Tue, Aug 14 2018, 9:24 AM
Turkish Lira bounced in the overnight session--not in any epic fashion, but enough to result in a bit of spillover for stocks/bonds. 10yr yields rose...
Tue, Aug 14 2018, 8:56 AM
A Zen master visiting NYC approaches a hot dog vendor and says, "Make me one with everything." The hot dog vendor fixes a hot dog and hands it to the ...
Mon, Aug 13 2018, 5:29 PM
Another day, another chance for market watchers and pundits of all types to make mountains out of Turkish molehills. Yes, the financial crisis in Tur...
Mon, Aug 13 2018, 5:03 PM
Mortgage rates stayed steady at the lowest levels in more than 3 weeks as financial markets are still accounting for additional risks relating to Turk...
Mon, Aug 13 2018, 9:34 AM
Did anyone else have to sit through the drug addiction video (or was it a book?) in grade school (or was it middle school?) where the main character k...
Mon, Aug 13 2018, 8:54 AM
Don’t think that correct mortgage documentation is important? Think again, or ask Citigroup. The Federal Reserve said Friday it had fined Citigroup $8...
Fri, Aug 10 2018, 5:25 PM
Tired of hearing about Turkey yet? This is what happens when fairly quiet markets are interrupted by a thunderous roar from an unexpected place. News...
Fri, Aug 10 2018, 4:47 PM
Mortgage rates , and indeed most interest rates, are tied to movement in the bond market. In turn, bonds tend to benefit when big, scary stuff is shak...
Fri, Aug 10 2018, 12:41 PM
An aging housing stock is usually thought of as a problem. Older homes can be more expensive to maintain and easily fall into enough disrepair to be a...
Fri, Aug 10 2018, 10:08 AM
Turkey (the country, not the lunch meat) is the 17th biggest economy in the world in terms of GDP. That's roughly 20% bigger than the next closest co...
Fri, Aug 10 2018, 8:51 AM
This week in Salt Lake City, mPower hosted an event at the Lenders One Summer Conference, drawing nearly 400 people. The executive panel, led by MBA's...
Fri, Aug 10 2018, 8:06 AM
We now have an unfortunate sign that the recovery is complete. The National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) says housing affordability is the lowes...
Thu, Aug 9 2018, 4:40 PM
Have you heard the one about the Turkish debt crisis? Things are pretty bad for Turkey and the currency is indeed in freefall, but until the charts d...
Thu, Aug 9 2018, 3:58 PM
Mortgage rates finally did what they were supposed to do today. Specifically, they fell in response to bond market improvement. That's the way it shou...
Thu, Aug 9 2018, 11:41 AM
Fannie Mae has informed us that they too have activated their disaster response policies for homeowners , this time for those affected by the Californ...
Thu, Aug 9 2018, 11:39 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) says that responses to its recent Mortgage Builder Applications Survey indicates an increase of 3.6 percent in ...
Thu, Aug 9 2018, 9:42 AM
In the short-term (past few weeks), the trend has not been our friend. After breaking above a narrow, sideways range, yields had been pushing higher ...
Thu, Aug 9 2018, 8:55 AM
Lots of originators are fascinated by demographics. Every year, about 27,000 people move from New York City to Philadelphia , making that specific mov...
Wed, Aug 8 2018, 6:09 PM
This week continued in the fine tradition of of ultra-light summertime volume and liquidity, but today's contribution was a bit more worthwhile than t...
Wed, Aug 8 2018, 4:57 PM
Mortgage rates were modestly higher today. Much like yesterday, there's a catch! Yesterday's catch was that underlying bond markets had weakened enoug...
Wed, Aug 8 2018, 4:39 PM
Some are saying that 2018 may be the worst year in history for wildfires in California and other states are threatened by blazes as well so Freddie Ma...
Wed, Aug 8 2018, 12:01 PM
The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said existing home sales cooled during the second quarter amidst what it called "staggeringly low" invento...
Wed, Aug 8 2018, 10:21 AM
Attitudes about buying and selling a home degraded in July. Fannie Mae said its National Housing Survey (NHS) for the month found a net decrease among...
Wed, Aug 8 2018, 9:50 AM
After spending most of July in a narrow, sideways trend, bonds broke higher in yield and looked like they would begin a classic range-breakout sell-of...
Wed, Aug 8 2018, 8:45 AM
The U.S. Census Bureau knows a thing or two about numbers, and it tells us that over the 10 years from 6/30/07 to 6/30/17, the number of “renter” hous...
