Thu, Jan 18 2018, 9:18 AM
“Employee engagement is a hot topic for organizations big and small. Regardless of size, a highly engaged workforce is a company’s greatest asset and ...
Wed, Jan 17 2018, 4:42 PM
Last week's bounce at a ceiling of 2.60% (twice, essentially) was enough for some DEFENSIVE hope. In other words, it introduced the possibility of th...
Wed, Jan 17 2018, 3:35 PM
Mortgage rates were only moderately higher today, but the move was enough to officially bring them to the highest levels since the Spring of 2017. In ...
Wed, Jan 17 2018, 1:54 PM
Several housing authorities recently suggested changes to the form and operation of the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program, more commonly ...
Wed, Jan 17 2018, 10:41 AM
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), which hit an 18-year high in December, backed off a bit this ...
Wed, Jan 17 2018, 9:14 AM
“It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, as long as you have money.” Banks are where the money is, and plenty of them are paying attention to Congr...
Wed, Jan 17 2018, 9:07 AM
There's bad news and not-quite-as-bad news. Longer-term bonds (the stuff we care about) are either in a modest, steady, long-term uptrend (in rate)...
Wed, Jan 17 2018, 8:36 AM
Mortgage activity continued strong during the second week of the New Year. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports that its Market Composite In...
Tue, Jan 16 2018, 5:00 PM
Had it not been for a fairly abrupt sell-off in stocks (the first big day of losses in 2018, and the biggest open-to-close sell-off since late August ...
Tue, Jan 16 2018, 3:20 PM
Mortgage rates didn't move much today. Most lenders were just slightly lower/better this morning, but mid-day market weakness prompted several of them...
Tue, Jan 16 2018, 11:00 AM
Builders are building more houses, but a survey conducted by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) found they are essentially building the ...
Tue, Jan 16 2018, 9:36 AM
Don't get too excited. Despite a few close calls and false alarms, bonds managed to close below last Tuesday's highs for three days in a row. Now th...
Tue, Jan 16 2018, 9:16 AM
Replacing real estate agents with “something else that doesn’t earn a 6% commission” is certainly a discussion topic. Here’s one new venture: peer to ...
Fri, Jan 12 2018, 8:00 PM
Mortgage rates caught a break yesterday by moving lower for the first time this week. They arguably caught a break again today by not moving any highe...
Fri, Jan 12 2018, 7:58 PM
I laughed out loud today--something I rarely do when reading typed words--after MBS Live cornerstone Sung Kim quipped "thank God China is buying today...
Fri, Jan 12 2018, 9:14 AM
Plenty of people tell me that I’m “long in the tooth.” (A way of gauging a horse’s age.) Tooth? Thanks to Emily W. for sending in something that all o...
Fri, Jan 12 2018, 8:34 AM
A majority of market participants (or their mentors) were steeped in the extraordinary inflation/rate volatility of the late 70's and early 80's. As ...
Thu, Jan 11 2018, 4:50 PM
Yesterday morning's news regarding China potentially buying fewer (or selling) US Treasuries has been a big talking point. While most pundits and eve...
Thu, Jan 11 2018, 3:51 PM
Mortgage rates caught a break today, moving lower for the first time this week and pushing back from the highest levels since early July 2017. Like ye...
Thu, Jan 11 2018, 3:27 PM
A Ginnie Mae official told Congress this week that his agency has growing concerns over the incidence of "loan churning" in the VA mortgage program. M...
Thu, Jan 11 2018, 10:17 AM
Despite the usual holiday lull in overall mortgage applications, the demand for newly constructed homes increased in December. The Mortgage Bankers As...
Thu, Jan 11 2018, 9:18 AM
Yesterday, the possibility of China decreasing its purchases of US Treasuries was all anyone could talk about . Amid a sea of voices declaring this ...
Thu, Jan 11 2018, 9:13 AM
When I grow up I want a million-dollar house! Tight inventories, costs, and appreciation have created an increase of houses worth seven figures - the ...
Wed, Jan 10 2018, 5:37 PM
Yesterday: Japan . Today: China . Stakeholders, journalists, and even a fairly wide swath of bond traders are eager to make sense of the past 2 da...
Wed, Jan 10 2018, 3:35 PM
Mortgage rates were much higher this morning, bringing them to new 6-month highs (a dubious distinction also accomplished yesterday). Unlike yesterday...
