Mon, Jul 23 2018, 9:18 AM
Not to be confused with a band on the run, bonds find themselves in something of a similar predicament to the namesake of McCartney's post-Beatles sin...
Mon, Jul 23 2018, 8:55 AM
Mortgage bankers have plenty of interests. Baconry, for example. (It’s like falconry, or reverse animal husbandry.) Another is the study of real estat...
Fri, Jul 20 2018, 6:45 PM
Undoubtedly, yesterday's bond trading sent a clear message that a technical ceiling near 2.88% was met with strong defense from traders who bought b...
Fri, Jul 20 2018, 6:27 PM
Mortgage rates improved today but it was largely a byproduct of yesterday's market movement that didn't make it onto lenders' rate sheets at the time....
Fri, Jul 20 2018, 11:43 AM
In another dive into data from the Census Bureau's Survey of Construction (SOC), the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) found that one third...
Fri, Jul 20 2018, 10:03 AM
Fannie Mae's economists have upgraded their second quarter economic forecast but say that may be about it for the year . In their July forecast, the c...
Fri, Jul 20 2018, 9:27 AM
10yr yields attempted to break above their prevailing range yesterday. As we discussed in the Day Ahead, it takes more than just an intraday move abo...
Fri, Jul 20 2018, 9:06 AM
A Small Business Administration analysis found that about 90 percent of the country’s damage costs from natural disasters happen in ZIP codes with les...
Thu, Jul 19 2018, 4:02 PM
If you are an MBS Live member, today's recap has already been written in this update and in The Huddle. Non-MBS Live members can get a pretty solid i...
Thu, Jul 19 2018, 2:53 PM
Mortgage rates had a scare today, as they began the day at their highest levels of the month (depending on the lender) only to fall back in line with ...
Thu, Jul 19 2018, 11:50 AM
A group of financial experts is scheduled to meet at on Thursday to make funeral arrangements for Libor . In case you hadn't heard, the London interba...
Thu, Jul 19 2018, 11:07 AM
Yet another federal court has rebuffed shareholders hoping to recover some value from their investments in the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs)...
Thu, Jul 19 2018, 9:18 AM
This primer (and this one, and this one) will be useful for digesting the following, if you haven't read it before.
For those paying any sort of at...
Thu, Jul 19 2018, 9:13 AM
“Rob, are you hearing, now that the CFPB is perceived to have lost its teeth, that some lenders are providing their loan officers two different rate s...
Thu, Jul 19 2018, 8:56 AM
The share of closed loans for home purchases ticked up another point in June, to 71 percent. While Ellie Mae has only tracked data since 2011, this re...
Wed, Jul 18 2018, 5:44 PM
After holding the same sideways range since June 27th, 10yr Treasury yields finally knocked on the 2.88+ ceiling for the 2nd time (the previous atte...
Wed, Jul 18 2018, 4:57 PM
Mortgage rates were flat again today, further prolonging a trend that's been in place for weeks. During that time, we've seen modest ups and downs, bu...
Wed, Jul 18 2018, 4:29 PM
It is the largest generation in U.S. history and Millennials may also set a record as the one whose behaviors have been most heavily researched. Despi...
Wed, Jul 18 2018, 10:26 AM
All three measures of residential construction activity performed poorly in June , and the two most closely watched numbers, construction permits and ...
Wed, Jul 18 2018, 9:46 AM
Fed Chair Powell will deliver round 2 of his congressional testimony today, this time at the House FSOC (yesterday was with the Senate Banking Committ...
Wed, Jul 18 2018, 8:53 AM
“Your loan officer should be given the opportunity to succeed elsewhere.” Ever heard a CEO recommend that to a branch manager regarding a poorly perfo...
Wed, Jul 18 2018, 8:08 AM
Refinancing made a tiny bit of a comeback during the week ended July 13. Both the Refinancing Index, a component of the Mortgage Bankers Associations ...
Tue, Jul 17 2018, 5:18 PM
Fed Chair Powell fielded questions from the Senate Banking Committee today as a part of the 2-day semi-annual congressional testimony often referred...
Tue, Jul 17 2018, 4:36 PM
Mortgage rates were generally unchanged today, prolonging an exceptionally flat trend. Over the past 3 weeks, the average mortgage seeker will not hav...
Tue, Jul 17 2018, 10:47 AM
As analysts had expected, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) remained at 68 this month. The readi...