Wed, Aug 8 2018, 8:04 AM
The week ended August 3 marked the fourth consecutive one in which mortgage activity declined. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market ...
Tue, Aug 7 2018, 3:54 PM
Bonds enjoyed a nice little winning streak beginning last Thursday. As of yesterday, it had carried 10yr Treasury yields below the important 2.95% te...
Tue, Aug 7 2018, 3:32 PM
Mortgage rates were roughly unchanged today. That would make this the 4th day in a row without any move higher in rates, and it would leave us at the ...
Tue, Aug 7 2018, 11:38 AM
Mortgage credit availability scored a significant gain in July. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MC...
Tue, Aug 7 2018, 11:33 AM
Freddie Mac has announced two new affordable rental programs. The first is a pilot in three markets (Atlanta, Orlando, and Tallahassee) that supports ...
Tue, Aug 7 2018, 9:53 AM
I received an interesting question yesterday as to whether or not there was any significance in the fact that 25, 50, and 100 day moving averages are ...
Tue, Aug 7 2018, 9:50 AM
Another day, another Wells Fargo PR disaster. The company is admitting they have foreclosed on about 400 homes owned by borrowers who were not allowed...
Tue, Aug 7 2018, 8:43 AM
People sometimes ask me how many loans underwriters or closers are doing these days. I turned to the MBA and the STRATMOR Group for hard numbers. Base...
Mon, Aug 6 2018, 5:22 PM
What do I mean when I say 'serendipitous' market movement? In general, this is just another way to say "that's the way the ball bounced, cookie crumbl...
Mon, Aug 6 2018, 4:50 PM
Mortgage rates were slightly lower for the 3rd straight business day, but not for any particular reason. Because of the relatively narrow range, rates...
Mon, Aug 6 2018, 9:34 AM
In terms of scheduled data and events, this week is much lighter than last. It will also be more susceptible to the effects of light liquidity as mar...
Mon, Aug 6 2018, 8:43 AM
In July I was fortunate to spend time in Colorado, Hawai’i, Nevada, Utah, and California, and I look forward to time in Illinois, Montana, Virginia an...
Mon, Aug 6 2018, 8:18 AM
Altough it was forecast to happen long ago, it seems price gains throughout the U.S. are moderating . Black Knight, in its August Mortgage Monitor , c...
Fri, Aug 3 2018, 7:13 PM
Bond markets began the day in roughly unchanged territory as they geared up to digest any curveballs from the payrolls data. NFP came in weaker than ...
Fri, Aug 3 2018, 2:12 PM
Mortgage rates fell again today after the jobs report showed slower payroll growth in July and persistently flat wage growth. On average, this is the ...
Fri, Aug 3 2018, 11:44 AM
CoreLogic is noting a subtle change in rent growth for single-family houses. Its Single-Family Rental Index (SFRI) has logged a steady increase in tho...
Fri, Aug 3 2018, 8:59 AM
I don’t think Brookstone, which declared bankruptcy yesterday, ever sold them, but is the “Tiny House” movement getting big? If you’re near Colorado S...
Fri, Aug 3 2018, 8:45 AM
A recent research paper from the Urban Institute (UI) looks at the benefits provided by real denial rates (RDR) over the traditional measure of credit...
Fri, Aug 3 2018, 8:35 AM
Today brings the sometimes super important nonfarm payrolls data. On average, no other piece of economic data has had as much of an impact on bonds o...
Thu, Aug 2 2018, 4:32 PM
Right at 9:30am this morning, both stocks and bond yields began moving higher . A modest overnight rally in Treasuries quickly came under fire and f...
Thu, Aug 2 2018, 3:55 PM
Mortgage rates fell by a modest amount today. It was fairly inconsequential in the bigger picture, but could save some prospective borrowers a few dol...
Thu, Aug 2 2018, 10:58 AM
Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government supported enterprises (GSEs) that have been in federal conservatorship for ten years this month, r...
Thu, Aug 2 2018, 9:32 AM
While recent bond market trends haven't been fun for originators, they've at least been more interesting from a market-watching standpoint. Markets t...
Thu, Aug 2 2018, 9:01 AM
When I was a young teen one of my summer jobs was working for a successful contractor in Cupertino, California at about $5 an hour. Comp has gone up s...
Wed, Aug 1 2018, 4:51 PM
It's beginning to look and sound a lot like the Springtime when bond analysts were making their calls for the year's highest 10yr yields. Guesses ran...
