Tue, Sep 4 2018, 4:42 PM
From a calendar standpoint, there were two notable features today. It was the first trading day in September--a month that often sees "something new"...
Tue, Sep 4 2018, 3:54 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher today , reversing the improvement seen last Friday. The average lender is now back in line with their highest levels of th...
Tue, Sep 4 2018, 12:03 PM
Spending on residential construction continued to outpace construction in general in July although new home construction appeared to falter . The U.S....
Tue, Sep 4 2018, 10:12 AM
"Go West" may not be the best advice for someone in search of elbow room. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) says that housing lot sizes...
Tue, Sep 4 2018, 9:26 AM
For the bond market, September and/or October often see bigger moves than the preceding summertime months. There are notable exceptions, to be sure...
Tue, Sep 4 2018, 8:56 AM
As Gordon bears down on the Gulf Coast, we’re 2/3 of the way through the 3rd quarter of 2018 already. How’d that happen? Looking ahead, most employed ...
Fri, Aug 31 2018, 5:36 PM
August began with bond yields moving down from 3%, effectively keeping them in a sideways-to-slightly higher trend that arguably dates back to Janua...
Fri, Aug 31 2018, 5:17 PM
Mortgage rates caught a break to end a week that was otherwise spent moving higher. Although we did see a bit of improvement in underlying bond market...
Fri, Aug 31 2018, 4:37 PM
Fannie Mae’s 3% down payment HomeReady program was rolled out in 2016. HomeReady has numerous advantages over FHA loans (historically the most common ...
Fri, Aug 31 2018, 11:11 AM
Taking out a mortgage with an origination balance higher than whatever the conventional loan limit was at the time used to be an expensive proposition...
Fri, Aug 31 2018, 10:28 AM
There are a few different ways to measure volatility in the bond market, but one of the simplest is via the average daily trading range. That particu...
Fri, Aug 31 2018, 9:02 AM
“How can you make a comeback when you haven’t been anywhere?” It seems that 3D-printing is going places. NASA awarded five teams $100,000 in a 3D-Prin...
Thu, Aug 30 2018, 4:22 PM
While we can't really avoid talking about "the range" recently (roughly 2.80 to 2.90 in terms of 10yr Treasury yields), we can at least talk about i...
Thu, Aug 30 2018, 3:17 PM
Mortgage rates didn't move at all, again today. There really hasn't been any meaningful movement for more than 3 weeks. The same thing happened from l...
Thu, Aug 30 2018, 10:52 AM
Freddie Mac will be consolidating two of its mortgage products into a single offering effective October 29, 2018. The company announced this and other...
Thu, Aug 30 2018, 10:35 AM
Freddie Mac reported today that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 3.5 percent in July. The portfolio balance at the end ...
Thu, Aug 30 2018, 9:10 AM
Is there a place for age or sex discrimination in mortgage banking? Of course not. So the court case earlier this month involving Sacramento’s Summit ...
Thu, Aug 30 2018, 8:52 AM
Remember the flat, boring range between 2.8 and 2.9? Or perhaps you prefer the slightly stricter version between 2.82 and 2.88? That's the range that...
Wed, Aug 29 2018, 6:08 PM
Today ended up being the most uneventful day of the week in terms of outright volatility. In other words, bonds didn't cover as much ground as they d...
Wed, Aug 29 2018, 5:16 PM
Mortgage rates were just slightly higher again today, keeping them in line with the highest levels in about 3 weeks. The same caveat applies: we're ta...
Wed, Aug 29 2018, 11:46 AM
Earlier this month the National Association of Home Builders' (NAHB's) Eye on Housing blog featured a story on America's aging housing stock. NAHB ana...
Wed, Aug 29 2018, 10:12 AM
Expectations weren't particularly high for a solid July report on home purchase contracts, but today's report from the National Association of Realtor...
Wed, Aug 29 2018, 8:45 AM
GDP is released 3 times over 3 months beginning on the month that follows the quarter in question. In other words, Q2 (April-June) is first reported ...
Wed, Aug 29 2018, 8:13 AM
In the first quarter of 2018, independent mortgage banks and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks posted only their second period of financial los...
Wed, Aug 29 2018, 8:05 AM
The surge in mortgage applications last week, fostered by a 6.0 percent increase in refinancing, was short-lived. Despite slightly lower interest rate...
