Fri, Jun 1 2018, 9:29 PM
The beginning of this holiday-shortened week was fairly exciting. It was the first major "opening gap" (yields/prices opening a day well into territo...
Fri, Jun 1 2018, 8:28 PM
Mortgage rates move higher today, mostly due to waning political risks in Italy. To be honest, I only really put the jobs data in the headline because...
Fri, Jun 1 2018, 11:24 AM
April turned out to be a solid month for construction . The Census Bureau said that dollar value of new construction activity on residential, non-resi...
Fri, Jun 1 2018, 9:10 AM
Whenever I mention changes in LO compensation versus changes in lender profit margins, my cat Myrtle seems entirely disinterested. (Come to think of i...
Fri, Jun 1 2018, 8:26 AM
The timing and nature of yesterday's Italian headlines created a fair amount of risk for bond markets today. As we discussed yesterday (in the Hudd...
Thu, May 31 2018, 5:08 PM
Today brought resolution (probably) for a problem that had been greatly benefiting bonds and rates. Earlier this week, the prospect of snap electio...
Thu, May 31 2018, 4:46 PM
Mortgage rates were effectively unchanged today, despite political developments in Italy providing plenty of justification to move higher. Specificall...
Thu, May 31 2018, 10:10 AM
Pending home sales, like both new and existing home sales reported earlier this month, posted an April loss. The National Association of Realtors® sai...
Thu, May 31 2018, 9:09 AM
Even after yesterday's weakness, bond markets remained in much stronger territory on the week due to the size of Tuesday's move. This is a fairly typ...
Thu, May 31 2018, 9:08 AM
At the recent MBA conference, plenty of discussion focused on non-QM lending. But plenty “off the record” discussions among execs mentioned changing L...
Wed, May 30 2018, 6:09 PM
Back in 2011/2012, EU-related fears had more to do with certain countries being unable to pay their debt and/or general systemic risk relating to Gr...
Wed, May 30 2018, 5:36 PM
Mortgage rates were somewhat higher today as politicians struck a more conciliatory tone in Italy. To be clear, we are indeed talking about mortgage r...
Wed, May 30 2018, 9:06 AM
Plenty of people I know agree with the this Forbes article titled, “We Have Learned Nothing From The Mortgage Market Meltdown.” Builders are reducing ...
Wed, May 30 2018, 8:44 AM
Today begins with yesterday's Italy-inspired mega rally under heavy fire. Compared to last Friday's closing levels, roughly half of the overall gains...
Wed, May 30 2018, 8:39 AM
Buying a home is a process with a lot of moving parts. Do buyers make it more complicated, or even drop out of the process because they tend, for many...
Wed, May 30 2018, 8:07 AM
Although interest rates extended their decline for the second week, the level of mortgage activity failed to respond. The Mortgage Bankers Association...
Tue, May 29 2018, 3:37 PM
Mortgage rates dropped abruptly today as political developments in Italy caused investor panic over the weekend. This is a bit of a complex topic, but...
Tue, May 29 2018, 10:40 AM
It certainly must save time in the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller press office that they can reuse essentially the same headline month-after-month. This m...
Tue, May 29 2018, 9:06 AM
Plenty of people I know agree with the this Forbes article titled, “We Have Learned Nothing From The Mortgage Market Meltdown.” For example, certainly...
Tue, May 29 2018, 9:01 AM
Let's use US politics and Congress to help us understand Italian politics. Imagine that Libertarians and Independents actually won enough seats to co...
Tue, May 29 2018, 8:19 AM
Homeownership has barely budged off the historic lows reached during the Great Recession and its aftermath. The housing industry has been struggling t...
Fri, May 25 2018, 5:22 PM
When you pay the sort of price we paid last week (in terms of rates surging to 7-year highs), you expect to get something reasonably nice in return....
Fri, May 25 2018, 5:02 PM
Mortgage rates moved much lower this week with another strong move today. As we discussed yesterday, this is certainly at odds with the prevailing new...
Fri, May 25 2018, 10:18 AM
The May edition of Freddie Mac's monthly Outlook , produced by its Economic & Housing Research Group, is focused on the resiliency of the American hom...
