citigroup. The Federal Reserve said Friday it had fined Citigroup $8...
Fri, Aug 10 2018, 5:25 PM
Tired of hearing about Turkey yet? This is what happens when fairly quiet markets are interrupted by a thunderous roar from an unexpected place. News...
Fri, Aug 10 2018, 4:47 PM
Mortgage rates , and indeed most interest rates, are tied to movement in the bond market. In turn, bonds tend to benefit when big, scary stuff is shak...
Fri, Aug 10 2018, 12:41 PM
An aging housing stock is usually thought of as a problem. Older homes can be more expensive to maintain and easily fall into enough disrepair to be a...
Fri, Aug 10 2018, 10:08 AM
Turkey (the country, not the lunch meat) is the 17th biggest economy in the world in terms of GDP. That's roughly 20% bigger than the next closest co...
Fri, Aug 10 2018, 8:51 AM
This week in Salt Lake City, mPower hosted an event at the Lenders One Summer Conference, drawing nearly 400 people. The executive panel, led by MBA's...
Fri, Aug 10 2018, 8:06 AM
We now have an unfortunate sign that the recovery is complete. The National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) says housing affordability is the lowes...
Thu, Aug 9 2018, 4:40 PM
Have you heard the one about the Turkish debt crisis? Things are pretty bad for Turkey and the currency is indeed in freefall, but until the charts d...
Thu, Aug 9 2018, 3:58 PM
Mortgage rates finally did what they were supposed to do today. Specifically, they fell in response to bond market improvement. That's the way it shou...
Thu, Aug 9 2018, 11:41 AM
Fannie Mae has informed us that they too have activated their disaster response policies for homeowners , this time for those affected by the Californ...
Thu, Aug 9 2018, 11:39 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) says that responses to its recent Mortgage Builder Applications Survey indicates an increase of 3.6 percent in ...
Thu, Aug 9 2018, 9:42 AM
In the short-term (past few weeks), the trend has not been our friend. After breaking above a narrow, sideways range, yields had been pushing higher ...
Thu, Aug 9 2018, 8:55 AM
Lots of originators are fascinated by demographics. Every year, about 27,000 people move from New York City to Philadelphia , making that specific mov...
Wed, Aug 8 2018, 6:09 PM
This week continued in the fine tradition of of ultra-light summertime volume and liquidity, but today's contribution was a bit more worthwhile than t...
Wed, Aug 8 2018, 4:57 PM
Mortgage rates were modestly higher today. Much like yesterday, there's a catch! Yesterday's catch was that underlying bond markets had weakened enoug...
Wed, Aug 8 2018, 4:39 PM
Some are saying that 2018 may be the worst year in history for wildfires in California and other states are threatened by blazes as well so Freddie Ma...
Wed, Aug 8 2018, 12:01 PM
The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said existing home sales cooled during the second quarter amidst what it called "staggeringly low" invento...
Wed, Aug 8 2018, 10:21 AM
Attitudes about buying and selling a home degraded in July. Fannie Mae said its National Housing Survey (NHS) for the month found a net decrease among...
Wed, Aug 8 2018, 9:50 AM
After spending most of July in a narrow, sideways trend, bonds broke higher in yield and looked like they would begin a classic range-breakout sell-of...
Wed, Aug 8 2018, 8:45 AM
The U.S. Census Bureau knows a thing or two about numbers, and it tells us that over the 10 years from 6/30/07 to 6/30/17, the number of “renter” hous...
Wed, Aug 8 2018, 8:04 AM
The week ended August 3 marked the fourth consecutive one in which mortgage activity declined. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market ...
Tue, Aug 7 2018, 3:54 PM
Bonds enjoyed a nice little winning streak beginning last Thursday. As of yesterday, it had carried 10yr Treasury yields below the important 2.95% te...
Tue, Aug 7 2018, 3:32 PM
Mortgage rates were roughly unchanged today. That would make this the 4th day in a row without any move higher in rates, and it would leave us at the ...
Tue, Aug 7 2018, 11:38 AM
Mortgage credit availability scored a significant gain in July. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MC...
Tue, Aug 7 2018, 11:33 AM
Freddie Mac has announced two new affordable rental programs. The first is a pilot in three markets (Atlanta, Orlando, and Tallahassee) that supports ...
Tue, Aug 7 2018, 9:53 AM
I received an interesting question yesterday as to whether or not there was any significance in the fact that 25, 50, and 100 day moving averages are ...
Tue, Aug 7 2018, 9:50 AM
Another day, another Wells Fargo PR disaster. The company is admitting they have foreclosed on about 400 homes owned by borrowers who were not allowed...
Tue, Aug 7 2018, 8:43 AM
People sometimes ask me how many loans underwriters or closers are doing these days. I turned to the MBA and the STRATMOR Group for hard numbers. Base...
Mon, Aug 6 2018, 5:22 PM
What do I mean when I say 'serendipitous' market movement? In general, this is just another way to say "that's the way the ball bounced, cookie crumbl...
Mon, Aug 6 2018, 4:50 PM
Mortgage rates were slightly lower for the 3rd straight business day, but not for any particular reason. Because of the relatively narrow range, rates...
Mon, Aug 6 2018, 9:34 AM
In terms of scheduled data and events, this week is much lighter than last. It will also be more susceptible to the effects of light liquidity as mar...
Mon, Aug 6 2018, 8:43 AM
In July I was fortunate to spend time in Colorado, Hawai’i, Nevada, Utah, and California, and I look forward to time in Illinois, Montana, Virginia an...
Mon, Aug 6 2018, 8:18 AM
Altough it was forecast to happen long ago, it seems price gains throughout the U.S. are moderating . Black Knight, in its August Mortgage Monitor , c...
Fri, Aug 3 2018, 7:13 PM
Bond markets began the day in roughly unchanged territory as they geared up to digest any curveballs from the payrolls data. NFP came in weaker than ...
Fri, Aug 3 2018, 2:12 PM
Mortgage rates fell again today after the jobs report showed slower payroll growth in July and persistently flat wage growth. On average, this is the ...
Fri, Aug 3 2018, 11:44 AM
CoreLogic is noting a subtle change in rent growth for single-family houses. Its Single-Family Rental Index (SFRI) has logged a steady increase in tho...
Fri, Aug 3 2018, 8:59 AM
I don’t think Brookstone, which declared bankruptcy yesterday, ever sold them, but is the “Tiny House” movement getting big? If you’re near Colorado S...
Fri, Aug 3 2018, 8:45 AM
A recent research paper from the Urban Institute (UI) looks at the benefits provided by real denial rates (RDR) over the traditional measure of credit...
Fri, Aug 3 2018, 8:35 AM
Today brings the sometimes super important nonfarm payrolls data. On average, no other piece of economic data has had as much of an impact on bonds o...
Thu, Aug 2 2018, 4:32 PM
Right at 9:30am this morning, both stocks and bond yields began moving higher . A modest overnight rally in Treasuries quickly came under fire and f...
