Thu, Feb 28 2019, 11:37 AM
The share of cash-out refinances spiked in 2017 and 2018 in a manner similar to what happened just before the Great Recession. The share jumped to 50 ...
Thu, Feb 28 2019, 9:53 AM
As many of you are likely tired of hearing, bonds have been locked in an increasingly narrow trading range for weeks. The bounces at the boundaries h...
Thu, Feb 28 2019, 9:13 AM
Lenders need to be aware of the myriad of things that indirectly impact our business. The poverty rate declined overall in 2017 but the rate among His...
Wed, Feb 27 2019, 5:54 PM
At one point today, there were three apparently important events dominating the newswires simultaneously. These included the Fed Chair's congressional...
Wed, Feb 27 2019, 5:41 PM
"Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"
That's one of my favorite lines from some old book I read, or maybe it was a play (hint: it was a play!...
Wed, Feb 27 2019, 10:27 AM
Expectations were high for a strong pending home sales report to christen the New Year. Those expectations were more than satisfied. The National Asso...
Wed, Feb 27 2019, 9:56 AM
More than a year has elapsed since the Census Bureau collected data for its most recent (2017) American Community Survey (ACS), but unless things have...
Wed, Feb 27 2019, 9:52 AM
Today brings a 2nd day of congressional testimony with Fed Chair Powell, this time before the House Financial Services Committee. The economic IQ var...
Wed, Feb 27 2019, 9:04 AM
As opposed to HomeBridge Financial, which appears to be buying HomeStreet’s origination biz, it is no secret that JPMorgan Chase isn’t an ardent fan o...
Wed, Feb 27 2019, 8:14 AM
Mortgage applications increased for the second week as interest rates again ticked lower at well under 5 percent. The Mortgage Bankers Association sai...
Tue, Feb 26 2019, 5:23 PM
Despite a fair amount of anticipation, today's Powell testimony proved to be a non-event for the bond market. Instead, things like the weak Housing...
Tue, Feb 26 2019, 4:41 PM
Whereas mortgage rates were almost undetectably higher yesterday, they were lower by roughly the same insignificant amount today. In either case, and ...
Tue, Feb 26 2019, 12:05 PM
Both the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller housing indices acknowledged further slowing in home price appreciat...
Tue, Feb 26 2019, 11:14 AM
Sometime things are just not worth the wait. The long-delayed December report on residential construction from the Census Bureau and the Department of...
Tue, Feb 26 2019, 9:59 AM
The Fed is undoubtedly a major factor in market movement--especially when it comes to rates. At first glance, the key consideration is their collec...
Tue, Feb 26 2019, 9:01 AM
We all learn something every day. For example, did you know that the grocery chain Trader Joe’s is owned by a huge German supermarket chain? Yup. How ...
Tue, Feb 26 2019, 8:34 AM
Freddie Mac reported this week that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 1.2 percent in January, down from 6.6 percent the ...
Mon, Feb 25 2019, 4:40 PM
If bonds happened to move higher in yield by more than they did today, we'd be talking about how the announcement of a US/China tariff extension put...
Mon, Feb 25 2019, 3:24 PM
Mortgage rates were very nearly unchanged today, although the average lender was just slightly higher. Investors reacted to news over the weekend that...
Mon, Feb 25 2019, 3:20 PM
Independent mortgage banks (IMBs) have been around for more than a century. but have taken on increased significance and power in the marketplace sinc...
Mon, Feb 25 2019, 9:10 AM
The "big" news over the weekend was the announcement of an extension on US/China tariffs that were set to go into effect on March 1st. While an event...
Mon, Feb 25 2019, 8:57 AM
When you hear “Midwest” what comes to mind? Missouri? Illinois? What about “Mideast?” Some place a long way from Missouri! “Rob, have you heard that t...
Fri, Feb 22 2019, 7:23 PM
As recently as January 10th, Jerome Powell unequivocally stated that the Fed's balance sheet wind-down was on auto pilot. In other words, they weren'...
Fri, Feb 22 2019, 6:12 PM
Mortgage rates are most directly affected by the day to day movement in the bond market. It's interesting to consider that bonds improved quite a bit ...
Fri, Feb 22 2019, 9:56 AM
If you're not familiar with these terms, you'll need the following definitions for today's commentary: hawkish/dovish.
