Tue, Oct 9 2018, 8:16 AM
It appears that, while Americans are generally upbeat about the economy, housing, and their own financial fortunes, they have a little difficulty main...
Fri, Oct 5 2018, 8:48 PM
The jobs report may have missed the mark in terms of payrolls, but average hourly earnings put in its 4th straight month holding 2.8% (y/y) or high...
Fri, Oct 5 2018, 3:21 PM
Mortgage rates moved back over the 5% threshold, on average, for the first time since early 2011 today following mixed data on the jobs market. Why wo...
Fri, Oct 5 2018, 10:52 AM
Mortgage lenders have been increasingly reporting tighter margins as costs rise for each actual loan transaction. In the last few years the principal ...
Fri, Oct 5 2018, 8:58 AM
“Rob, is any lender making money out there?” Well, what’s the old “joke?” “How do you get $5 million in the mortgage biz? Start with $10 million!” Not...
Fri, Oct 5 2018, 8:30 AM
At this point, there's nothing left to be said or done in preparation for today's NFP data. Bonds stand on the edge of the most recent abyss. This t...
Thu, Oct 4 2018, 4:48 PM
If you're looking for today's recap, check out the Huddle. Or just know that we sold-off a bit more and then settled sideways, fairly close to yester...
Thu, Oct 4 2018, 3:44 PM
If you don't happen to make it past this first sentence, just know that anyone telling you rates are much higher today is NOT lying to you. Anyone tel...
Thu, Oct 4 2018, 10:54 AM
The availability of mortgage credit at least as measured by the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA's) Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) pulle...
Thu, Oct 4 2018, 10:44 AM
Lesson learned? Whether they saw their credit decimated by the housing crisis and the Great Recession or merely watched loan standards tightened beyon...
Thu, Oct 4 2018, 9:30 AM
If you didn't catch it, and want to get caught up with yesterday's big move, this tweet has several links that should bring you thoroughly up to speed...
Thu, Oct 4 2018, 9:14 AM
In bad news, mortgage rates went up about .25% yesterday. In good news, more homes are going up for sale. According to realtor.com there was a Septemb...
Thu, Oct 4 2018, 8:12 AM
Nearly two years ago the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) approved Underserved Market Plans from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These plans, part of...
Wed, Oct 3 2018, 6:20 PM
In terms of outright movement toward higher rates, you'd have to go back to the days following the election in November 2016 to find anything worse ...
Wed, Oct 3 2018, 4:43 PM
Mortgage rates skyrocketed today, in relative terms. It was the single worst day in nearly 2 years, and among only a few days where effective rates mo...
Wed, Oct 3 2018, 9:25 AM
Between 2001 and 2016, 97 percent of total job growth in the Unites States happened in urban counties. And while rural America is absolutely strugglin...
Wed, Oct 3 2018, 8:24 AM
As mortgage interest rates moved higher during the week ended September 28, with small increases carrying most to new seven year highs, application ac...
Wed, Oct 3 2018, 8:23 AM
Zen practitioners are an odd lot. One of their hallmark koans--the one about whether or not a tree falling in the woods makes a sound--is nonsense. ...
Tue, Oct 2 2018, 4:21 PM
Bonds had a couple options to choose from today when it came to potential market movers. As far as known quantities, we knew there would be a speech ...
Tue, Oct 2 2018, 3:46 PM
Mortgage rates fell modestly today, and thus managed to avoid heading any closer to the 7-year highs just overhead. Underlying bond markets benefited ...
Tue, Oct 2 2018, 11:47 AM
Two Zillow subsidiaries are estimating it will cost the average U.S. homebuyer $40,000 to get in the door of their new home. Depending on where the ho...
Tue, Oct 2 2018, 8:49 AM
“Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution.” There are plenty of folks out there reminding lenders of the seasonality of ...
Tue, Oct 2 2018, 8:37 AM
So there's this sideways trading range, and we're waiting for bonds to break out. The end...
Seriously though! It's really that simple . We'd b...
Tue, Oct 2 2018, 8:17 AM
The take-away from CoreLogic's report on its August Home Price Index is that home price appreciation during the month was the slowest in two years . T...
Mon, Oct 1 2018, 5:14 PM
After slogging up toward (but not over) long-term highs 2 weeks ago, 10yr yields began a waiting game that looked like it would take a cue from last W...
