Wed, Oct 31 2018, 4:19 PM
While they are talking apples and oranges, both the U.S. Census Bureau and ATTOM Data Solutions each took a recent look at residential vacancies . The...
Wed, Oct 31 2018, 4:13 PM
Bonds ended the day in weaker territory with 10yr yields rising roughly 3bps and Fannie 4.0 MBS losing nearly a quarter of a point.
Much like yester...
Wed, Oct 31 2018, 3:29 PM
Mortgage rates were higher by a fairly small margin once again today. Interest rates in general (which are determined by the bond market) have been ta...
Wed, Oct 31 2018, 9:18 AM
The title of this commentary is not a Halloween pun . I don't do Halloween puns anymore. No, there is some legitimate cause for concern--even a bit...
Wed, Oct 31 2018, 9:00 AM
“The best part about Halloween is that the cobwebs in my house look like decorations.” For perhaps a morning, the focus for lenders has shifted away f...
Wed, Oct 31 2018, 8:10 AM
After posting the first across-the-board volume increases in almost a month during the week ended October 19, activity reversed last week, and the sea...
Tue, Oct 30 2018, 4:07 PM
Freddie Mac is forecasting that there will be GDP growth of 3.0 percent in the second quarter of this year, moderating from the strong 4.2 percent gro...
Tue, Oct 30 2018, 4:04 PM
If there's a theme in the bond market over the past 2 days, it's that we've broken away from the previously fairly rigid correlation with stocks. Tha...
Tue, Oct 30 2018, 3:05 PM
Mortgage rates were moderately higher today as underlying bond markets continued backing away from their strongest levels in more than 3 weeks (strong...
Tue, Oct 30 2018, 10:53 AM
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index for August showed an annual appreciation rate that was lower than 6.0 percent for the fi...
Tue, Oct 30 2018, 9:07 AM
Plenty of vendors and lenders are focused on raising capital, merging, selling, or closing. It doesn’t take a brilliant detective to see the liquidity...
Tue, Oct 30 2018, 8:45 AM
With bonds being flat to slightly weaker yesterday and now noticeably weaker overnight, we may be looking at our first real resistance bounce (aka "fl...
Mon, Oct 29 2018, 5:00 PM
The bond market has seen one too many "stay thirsty" memes. For example, "I don't always rally for more than a few days in a rising rate environmen...
Mon, Oct 29 2018, 4:22 PM
Mortgage rates didn't move today, despite a fair amount of underlying market volatility. Rates are able to weather the sorts of storms you hear about ...
Mon, Oct 29 2018, 1:29 PM
The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) says its 2018 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers confirms that student debt balances are an increasing con...
Mon, Oct 29 2018, 10:04 AM
Core global bond markets--led by German Bunds and US Treasuries--have been trending lower fairly reliably. For European bonds, that rally has occupie...
Mon, Oct 29 2018, 8:59 AM
We have a whole generation of home buyers who have never seen a 5% mortgage rate, and interesting thought. We’re not in the “An ARM is better” territo...
Fri, Oct 26 2018, 5:42 PM
Interest rates that have generally been rising for a any period of time can catch a break for many reasons. Sometimes it's Italian political drama ...
Fri, Oct 26 2018, 2:08 PM
Mortgage rates fell decisively today--at least in the context of the recent range--thanks primarily to heavy losses in the stock market. Stocks are fa...
Fri, Oct 26 2018, 10:31 AM
Freddie Mac reported this week that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 2.3 percent in September. The portfolio balance at...
Fri, Oct 26 2018, 10:29 AM
Well, I'm a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona and such a fine sight to see. What if you want to put down roots there? The town, 3 and a half ho...
Fri, Oct 26 2018, 8:31 AM
Everything continues to be fairly unidimensional for bonds this week with the dimension in question being that of the equities market. In terms of re...
Thu, Oct 25 2018, 5:32 PM
The best way to look at today is as a more sober attempt to hold the lowest yields in more than 3 weeks . The only day that's ended any better for...
Thu, Oct 25 2018, 4:27 PM
Mortgage rates were unchanged yet again , making this the third day in a row at essentially the same levels. Strikingly, underlying market movement wa...
Thu, Oct 25 2018, 3:12 PM
As part of an upgrade to its Desktop Underwriter (DU) that will be issued over the December 8 weekend, Fannie Mae says there will be some adjustments ...
Thu, Oct 25 2018, 10:26 AM
The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) just issued the first positive pending home sales report in months . Pending sales, a leading indicator fo...