The Fed is a key ingredient i...
Fri, Feb 22 2019, 8:53 AM
In the good news category, we can all knock “lumber prices” off the list as a hindrance to builders. Prices are down 25% in the last year. Is it “easi...
Fri, Feb 22 2019, 8:20 AM
Fannie Mae is predicting a notable slowdown in the growth of the U.S. economy in the first quarter of 2019. They have downgraded their earlier forecas...
Thu, Feb 21 2019, 4:48 PM
Although today brought the week's most anticipated line-up of economic data as well as overnight headlines on US/China trade agreements, the biggest m...
Thu, Feb 21 2019, 4:03 PM
Mortgage rates may be close to their lowest levels in more than a year, but they were slightly higher versus yesterday. Yesterday's rates were close e...
Thu, Feb 21 2019, 11:29 AM
Existing home sales fell again in January although the decline was a minor one compared to the 6.4 percent drop in December. The National Association ...
Thu, Feb 21 2019, 10:05 AM
A 16-basis point drop to 5.01 percent in the average rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages was given only partial credit for a sizable uptick in the r...
Thu, Feb 21 2019, 8:58 AM
“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” A clever quote about differences which reminded me that there are differences between the na...
Thu, Feb 21 2019, 8:29 AM
If you're just joining us, we've been talking quite a bit in recent weeks about a consolidation range/trend in the bond market. This refers to a seri...
Wed, Feb 20 2019, 5:04 PM
One of the most interesting parts of today's Fed Minutes release was their characterization of the market's surprise at December announcement. At be...
Wed, Feb 20 2019, 4:46 PM
Mortgage rates finally broke from their recent "back-and-forth" pattern of the past 7 business days and moved lower for the 2nd day in a row . Althoug...
Wed, Feb 20 2019, 11:45 AM
The gap in homeownership rates between white Americans and racial and ethnic minorities has persisted for years with the largest gap among black famil...
Wed, Feb 20 2019, 9:18 AM
Yesterday, I mentioned that it was rare to see short-term momentum technicals consolidate in the center of their "overbought vs oversold" range. Thi...
Wed, Feb 20 2019, 8:24 AM
Watch out for spam emails asking for your phone number. Seems like they are trying to get past the two-factor authentication that sends a six-digit co...
Wed, Feb 20 2019, 8:14 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said mortgage application volume rose for the first time in five weeks during the week ended February 7. MBA's ...
Tue, Feb 19 2019, 5:17 PM
The range may be breaking! Well, one of the ranges we've been tracking may be breaking, as long as tomorrow sees bond markets hold the gains they saw...
Tue, Feb 19 2019, 3:47 PM
Mortgage rates fell modestly today, making it the 7th straight business day where they've moved in the opposite direction from the previous day. This ...
Tue, Feb 19 2019, 10:33 AM
The Housing Market Index (HMI) continues to recover from the plunge it took in November and December when it dropped an aggregate of 12 points. The Na...
Tue, Feb 19 2019, 9:12 AM
For all of the potential market movers that anyone can discuss so far in 2019, we really haven't seen any concerted effort to take yields higher or lo...
Tue, Feb 19 2019, 8:53 AM
Where’s John Mellencamp when you need him ? Lenders in rural areas know that over half of U.S. farm households lost money farming in the past few year...
Fri, Feb 15 2019, 3:43 PM
Since Retail Sales rocked markets yesterday, perhaps bonds would be interested in responding to economic data again today? This question seemed to h...
Fri, Feb 15 2019, 3:13 PM
Mortgage loan delinquencies were down from the third quarter of 2018 in the fourth quarter. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said the improvemen...
Fri, Feb 15 2019, 3:01 PM
Mortgage rates were slightly higher today, marking the 6th day in a row where they've reversed course versus the previous day. This is the sort of beh...
Fri, Feb 15 2019, 9:53 AM
Rates were at long term highs in early November 2019. Several global economic risks were beginning to swirl at the same time. These included a slowd...
Fri, Feb 15 2019, 9:42 AM
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (the GSEs) reported solid financial results for both the fourth quarter and the entirety of the 2018 fiscal year on Thursda...
Fri, Feb 15 2019, 9:04 AM
Huh? Radian was recently in takeover talks ? I only know what I read in the newspapers! Sometimes I wonder if everyone isn’t in M&A talks to one degre...