Fri, May 25 2018, 9:33 AM
If you'd just had your worst week in 7 years, it's always nice if the next could be markedly different. That's the case for bond markets this week, a...
Fri, May 25 2018, 9:07 AM
Did you know that the number of female chief executives of Fortune 500 companies this year declined by 25 percent (from 32 to 24)? Not good. One of th...
Fri, May 25 2018, 8:10 AM
CoreLogic says flipping is back. The term applies to the act of buying, renovating and/or repairing a house, then reselling it, all within a short tim...
Thu, May 24 2018, 4:29 PM
Yesterday was an important one for anyone hoping NOT to see the bond market completely give up hope in the fight against higher rates. To be fair, ...
Thu, May 24 2018, 3:14 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower again today, bringing them to the best levels in at least 2 weeks. This assertion is very much at odds with the prevailing ...
Thu, May 24 2018, 11:00 AM
Existing home sales put an end to two straight months of gains , retreating in April on both a monthly and annual basis. The National Association of R...
Thu, May 24 2018, 10:29 AM
Home prices in the first quarter of 2018 were 1.7 percent higher than at the end of the fourth quarter of last year. The Federal Housing Finance Agenc...
Thu, May 24 2018, 9:35 AM
One short week after hitting the worst levels in nearly 7 years there's suddenly a semblance of hope again for bonds. It was one thing to see last ...
Thu, May 24 2018, 9:18 AM
The conference this week? I attended various presentations dealing with housing finance and the economy in general. Even in the face of rising rates, ...
Thu, May 24 2018, 9:08 AM
Fannie Mae is backing down slightly on its economic forecast for the remainder of 2018. The first quarter GDP growth of 2.3 percent was the slowest in...
Thu, May 24 2018, 8:41 AM
Loan performance continued to improve in April, even though Black Knight says mortgage delinquencies have a historic pattern of increasing during that...
Wed, May 23 2018, 4:41 PM
Bonds surged to significantly stronger levels in the presence of the Fed Minutes today. Any time we see strong gains on a day with a Fed release, c...
Wed, May 23 2018, 3:36 PM
This week hadn't been too traumatic for mortgage rates through yesterday afternoon, but neither had it been positive in any noticeable way. That chang...
Wed, May 23 2018, 11:21 AM
The House of Representatives passed a sweeping overhaul of regulations included in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act ...
Wed, May 23 2018, 10:44 AM
New home sales dipped in April, a reversal that was expected by many analysts . The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Develop...
Wed, May 23 2018, 9:15 AM
Reams of data have been gathered about what appear to be significant changes in the profile of younger homebuyers and consequently mortgage borrowers....
Wed, May 23 2018, 9:11 AM
Every vendor here at the MBA conference suggests they can help clients close more loans faster, more efficiently and compliantly. If only all these le...
Wed, May 23 2018, 9:05 AM
I woke up this morning to an automated alert from MBS Live letting me know I'd need to hustle to the desk and explain whatever it was that caused the ...
Wed, May 23 2018, 8:17 AM
Mortgage rates surged significantly during the week ended May 18, sending mortgage activity skidding for the fifth straight week . The Mortgage Banker...
Tue, May 22 2018, 4:52 PM
For the 2nd straight day , trading levels in bond markets held inside a narrow range--far narrower than that seen on any given day last week, let alo...
Tue, May 22 2018, 3:09 PM
After quite a bit of volatility and a move up to 7-year highs last week, mortgage rates have managed to avoid any semblance of drama so far this week....
Tue, May 22 2018, 12:18 PM
As if the new home inventory wasn't tight enough, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) say a higher proportion of those homes are being bu...
Tue, May 22 2018, 10:19 AM
It only impacts auto lending, but if Mick Mulvaney, acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPB) keeps his word, a Congressional...
Tue, May 22 2018, 9:21 AM
Today begins the 3rd day where US Treasuries aren't imploding after hitting 7 year highs last Thursday. At this point, we might consider the resilien...
Tue, May 22 2018, 9:10 AM
The U.S. mortgage industry likely recorded an operating loss in the first three months of 2018 due to falling loan volumes and growing expenses, the M...
Mon, May 21 2018, 4:56 PM
There were no significant economic reports or events today, and only a few newsworthy developments. The biggest of these also happened the earliest (...