Thu, Oct 25 2018, 9:24 AM
The IRS ruled on the tax treatment of business meals? True .) Congressional Bank buying McClean Mortgage? (Rumor.) A loan officer at Umpqua stealing a...
Thu, Oct 25 2018, 9:07 AM
With slightly weaker levels overnight, the rest of the day becomes a fight to maintain the gains seen so far this week. The easiest and most basic ob...
Wed, Oct 24 2018, 4:56 PM
Yesterday was ' neat ' for a while--at least in the morning hours when massive stock losses helped bonds achieve their best levels in weeks. Then sto...
Wed, Oct 24 2018, 4:22 PM
Mortgage rates were roughly unchanged today. That's an appalling reality considering the movement in underlying bond markets. Bonds--specifically, mor...
Wed, Oct 24 2018, 11:06 AM
New home sales managed to pull out a gain last time they were reported. The question was, with an improving inventory but rising interest rates, could...
Wed, Oct 24 2018, 10:26 AM
Mortgage delinquencies surged by 13.2 percent in September, the largest single-month increase since November 2008. But despite the ominous connotation...
Wed, Oct 24 2018, 10:24 AM
Like most measures of monthly home price appreciation, the Federal Housing Finance Agency's House Price Index (HPI) has slowed in recent months but no...
Wed, Oct 24 2018, 9:06 AM
Lenders, investors, and servicers don’t like bankruptcy, and for good reason. Thank you to Brian B. up in New Jersey who sent along this note about ho...
Wed, Oct 24 2018, 8:49 AM
For nearly a week, 10yr Treasury yields had been treating 3.18% as a floor (3.178% was the lowest close over the past 4 days. That arguably changed ...
Wed, Oct 24 2018, 8:47 AM
Mortgage applications rose during the week ended October 19, an increase the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) attributed to a rebound from the Colum...
Tue, Oct 23 2018, 5:49 PM
What a frustrating day! Yes, it's true that bonds ended up in positive territory at the close, but it would have almost been better to endure a modes...
Tue, Oct 23 2018, 5:05 PM
Mortgage rates didn't move much for the second day this week. Unlike yesterday, there was a relatively massive amount of volatility in underlying fina...
Tue, Oct 23 2018, 4:56 PM
Duration is a key variable in deciding value to bond investors investors. In fact, many investors have a duration target for their portfolio. Duratio...
Tue, Oct 23 2018, 11:53 AM
Remember the old Point/Counterpoint segment on CBS's 60 Minutes? Two political commentators, a far right conservative and an equally lefty liberal arg...
Tue, Oct 23 2018, 9:56 AM
Historically the FHFA, and with it Freddie and Fannie, announce official loan levels for the following year soon after Thanksgiving . (There are alway...
Tue, Oct 23 2018, 9:17 AM
Yesterday was boring and uneventful. Bonds seemed to be trying everything in their power to remain range-bound and avoid breaking out of the consol...
Mon, Oct 22 2018, 5:26 PM
As of October 16th, we'd been tracking the most recent consolidation in bond yields (and stocks for that matter) waiting for a breakout to suggest the...
Mon, Oct 22 2018, 4:52 PM
Mortgage rates didn't move much today. Lenders who made changes to Friday's rate sheets generally did so toward slightly higher rates. Actually, it wo...
Mon, Oct 22 2018, 9:24 AM
Residential mortgage bankers are notoriously bad at actually retiring. They usually seem to come back as teachers, consultants, remodelers, etc. But p...
Mon, Oct 22 2018, 8:47 AM
The basic candlestick or bar chart that the average bond analyst uses to track 10yr Treasury yields is doing a good job of capturing the current oppos...
Fri, Oct 19 2018, 8:07 PM
Fannie Mae's Economic and Strategic Research (ESR) group is still expecting that economic growth will "likely" be solid in the third quarter, but they...
Fri, Oct 19 2018, 8:04 PM
The share of closed loans originated for home purchase continues to inch higher. Ellie Mae, in its September Origination Insight Report , says that sh...
Fri, Oct 19 2018, 8:02 PM
Bonds were stuck between a rock and a hard place today. Actually they were stuck between stocks and a European place. Stocks made a case for a bond ...
Fri, Oct 19 2018, 3:25 PM
Mortgage rates failed to extend yesterday's modest improvement, moving modestly higher by the end of the day. This takes the average lender very close...