Wed, Jan 10 2018, 12:26 PM
They may be a little late to the game, but John McManus, publisher of BuilderOnLine.com , is betting home builders are about to get a dose of digital ...
Wed, Jan 10 2018, 9:21 AM
Mortgage application activity roared out of the gate in the first week of the New Year, as the country got back down to business. Much of the week's g...
Wed, Jan 10 2018, 9:13 AM
Sharing a king bed with your 80-year old aunt, or the refrigerator with your twin 25-year olds who can’t afford to move out, probably isn’t high on yo...
Wed, Jan 10 2018, 9:02 AM
The proverbial "you know what" just got real. We'd been waiting for the first big dose of bond market momentum following months of consolidation head...
Tue, Jan 9 2018, 5:43 PM
In certain circles, much was made of overnight news that the Bank of Japan would be buying fewer bonds. That's about as far as most news stories de...
Tue, Jan 9 2018, 3:51 PM
Mortgage rates rose again today, adding to a nasty 2-day streak that's taken the average 30 yr fixed rate an eighth of a point higher. That's an uncom...
Tue, Jan 9 2018, 11:56 AM
A decline in each of its four component indices, especially the one measuring the availability of government-backed loans, drove overall mortgage cred...
Tue, Jan 9 2018, 10:29 AM
Mortgage delinquency rates continued to fall in October, with the national rate ticking down 0.1 percent and the percentage of non-current loans decli...
Tue, Jan 9 2018, 10:11 AM
This commentary was delayed this morning due to several alerts posted on MBS Live. If you're not a member and haven't checked it out, you should .
...
Tue, Jan 9 2018, 9:13 AM
“A sea change:” A radical change or transformation. One wouldn’t call last Friday’s note from the CFPB a sea change, but the fact that the Consumer Fi...
Mon, Jan 8 2018, 5:19 PM
Bonds began the day in slightly stronger territory (emphasis on "slightly"). The overnight session was calm and thinly traded with Japan being out of...
Mon, Jan 8 2018, 4:50 PM
Mortgage rates rose today, largely due to bond market movement from the end of last week that never made it onto last week's rate sheets. Specifically...
Mon, Jan 8 2018, 12:44 PM
Americans continued to have ambivalent views about the current virtues of both home buying and home selling in December. Consumers, responding to Fann...
Mon, Jan 8 2018, 10:20 AM
Not to be confused with the consolidative trend seen in Q4, 2017, there's been a slightly more negative consolidation underway in the last few weeks. ...
Mon, Jan 8 2018, 9:43 AM
Black Knight's Mortgage Monitor for November notes that the equation for tapping the growing pool of homeowner equity could shift because of the new r...
Mon, Jan 8 2018, 9:17 AM
The first five days after the weekend are the hardest. Welcome to Day 1. Events, Training, and Webinars This Week Register for Plaza’s January 8th web...
Fri, Jan 5 2018, 5:33 PM
Harker and the curve... It's not a song or a morning radio show.
It's a reference to the Fed's Patrick Harker commenting on the yield curve toda...
Fri, Jan 5 2018, 5:00 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower following a weaker-than-expected jobs report. The so-called "jobs report" (officially "The Employment Situation") is--on av...
Fri, Jan 5 2018, 10:11 AM
The House Financial Services Committee (FSC) has begun to schedule hearings for the new year and several bills will be on the agenda that could potent...
Fri, Jan 5 2018, 9:37 AM
I had my doubts at times, after some of this week's volatility. I thought perhaps that bonds were showing signs that the "new year momentum" (a notic...
Fri, Jan 5 2018, 9:11 AM
Today is “job’s day,” and it seems like many people I talk to in other professions have 2-3 jobs. (“Yeah, I graduated with a degree in physical therap...
Thu, Jan 4 2018, 4:44 PM
The overnight session and early morning hours saw a good, old-fashioned economic-data-driven sell-off in bond markets. Asian and European data were...
Thu, Jan 4 2018, 3:46 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher today , following stronger economic data at home and abroad. In general, stronger economic data implies better growth, hig...
Thu, Jan 4 2018, 9:42 AM
If you happen to read and retain most of what I write, you'll have noticed that toward the end of December, I increasingly mentioned that it wouldn't ...
Thu, Jan 4 2018, 9:17 AM
A shift in housing? Returns for landlords softened last year as about 400,000 units entered the US multifamily-housing market, outstripping demand, ac...
