Wed, Jan 9 2019, 8:10 AM
As the partial government shutdown continues the National Association of Realtors® contacted a sample of its members to see if the real estate market ...
Tue, Jan 8 2019, 4:36 PM
For several weeks heading into the December Fed announcement, we discussed the impressive Nov/Dec bond market rally and the fact that the Fed would li...
Tue, Jan 8 2019, 3:36 PM
Mortgage rates rose moderately for the 3rd day in a row today, bringing them to the highest levels since December 31st for the average lender. In outr...
Tue, Jan 8 2019, 11:10 AM
Some housing market analysts have found recent trends in construction, home sales, and diminishing affordability disquieting and perhaps early warning...
Tue, Jan 8 2019, 9:28 AM
In some nearby parallel dimension, the letter "f" is option in today's title. We'll have to remember this little trick the next time bonds bounce so ...
Tue, Jan 8 2019, 9:13 AM
In HELOC news, “traditional” lenders know that online lender Prosper plans to offer home equity lines of credit this year. The threats to real estate ...
Mon, Jan 7 2019, 5:32 PM
Bonds had a chance to make the big potential correction of early 2019 a 1-day affair. That would refer, of course, to last Friday's bond market wea...
Mon, Jan 7 2019, 5:08 PM
Mortgage rates were higher again today, extending a 2-day move from the lowest levels since early 2018. The size and pace of the late 2018 improvement...
Mon, Jan 7 2019, 10:51 AM
A few more Americans decided it might be a good time to buy a home in November, but boy did they change their minds in December. Fannie Mae said the n...
Mon, Jan 7 2019, 10:00 AM
Let’s start the first 5-day workweek of 2019 off with something entirely non-mortgage related, although “unintended consequences from revenue-based de...
Mon, Jan 7 2019, 9:52 AM
Will rates be able to remain in the comparatively great territory they entered last week, or does Friday's post-NFP sell-off mean we should be fear...
Fri, Jan 4 2019, 5:16 PM
Yesterday's recap headline spoke of bonds being on fire in a good way. Apparently word got out . Several party poopers arrived with buckets of wate...
Fri, Jan 4 2019, 4:42 PM
Mortgage rates hit the lowest levels in nearly a year as of yesterday afternoon. In general, they've had a one track mind for the better part of two m...
Fri, Jan 4 2019, 11:34 AM
Refinancing activity has probably held up better than expected as interest rates have risen. Refinance applications accounted for more than 40 percent...
Fri, Jan 4 2019, 9:19 AM
It's no secret that the bond market has been on a tear for more than a month. 10yr Treasury yields dropped more than 30 basis points (0.30%) in Decem...
Fri, Jan 4 2019, 9:19 AM
Some view the end of one year and the beginning of another as an artificial construct, created by human intervention. Others take careful note of what...
Thu, Jan 3 2019, 5:08 PM
Bonds hit their best levels in nearly a year today, depending on the security in question. MBS are lagging behind Treasuries for reasons discussed in...
Thu, Jan 3 2019, 4:37 PM
Mortgage rates have been plummeting , depending on your definition of the word. To be sure, the past 2 months have no competition in nearly 3 years. T...
Thu, Jan 3 2019, 9:53 AM
Bonds started the new year off on a strong note yesterday, rallying to the best levels since ____. That blank would be filled in with a distinctly di...
Thu, Jan 3 2019, 9:31 AM
According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR, not the NRA), Americans 36 and younger represented the largest share of home buyers (34%) in 2...
Thu, Jan 3 2019, 8:21 AM
Earlier this week we summarized a new White Paper from Freddie Mae detailing the growing importance of single-family properties within the U.S. rental...
Thu, Jan 3 2019, 8:05 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) office was closed during Christmas Week and did not issue its usual summary of mortgage application activity fo...
Wed, Jan 2 2019, 5:55 PM
Monday's half-day brought 2018 to a strongly positive conclusion for bonds. Today's full session picked up where Monday left off and then some . ...
Wed, Jan 2 2019, 4:49 PM
Mortgage rates didn't have much to celebrate in 2018--at least not until the last few months. But those last few months were quite nice! Despite uncer...
Wed, Jan 2 2019, 10:40 AM
Home prices grew by an estimated 0.4 percent in November according to CoreLogic's Home Price Index (HPI) and were 5.1 percent higher than at the end o...
