Thu, Jul 12 2018, 3:06 PM
While the Labor Department's Employment Situation Report for June showed wages plodding along at a 2.7 percent annual increase, unchanged from May, it...
Thu, Jul 12 2018, 2:57 PM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is projecting a decline in new home sales for June, putting them significantly behind those in June 2017. MBA's...
Thu, Jul 12 2018, 2:43 PM
In a fairly rare turn of events, Fed Chair Powell gave a rather lengthy radio interview with Marketplace's Kai Ryssdal. Here's a rather lengthy trans...
Thu, Jul 12 2018, 9:51 AM
This morning's key data release is already out and it's already proven to be a dud (MBS Live members can read the update HERE). So we'll head to hi...
Thu, Jul 12 2018, 8:51 AM
Chris Whalen notes, “The failure of Bear Stearns & Co a decade ago illustrates the key lesson of financial markets, namely that non-banks are dependen...
Wed, Jul 11 2018, 5:59 PM
Today was the most active trading day of the week--something that looked destined to be the case considering markets began gyrating right at the sta...
Wed, Jul 11 2018, 4:54 PM
Mortgage rates played the same role they've been playing for weeks by holding fairly steady today. At the average lender, if you're looking for an ave...
Wed, Jul 11 2018, 11:05 AM
This month's Mortgage Monitor Report from Black Knight, Inc. is again about equity, but this time with a twist regarding the way homeowners are treati...
Wed, Jul 11 2018, 9:50 AM
The first two days of the week were largely spent lamenting the slow and inconsequential nature of summertime trading in the bonds market. At least t...
Wed, Jul 11 2018, 8:54 AM
U.S. capital markets folks have a way with words. Henry Jonas writes, “I started in this business in a Secondary Marketing in ‘86. Outside of maybe 19...
Wed, Jul 11 2018, 8:02 AM
Despite the Independence Day holiday which both shortened and bisected the week, mortgage activity rallied significantly during the week ended July 6....
Tue, Jul 10 2018, 4:37 PM
If we look solely at the US trading hours, yesterday and today form a nearly perfect 2-day trend just slightly higher in rate. Fannie 4.0 MBS prices ...
Tue, Jul 10 2018, 3:45 PM
Mortgage rates didn't move for most lenders today. Remaining lenders were just slightly higher than yesterday, thus keeping this week's modest upward ...
Tue, Jul 10 2018, 1:55 PM
The Mortgage Bankers Association attributed an increase in its Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) last month to increased competition among len...
Tue, Jul 10 2018, 9:14 AM
Yesterday saw the lightest Treasury volume of any full trading day so far this year. That's no great surprise in July, as this tends to be the month ...
Tue, Jul 10 2018, 8:37 AM
Pesky technology… it just won’t go away. Online lending platform fintech player (including mortgages) SoFi has launched a banking app (SoFi Money) in ...
Tue, Jul 10 2018, 8:26 AM
The foreclosure inventory, that is the percentage of loans in the process of foreclosure, appears to have stabilized at 0.6 percent of all outstanding...
Mon, Jul 9 2018, 5:32 PM
Bonds were moderately weaker today with Treasuries outpacing MBS in that regard. 10yr yields had fallen just over 3bps before the start of domestic...
Mon, Jul 9 2018, 4:47 PM
Mortgage rates were modestly higher today amid exceptionally quiet market conditions. In general, the bond market (which underlies mortgage rates) has...
Mon, Jul 9 2018, 11:26 AM
Fannie Mae recently made some fairly big changes to the condo underwriting process. While it may not affect everyone in the market for a condo, it wil...
Mon, Jul 9 2018, 11:17 AM
Americans may still feel it is a good time so sell a home and a so-so one for home purchases, but, in June at least, they were feeling a little edgy a...
Mon, Jul 9 2018, 9:19 AM
Last week was was a bit lacking in terms of trading days due to the holiday market closure, but it made up for that with bigger-ticket data and events...
Mon, Jul 9 2018, 8:52 AM
As a loan officer, how would you like the borrower’s first contact to be with your CEO or head of mortgage? A Wells borrower is greeted by Michael DeV...
Fri, Jul 6 2018, 7:35 PM
Bonds and mostly stocks were braced for something fairly austere heading into this morning's hard launch of new tariffs. This accounted for a clearl...