Tue, Aug 28 2018, 5:23 PM
Yesterday's bond market weakness introduced some risk of a technical shift back toward higher yields. Specifically, fast and slow stochastics (shor...
Tue, Aug 28 2018, 4:48 PM
Mortgage rates rose again today--this time more noticeably than yesterday--bringing them to the highest levels in more than 2 weeks. For most, however...
Tue, Aug 28 2018, 3:27 PM
Freddie Mac analysts see a two-pronged threat to housing sales for the remainder of the year, especially in the previously high-flying western part of...
Tue, Aug 28 2018, 11:14 AM
The Fannie Mae's National Housing Survey (NHS) polls a large panel of consumers monthly about their attitudes toward housing and related topics and ge...
Tue, Aug 28 2018, 10:39 AM
Prices slipped in June according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller price indices. The National Index, which covers all nine U.S. Census divisions, sho...
Tue, Aug 28 2018, 9:54 AM
Late June through late July saw 10yr yields trade in the 'same old range' with lows centered on 2.81 and highs on 2.89. That range was broken at the ...
Tue, Aug 28 2018, 8:51 AM
As the East Coast swelters and Hawaii floods, loan officers I’ve spoken to recently believe the high price end in some markets is starting to stall a ...
Mon, Aug 27 2018, 5:41 PM
It was a straightforward trading day today. Overnight weakness came courtesy of stronger econ data in Germany and the resulting sell-off in Europea...
Mon, Aug 27 2018, 3:58 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher for some lenders and lower for others, depending on how that particular lender adjusted their rate sheets on Friday aftern...
Mon, Aug 27 2018, 9:20 AM
Even though quite a few kids are going back to school today, there's still one week of Summer remaining for the bond market. Labor Day (this upcoming...
Mon, Aug 27 2018, 8:49 AM
Scholars have long pondered if Myrtle Beach, South Carolina was named after my cat Myrtle, or vice versa – the answer is lost in the shrouds of time. ...
Fri, Aug 24 2018, 8:25 PM
If you knew what to look for, today's comments from Fed Chair Powell erred on the side of dovishness--that is, they were rate-friendly. They were als...
Fri, Aug 24 2018, 7:17 PM
Mortgage rates began the day slightly higher . In fact, for several lenders, it was the biggest day-over-day move higher in more than 2 weeks. The key...
Fri, Aug 24 2018, 9:30 AM
Dear Kansas City Fed,
Thank you for hosting another year of the storied Jackson Hole Symposium. I'm not here to vent about the fact that you cou...
Fri, Aug 24 2018, 9:21 AM
The rain is still pouring down in Oahu, but Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are ahead of the game. Both GSEs have already announced that their disaster rel...
Fri, Aug 24 2018, 9:07 AM
There are definitional differences between PUDs, condos, apartments, and townhomes, including who owns the land. (Based on historical performance of d...
Thu, Aug 23 2018, 5:30 PM
Not since the eerie holiday-inspired silence of December 22nd 2017 have bonds put in as narrow of a trading day as they did today. 10yr yields didn't...
Thu, Aug 23 2018, 5:13 PM
The first serious mortgage related impact from last fall's hurricanes started to hit home in July . Foreclosure starts rose 11 percent from June, with...
Thu, Aug 23 2018, 4:55 PM
Mortgage rates have been more or less unchanged since August 10th . That's an impressively boring streak even by summertime standards. Why does summer...
Thu, Aug 23 2018, 10:55 AM
New home sales broke out of the up-one-month, down the next pattern they have adopted since March, and not in a good way . The Census Bureau and Depar...
Thu, Aug 23 2018, 10:49 AM
Home prices for purchases financed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac appreciated at an 0.2 percent rate during June, and the estimate for May was increase...
Thu, Aug 23 2018, 9:09 AM
Is today the day we break the "key technical level" at 2.82? Spoiler alert: you shouldn't care and it doesn't matter . I'm sorry if this is disillus...
Thu, Aug 23 2018, 9:07 AM
“Rob, I think we’re going to make it.” Thus began a note I received yesterday from the owner of a small retail lender in the mid-Atlantic region. “We’...
Wed, Aug 22 2018, 4:07 PM
Today's gains are primarily a factor of the bond market's response to yesterday's Cohen headlines (plea deal regarding campaign finance violations)....
Wed, Aug 22 2018, 3:45 PM
Mortgage rates haven't really moved for 9 straight business days. Some lenders have seen microscopic improvements during that time, but the average le...