Wed, Jan 2 2019, 8:49 AM
Last week I noted a STRATMOR study that shows, pretty much year in and year out, that traditionally, 82% of residential production comes from 40% of t...
Wed, Jan 2 2019, 8:31 AM
Overnight market movement was kind to the US bond market, keeping some hope alive for a continuation of recent strength. Rather than an epic rebound ...
Mon, Dec 31 2018, 2:30 PM
When one thinks about renters it is usually clusters of three-story garden style apartments, or high-rise elevator buildings that come to mind. But Fr...
Mon, Dec 31 2018, 2:05 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower again today--this time in a slightly more noticeable way. More than anything, this was a reflection of last Friday's market...
Mon, Dec 31 2018, 9:40 AM
This week promises a slow start due to the early close today and full closure tomorrow, but a strong finish due to Friday's NFP and the simple fact ...
Mon, Dec 31 2018, 8:54 AM
How important is it for lock desk personnel to charge the correct fees for rate lock extensions? Very. Lock mistakes were included in Wells Fargo’s la...
Fri, Dec 28 2018, 4:55 PM
Bonds have had their good eye on stocks for months now. Almost any instance of exceptional bond market strength has come courtesy of exceptional ...
Fri, Dec 28 2018, 4:27 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower by an almost imperceptible amount today. The improvement was enough to bring the average lender to the lowest levels since ...
Fri, Dec 28 2018, 10:29 AM
Analysts had expected to hear that pending home sales had a good run in November, perhaps even breaking its 10-month streak of year-over-year declines...
Fri, Dec 28 2018, 9:31 AM
“Rob, should we be staffing up for another refi boom?” It seems like most lenders are pausing during the holidays to take stock of current staffing le...
Fri, Dec 28 2018, 9:17 AM
As we discuss off and on over the years, the relationship between stocks and bonds is always complicated. At times, it seems as if bond yields and st...
Thu, Dec 27 2018, 5:16 PM
Is this the "big one" or isn't it?! That's what everyone with a vested interested in the stock market would like to know about the ongoing sell-off t...
Thu, Dec 27 2018, 4:48 PM
Mortgage rates were unchanged to slightly lower today, which is a major victory considering how yesterday left off. Specifically, bond markets had wea...
Thu, Dec 27 2018, 10:06 AM
Home prices on the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA's) Housing Price Index (HPI) crept higher in October, although year over year appreciation s...
Thu, Dec 27 2018, 9:10 AM
Last Wednesday was Fed day and it marked a technical breakout for bond yields. As far back as June 2018, 10yr yields had been bouncing on a floor of ...
Thu, Dec 27 2018, 8:54 AM
The US taxpayer has been bearing the credit risk of 90% of all new origination over the past 10 years. What about property/collateral risk? Yesterday ...
Wed, Dec 26 2018, 4:47 PM
Bonds had a rotten day, primarily because stocks had an amazing day (although the terrible 5yr Treasury auction didn't help). In turn, stocks prima...
Wed, Dec 26 2018, 4:10 PM
Mortgage rates were unchanged in some cases today and higher in others. The discrepancy is a result of the timing of today's market movements. The mos...
Wed, Dec 26 2018, 10:59 AM
Home prices continued to ratchet down their advances in October, fewer than half of the tracked cities saw prices increase on an unadjusted basis. The...
Wed, Dec 26 2018, 10:04 AM
The title of the Day Ahead commentary on Monday was "Don't Get Too Attached." In a nutshell, the suggestion was to not get too attached to any decisi...
Wed, Dec 26 2018, 8:54 AM
This government shutdown is over 215 miles of fencing along a 2,000-mile border. Rate-wise, there is growing thought that the Fed has overshot rate ch...
Mon, Dec 24 2018, 12:43 PM
Mortgage rates did nothing interesting today, as is typical for the days before and after a major holiday. Tangentially related and significantly more...
Mon, Dec 24 2018, 10:19 AM
Freddie Mac reported this week that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 6.8 percent in November, up from 4.7 percent the p...
Mon, Dec 24 2018, 9:31 AM
The week and a half surrounding Christmas and New Years Day tends to play by its own random rules. Sometimes it fits in with the prevailing trend (in...
Mon, Dec 24 2018, 9:03 AM
I’ve been in capital markets since the mid-1980s. No presidential administration has eliminated business cycles. Although stocks have given up their g...
