Fri, Sep 28 2018, 10:07 AM
Freddie Mac made two announcements this week. The first is a long expected administrative change to requirements for private mortgage insurance (PMI) ...
Fri, Sep 28 2018, 8:53 AM
In less than 2 years, we'll be closer to 2070 than 1970! Does anyone feel that it’s silly to think of middle-aged mortgage bankers believing that they...
Fri, Sep 28 2018, 8:31 AM
September has been a long month for the bond market as rates quickly trudged back up to levels that aligned with our more pessimistic assumptions for ...
Thu, Sep 27 2018, 4:43 PM
In the past week, we've seen 10yr yields rise up and over 3.06%, flirt with 3.10%+ and come back down. This has happened only one other time since ...
Thu, Sep 27 2018, 4:13 PM
Mortgage rates fell modestly again today. Over the past 2 days, we've managed to undo more than a week of damage, with rates back at their best levels...
Thu, Sep 27 2018, 10:37 AM
The leading indicator for existing home sales continued to struggle in August and for the fourth time in the last five months purchase contract execut...
Thu, Sep 27 2018, 9:09 AM
Yesterday's Fed announcement--specifically, Fed Chair Powell's press conference remarks--set bonds up for a potential bounce. This would come at a c...
Thu, Sep 27 2018, 9:03 AM
Goldman Sachs telling us it expects four more short-term rate increases by the Fed in 2019, and it doesn’t make money by being wrong. Is your company ...
Wed, Sep 26 2018, 4:59 PM
For a while, it looked like today would turn out to be one of those "dud" Fed days where actual market movement woefully undershoots potential market ...
Wed, Sep 26 2018, 4:59 PM
One of the more contentious provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was a new ceiling on the SALT deduction. This is the amount taxpayers ...
Wed, Sep 26 2018, 4:18 PM
Mortgage rates improved in a somewhat noticeable way for the first time in weeks following today's policy announcement from the Fed. Actually, to be f...
Wed, Sep 26 2018, 2:08 PM
Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in June August indicates that the labor market has continued to strengthen and th...
Wed, Sep 26 2018, 10:44 AM
New Home Sales posted a month-over-month increase for the first time since May according to Wednesday's report from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Dep...
Wed, Sep 26 2018, 10:41 AM
Freddie Mac reported today that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 6.1 percent in August. The portfolio balance at the en...
Wed, Sep 26 2018, 9:22 AM
In trying to put together a chart for this morning, I kept running into a wall. It had to do with the likely outcomes associated with different Fed f...
Wed, Sep 26 2018, 8:39 AM
The last four weeks for me have included spending time with lenders in Montana, Southern & Northern California, Nevada, Arizona, and Illinois. Yes, th...
Wed, Sep 26 2018, 8:15 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) says its Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage application volume, moved higher during the week ended S...
Tue, Sep 25 2018, 4:35 PM
Bonds began the day in weaker territory this morning, and they didn't need anyone to twist their arm in getting there. That was our first clue that...
Tue, Sep 25 2018, 3:34 PM
Mortgage rates were unchanged for some lenders today while others were in slightly higher territory. Either way, that leaves the average lender at the...
Tue, Sep 25 2018, 10:39 AM
Both of the major home price indexes that were released this morning showed continued deceleration in the rate of appreciation, even though July is us...
Tue, Sep 25 2018, 9:11 AM
We talk sometimes about bonds taking a "lead-off" (like in that sport that a few of us still remember). Well, at least I talk about bonds taking a le...
Tue, Sep 25 2018, 9:04 AM
The U.S. economy and job market are firing on nearly all cylinders (hence higher rates) but the housing market has essentially stalled. Here’s a stat ...
Mon, Sep 24 2018, 4:36 PM
Have you heard? The Fed announcement is coming up on Wednesday. While you've undoubtedly heard about that more than a few times (unless this is yo...
Mon, Sep 24 2018, 3:38 PM
Mortgage rates are having a bleak September, having risen at least an eighth of a percentage point in all cases and by a quarter of a point in many ca...
Mon, Sep 24 2018, 12:18 PM
Freddie Mac's Economic and Housing Research Group said on Monday that the U.S. economy and job market are firing on nearly all cylinders , "but the ho...
Mon, Sep 24 2018, 9:11 AM
It would be a tad dramatic to say that rates are at a crossroads as we head into the end of September, unless there's any additional weakness this wee...