Mon, Oct 1 2018, 4:37 PM
After hitting the lowest levels in exactly 2 weeks on Friday, mortgage rates bounced back up toward their recent highs today. This risk was already ta...
Mon, Oct 1 2018, 11:29 AM
The total value of construction put in place during August only ticked up 0.1 percent compared to July, but the small, steady increases each month hav...
Mon, Oct 1 2018, 9:13 AM
Believe it or not, any given month stands a better than average chance to convey some sort of theme for bond trading. In other words, there tends to ...
Mon, Oct 1 2018, 8:51 AM
Is every non-bank lender of any size looking at offshore options to save money? Perhaps, and underwriting costs and productivity are usually brought u...
Fri, Sep 28 2018, 5:00 PM
Today brought rather pervasive pressure on longer-term rates and mortgages. It wasn't a significant amount of selling, but it was fairly steady thr...
Fri, Sep 28 2018, 4:25 PM
Mortgage rates were slightly lower again today, but there are some caveats. First of all, the average lender wasn't in substantially better shape comp...
Fri, Sep 28 2018, 10:07 AM
Freddie Mac made two announcements this week. The first is a long expected administrative change to requirements for private mortgage insurance (PMI) ...
Fri, Sep 28 2018, 8:53 AM
In less than 2 years, we'll be closer to 2070 than 1970! Does anyone feel that it’s silly to think of middle-aged mortgage bankers believing that they...
Fri, Sep 28 2018, 8:31 AM
September has been a long month for the bond market as rates quickly trudged back up to levels that aligned with our more pessimistic assumptions for ...
Thu, Sep 27 2018, 4:43 PM
In the past week, we've seen 10yr yields rise up and over 3.06%, flirt with 3.10%+ and come back down. This has happened only one other time since ...
Thu, Sep 27 2018, 4:13 PM
Mortgage rates fell modestly again today. Over the past 2 days, we've managed to undo more than a week of damage, with rates back at their best levels...
Thu, Sep 27 2018, 10:37 AM
The leading indicator for existing home sales continued to struggle in August and for the fourth time in the last five months purchase contract execut...
Thu, Sep 27 2018, 9:09 AM
Yesterday's Fed announcement--specifically, Fed Chair Powell's press conference remarks--set bonds up for a potential bounce. This would come at a c...
Thu, Sep 27 2018, 9:03 AM
Goldman Sachs telling us it expects four more short-term rate increases by the Fed in 2019, and it doesn’t make money by being wrong. Is your company ...
Wed, Sep 26 2018, 4:59 PM
For a while, it looked like today would turn out to be one of those "dud" Fed days where actual market movement woefully undershoots potential market ...
Wed, Sep 26 2018, 4:59 PM
One of the more contentious provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was a new ceiling on the SALT deduction. This is the amount taxpayers ...
Wed, Sep 26 2018, 4:18 PM
Mortgage rates improved in a somewhat noticeable way for the first time in weeks following today's policy announcement from the Fed. Actually, to be f...
Wed, Sep 26 2018, 2:08 PM
Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in June August indicates that the labor market has continued to strengthen and th...
Wed, Sep 26 2018, 10:44 AM
New Home Sales posted a month-over-month increase for the first time since May according to Wednesday's report from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Dep...
Wed, Sep 26 2018, 10:41 AM
Freddie Mac reported today that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 6.1 percent in August. The portfolio balance at the en...
Wed, Sep 26 2018, 9:22 AM
In trying to put together a chart for this morning, I kept running into a wall. It had to do with the likely outcomes associated with different Fed f...
Wed, Sep 26 2018, 8:39 AM
The last four weeks for me have included spending time with lenders in Montana, Southern & Northern California, Nevada, Arizona, and Illinois. Yes, th...
Wed, Sep 26 2018, 8:15 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) says its Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage application volume, moved higher during the week ended S...
Tue, Sep 25 2018, 4:35 PM
Bonds began the day in weaker territory this morning, and they didn't need anyone to twist their arm in getting there. That was our first clue that...
Tue, Sep 25 2018, 3:34 PM
Mortgage rates were unchanged for some lenders today while others were in slightly higher territory. Either way, that leaves the average lender at the...
