Mon, Sep 17 2018, 4:39 PM
Mortgage rates may have had a fairly bad day last Friday, but today was worse . Today officially saw the average lender back at rates not seen since M...
Mon, Sep 17 2018, 3:11 PM
The robust growth in the economy in the second quarter may be the final peak of this expansion according to Fannie Mae's Economic Development Report f...
Mon, Sep 17 2018, 11:00 AM
There were quite a few recent milestones, high and low, noted in the Quarter 2 Residential Property Loan Origination Report from ATTOM Data Solutions....
Mon, Sep 17 2018, 9:18 AM
September continues to be an unfriendly month for bonds, marked by an unfriendly trend that has carried yields almost exclusively higher. Some of t...
Mon, Sep 17 2018, 9:03 AM
Given plenty of warning, and evacuations, the deaths in the Southeast from Florence have people wondering, “Why do residents stick around?” It is comp...
Fri, Sep 14 2018, 4:48 PM
August was nice. September is mean... at least if you're a bond.
Investors wanted you in August when it was still unclear whether or not Turkey...
Fri, Sep 14 2018, 4:18 PM
Mortgage rates had a bad day. Even after a weaker reading on Retail Sales (something that normally helps), the bond market lost ground. Unfortunately,...
Fri, Sep 14 2018, 11:31 AM
Even as Hurricane Florence is pushing unprecedented levels of flood waters into North and South Carolina homes, CoreLogic is issuing estimates regardi...
Fri, Sep 14 2018, 11:19 AM
While applications for financing new home purchases declined in August, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is predicting a bump in the month's new...
Fri, Sep 14 2018, 8:58 AM
“Rob, the number of vendors at mortgage conferences seems to be growing. Any idea how many vendors (vs. lenders) there are?” I had no idea but turned ...
Fri, Sep 14 2018, 8:32 AM
The question posed in the title is just a bit too big for us to cover in this humble "day ahead" post, but we can touch on a few key points. I just t...
Thu, Sep 13 2018, 4:53 PM
Bond markets were clearly interested in today's Consumer Price Index (CPI) data. It generated a larger single minute of volume than the minute follow...
Thu, Sep 13 2018, 3:34 PM
Mortgage rates fell modestly today, following a weaker-than-expected report on inflation. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures the change in prices...
Thu, Sep 13 2018, 11:58 AM
The risk of mortgage fraud jumped by 12.4 percent on an annual basis in the second quarter, the seventh consecutive quarter in which it has increased ...
Thu, Sep 13 2018, 9:12 AM
Right off the bat, with respect to the headline, I'll let you know that the answer is going to be "it depends." More on that in a moment. Bonds are...
Thu, Sep 13 2018, 8:57 AM
“Rob, would you happen to have a suggestion as to where I can find information as to the number of HUD loans done on manufactured housing last year, o...
Wed, Sep 12 2018, 4:06 PM
Today brought two events that should theoretically have helped bonds: a much weaker producer level inflation reading (2.4 vs 2.7 forecast for core...
Wed, Sep 12 2018, 3:20 PM
Mortgage rates managed to remain unchanged today despite the fact that underlying bond markets were stronger. Stronger bond markets are typically asso...
Wed, Sep 12 2018, 2:56 PM
In the last half of 2017 the three credit bureaus, Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian, agreed to change the way they handle collection accounts. These ...
Wed, Sep 12 2018, 8:53 AM
We’re always reminded that nature bats last. Every lender that I know of bases their disaster policies directly from FEMA’s declarations or from other...
Wed, Sep 12 2018, 8:10 AM
Mortgage applications for home purchases managed to move higher for the second straight time last week in spite of the usual lag in activity that acco...
Tue, Sep 11 2018, 4:43 PM
With no intent of drawing any parallels to Hurricane Florence, bond markets are battening down their hatches in advance of a perfect storm of data and...
Tue, Sep 11 2018, 4:19 PM
Mortgage rates held fairly steady this morning, keeping them in line with the highest levels since early August. As the day progressed, underlying bon...
Tue, Sep 11 2018, 4:15 PM
The Mortgage Bankers Association said its Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) moved lower in August due to a decline in its jumbo loan component...
Tue, Sep 11 2018, 12:57 PM
Mortgage lenders appear to be holding credit standards stable despite increasing competition and declining demand and profit expectations. Fannie Mae'...