Tue, Jul 17 2018, 10:02 AM
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has plucked more information from the Census Bureau's Survey of Construction (SOC), this time to pain...
Tue, Jul 17 2018, 9:47 AM
Fed Chair Powell begins 2 days of semi annual congressional testimony today with the Senate Banking Committee at 10am. In recent years, this testimon...
Tue, Jul 17 2018, 8:52 AM
“What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.” While you ruminate on that one, there continues to be evidence and rem...
Mon, Jul 16 2018, 5:52 PM
Summertime Mondays are notorious for light volume and seemingly random trading. Today was a slightly more active than normal in that regard, largely ...
Mon, Jul 16 2018, 4:11 PM
Mortgage rates fell to their lowest levels since late May as of last Friday. Today, then, would be the 2nd best day since late May. Rates edged slight...
Mon, Jul 16 2018, 9:05 AM
This is the off-season for bonds, but they still have to show up for the game every day. The coaching staff (aka the traders turning the cogs of the ...
Mon, Jul 16 2018, 8:50 AM
When Costco rolled out its mortgage option to members, many lenders were very concerned. But despite great potential, Costco/First Choice has not beco...
Mon, Jul 16 2018, 8:14 AM
Despite complaints about labor, lot, and material shortages, builders needed no more time to build a home last year than they did in 2016. The time di...
Fri, Jul 13 2018, 4:23 PM
Before any discussion about market movement in July, we have to set the stage with some disclaimer about "slow summertime trading." That was the su...
Fri, Jul 13 2018, 2:55 PM
Mortgage rates fell by an observable amount today-- one of the few times they've done so in recent weeks. Technically, today's average lender is offer...
Fri, Jul 13 2018, 10:20 AM
I know I made a Looney Tunes reference last week, but another one is in order. For those that aren't familiar, Yosemite Sam is stranded on a desert i...
Fri, Jul 13 2018, 8:58 AM
Events and Training Don't miss out on the Lenders One 2018 Summer Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, August 5-8, at The Grand America. In an age of d...
Thu, Jul 12 2018, 5:18 PM
Mortgage rates stood a very decent chance to experience the highest volatility of the week today thanks to the most important economic data of the wee...
Thu, Jul 12 2018, 4:59 PM
Welcome to summertime in the bond market, where each day is narrower than the last! The same can be said for the past 2 weeks and the past several mo...
Thu, Jul 12 2018, 3:06 PM
While the Labor Department's Employment Situation Report for June showed wages plodding along at a 2.7 percent annual increase, unchanged from May, it...
Thu, Jul 12 2018, 2:57 PM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is projecting a decline in new home sales for June, putting them significantly behind those in June 2017. MBA's...
Thu, Jul 12 2018, 2:43 PM
In a fairly rare turn of events, Fed Chair Powell gave a rather lengthy radio interview with Marketplace's Kai Ryssdal. Here's a rather lengthy trans...
Thu, Jul 12 2018, 9:51 AM
This morning's key data release is already out and it's already proven to be a dud (MBS Live members can read the update HERE). So we'll head to hi...
Thu, Jul 12 2018, 8:51 AM
Chris Whalen notes, “The failure of Bear Stearns & Co a decade ago illustrates the key lesson of financial markets, namely that non-banks are dependen...
Wed, Jul 11 2018, 5:59 PM
Today was the most active trading day of the week--something that looked destined to be the case considering markets began gyrating right at the sta...
Wed, Jul 11 2018, 4:54 PM
Mortgage rates played the same role they've been playing for weeks by holding fairly steady today. At the average lender, if you're looking for an ave...
Wed, Jul 11 2018, 11:05 AM
This month's Mortgage Monitor Report from Black Knight, Inc. is again about equity, but this time with a twist regarding the way homeowners are treati...
Wed, Jul 11 2018, 9:50 AM
The first two days of the week were largely spent lamenting the slow and inconsequential nature of summertime trading in the bonds market. At least t...
Wed, Jul 11 2018, 8:54 AM
U.S. capital markets folks have a way with words. Henry Jonas writes, “I started in this business in a Secondary Marketing in ‘86. Outside of maybe 19...
Wed, Jul 11 2018, 8:02 AM
Despite the Independence Day holiday which both shortened and bisected the week, mortgage activity rallied significantly during the week ended July 6....