Mon, Sep 24 2018, 9:03 AM
We’re now officially in autumn, one week left in the 3rd quarter. Most states in the U.S. don’t change their clocks until November 4th, but in Europe ...
Mon, Sep 24 2018, 8:24 AM
Are weather patterns beginning to provoke annual swings in mortgage delinquencies? Black Knight suggests, in its first look at August 2018 mortgage pe...
Fri, Sep 21 2018, 5:28 PM
By today, it became clear that bonds were fully locked into a sideways consolidation in a range defined by the highs seen on Wed/Thu and the lows mark...
Fri, Sep 21 2018, 4:46 PM
Mortgage rates actually fell today, on average--something they haven't been able to say all week, or indeed at nearly any time during the past 4 weeks...
Fri, Sep 21 2018, 4:44 PM
Even as flood water continue to sit in living rooms and kitchens across a large swath of North Carolina it is clear that most of those homes are not i...
Fri, Sep 21 2018, 10:15 AM
More often than not, when I use the word "believe" (or belief), it's in some vague and positive context. For instance, something like "bond buyers ar...
Fri, Sep 21 2018, 8:40 AM
When I spent an hour interviewing Angelo Mozilo on stage last week for the American Pacific Mortgage Summit, one of the issues we discussed was the co...
Thu, Sep 20 2018, 5:28 PM
After a series of demoralizing losses, it feels like some small victory for bonds to simply remain sideways today. That wasn't necessarily a given ...
Thu, Sep 20 2018, 4:40 PM
Mortgage rates were mostly able to hold steady today, although they technically moved just a bit higher and that technically leaves them at the highes...
Thu, Sep 20 2018, 11:25 AM
It was a disappointment, but at least it wasn't a loss. Existing home sales, which were expected to increase in August after four straight months of d...
Thu, Sep 20 2018, 9:00 AM
This Saturday is the autumn equinox – season-wise, we know what is on the way. “Rob, we, like everyone else, are watching the approaching winter, and ...
Thu, Sep 20 2018, 8:18 AM
One of the themes we often revisit in times of trouble is the long-term bull market in bonds. This traces back to the 80's and provides a shockingly ...
Thu, Sep 20 2018, 8:08 AM
The share of loans originated for refinancing rose in August for the first time this year. Ellie Mae's Origination Insight Report shows that closed tr...
Wed, Sep 19 2018, 4:36 PM
The titular question could be taken two ways . Is the selling pressure in bonds over? Is the "low rate environment" that's been in effect since mid-2...
Wed, Sep 19 2018, 3:37 PM
Mortgage rates are in bad shape . At some point in the past 3 days (depends on the lender), top tier 30yr fixed rate offerings hit their highest level...
Wed, Sep 19 2018, 10:04 AM
Both permits and starts were expected to pick up in August, at least holding on to their slight gains in July. Housing starts did deliver, posting a s...
Wed, Sep 19 2018, 9:05 AM
I received this question from a well-known lender in Texas. “Rob, our company views loan processors as the unsung heroes of lending. We’re evaluating ...
Wed, Sep 19 2018, 8:10 AM
Labor Day typically marks the end of summer and the resumption of business as usual. Hopefully it also marked the beginning of a turnaround for mortga...
Tue, Sep 18 2018, 4:17 PM
Remember early 2018 when the fear was compounded by this list of bad actors?
increased Treasury issuance to pay for the revenue shortfall in the...
Tue, Sep 18 2018, 3:35 PM
Mortgage rates edged up to 4-year highs with yesterday's bond market losses and things went from bad to worse today. Bond markets (which underlie and ...
Tue, Sep 18 2018, 10:29 AM
Builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes stabilized a bit in September. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/W...
Tue, Sep 18 2018, 9:14 AM
Not to be confused with the Red Sea, which is an actual place, the sea of red in the title is merely a reference to general bias toward weakness in bo...
Tue, Sep 18 2018, 8:41 AM
TRID 2.0: mandatory compliance on 10/1 is only a few weeks away. Temenos has a primer on it , as does Qualia . The MBA had a piece on it . The NY MBA ...
Mon, Sep 17 2018, 5:06 PM
10yr yields briefly hit their highest levels since May 23rd this morning after one large trade started a snowball sell-off in Treasuries. Before th...