Tue, Sep 11 2018, 9:18 AM
Overnight weakness in bonds sets us up to test some more serious boundaries today. As seen in the chart below (the same chart we've been watching f...
Tue, Sep 11 2018, 8:55 AM
“Rob, although the initial commotion about Amazon entering the mortgage biz has died down, my management team believes it is still a threat. We have h...
Mon, Sep 10 2018, 4:45 PM
Perhaps traders were tired? Perhaps they are still on high alert but just haven't gotten to the week's more meaningful events yet? Either way, the...
Mon, Sep 10 2018, 3:10 PM
Mortgage rates were slightly higher today, depending on the lender . Many lenders ended up raising rates last Friday afternoon as underlying bond mark...
Mon, Sep 10 2018, 11:44 AM
Last week we summarized a report from the National Association of Home Builders on the acute labor shortages builders are indicating in responses to t...
Mon, Sep 10 2018, 10:58 AM
Bonds/rates are in the process of defending their castle. Their way of life inside those walls could be thought of as the general maintenance of a lo...
Mon, Sep 10 2018, 10:17 AM
Whether due to lessons learned from the foreclosure crisis, an improved economy, or a combination of these and other factors, Black Knight, in its cur...
Mon, Sep 10 2018, 8:51 AM
You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t slept in a car at least once in their life. Whether it is having too much to drink, weary during a ro...
Fri, Sep 7 2018, 4:27 PM
Today's bond market wrap is as simple as the headline. Average hourly earnings or AHE is occasionally responsible for some impressive moves in bond...
Fri, Sep 7 2018, 2:53 PM
Mortgage rates rose moderately today (depending on the lender). It was enough to bring them back to the highest levels since early August. Additionall...
Fri, Sep 7 2018, 11:40 AM
Nearly all of America's home builders say they are facing significant shortages of skilled labor , both in the form of direct labor and as subcontract...
Fri, Sep 7 2018, 10:43 AM
Consumers appear to be increasingly upbeat about their jobs and their income, but dramatically less so about getting involved in the real estate marke...
Fri, Sep 7 2018, 8:54 AM
Some are fond of saying, “Zillow’s never set foot in a house.” But the company is a force to be reckoned with, especially now that it is in the proces...
Fri, Sep 7 2018, 8:33 AM
This morning's first chart is actually Private Payrolls (as opposed to nonfarm payrolls). Reason being: NFP accounts for Census Bureau hiring which c...
Thu, Sep 6 2018, 4:39 PM
Bonds were weaker in the overnight session, but only slightly. The onset of domestic trading saw a stronger contingent of traders lined up to buy bon...
Thu, Sep 6 2018, 4:06 PM
Mortgage rates were sideways to slightly lower today, depending on the lender. The discrepancy stems from mid-day bond market gains that were just bar...
Thu, Sep 6 2018, 1:01 PM
Housing trivia probably isn't a major hobby, but if you are into it, it is your birthday and the U.S. Census Bureau brought a present. The Bureau has ...
Thu, Sep 6 2018, 10:24 AM
I've been pretty bearish on bonds, in general, since the end of 2016. Against that backdrop, we can of course still look for tactical opportunities, ...
Thu, Sep 6 2018, 8:54 AM
In September, major league baseball teams expand their 25-man roster to 40 as teams scramble for the playoffs in October. In the mortgage business, ho...
Wed, Sep 5 2018, 4:45 PM
The first two trading days of September introduce a somewhat serious threat to the calm, sideways range that dominated the past 3 weeks. Granted, the...
Wed, Sep 5 2018, 4:32 PM
Will appraisals soon need to indicate a home's driving distance to the nearest cold-brew drive-through? Could be. According to a new study by the Harv...
Wed, Sep 5 2018, 3:58 PM
Mortgage rates have only been moving higher gradually , but things are adding up . Today's move brings them to the highest levels in nearly a month. I...
Wed, Sep 5 2018, 9:11 AM
If we’ve learned anything in the last ten years, it’s rarely a good thing when a lender is the focus of a story in the mainstream press, and this is n...
Wed, Sep 5 2018, 8:54 AM
Some economic reports matter when it comes to bond market movement potential, and many don't. The tricky thing about econ data is that reports that ...
Wed, Sep 5 2018, 8:14 AM
Purchase applications increased slightly during the week ended August 31, but overall mortgage activity fell slightly according to the Mortgage Banker...