Fri, Jul 6 2018, 6:12 PM
Mortgage rates finally fell today--something that's proven elusive since roughly June 15th. Incidentally, that's when financial markets began bracing ...
Fri, Jul 6 2018, 12:54 PM
Recently the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) released a study, based on census data, showing an increasing percentage of young adults, ab...
Fri, Jul 6 2018, 8:58 AM
Everyone needs some learnin’, and LOs and underwriters are very interested in income, education, and trends. The US Census Bureau tells us that since ...
Fri, Jul 6 2018, 8:12 AM
As investors have sought a safe haven from trade-related risks, bonds have benefited more than they otherwise might have and stocks have been restrain...
Thu, Jul 5 2018, 5:22 PM
Fannie Mae's Lender Sentiment Survey has foreshadowed the growing attention to automating the loan approval process. That survey underlined the extent...
Thu, Jul 5 2018, 4:26 PM
Mortgage rates were sideways to slightly higher today as financial markets returned for the final 2 days of the holiday-shortened week. Trade war anxi...
Thu, Jul 5 2018, 9:27 AM
Heading into the day and a half holiday break, bonds had been consolidating in a narrower range centered on 2.85% in terms of 10yr yields. Now, as bo...
Thu, Jul 5 2018, 9:00 AM
Basketball folks have been talking about 33-year old LeBron James signing a four-year, $154 million deal with the Lakers. I don’t know the intricacies...
Thu, Jul 5 2018, 8:33 AM
In spite of a slight uptick in purchase activity, the overall pace of mortgage applications fell again during the week ended June 29. The Mortgage Ban...
Tue, Jul 3 2018, 2:49 PM
Millennials, it is said, are finally moving out on their own, establishing households and buying houses. But, if new research from the National Associ...
Tue, Jul 3 2018, 2:39 PM
Yesterday's headline was "strong start; weak finish." Today's is the opposite (obviously). In both cases, geopolitical issues played a role in ove...
Tue, Jul 3 2018, 1:55 PM
Mortgage rates ended the day roughly in line with yesterday's on average. That said, there's a wider-than-normal gap between lenders depending on seve...
Tue, Jul 3 2018, 11:24 AM
A sure sign that a topic has progressed beyond trending and is now “trended” is when its acronym has firmly replaced the actual name. Artificial intel...
Tue, Jul 3 2018, 9:05 AM
If bond markets had a nice month-end buying spree at the end of June, it happened on the 27th. The next two days saw moderate weakness . Yesterday'...
Tue, Jul 3 2018, 8:52 AM
While the Northeast swelters and California burns, remember that on July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence, s...
Mon, Jul 2 2018, 5:33 PM
Bonds started out in stronger territory today, thanks to geopolitical risks stemming from European immigration issues. When domestic traders got in f...
Mon, Jul 2 2018, 5:09 PM
Mortgage rates began the day in decent shape relative to last week. The average lender's rate/fee combo was at least as low as it had been on Friday. ...
Mon, Jul 2 2018, 11:15 AM
Construction spending was less robust than April's 1.8 percent gain, but the May numbers came in about where the experts expected them. The Census Bur...
Mon, Jul 2 2018, 10:05 AM
The 4th of July, like a handful of other bond market holidays, doesn't care what day of week the 4th falls on. That makes it one of the very times ea...
Mon, Jul 2 2018, 8:49 AM
I don’t think that my cat Myrtle has been asked any survey questions by any pollsters. (If she has, she hasn’t mentioned it, and if she was, I know ex...
Fri, Jun 29 2018, 6:49 PM
On 2 occasions this week, bonds set closing yield lows for the month. Moreover, if we strike the craziest day from late May from the record (since It...
Fri, Jun 29 2018, 5:57 PM
Mortgage rates haven't moved for 3 straight days now. In fact, if you're not too concerned with minutia, there hasn't been any major movement in weeks...
Fri, Jun 29 2018, 1:40 PM
A current post in Freddie Mac's Insight blog looks again at the decline in homeownership among young adults and tries to determine the role played by ...
Fri, Jun 29 2018, 9:51 AM
With each passing day this week, bonds do more to prove that the low yields achieved during the Italian panic were more than the mere byproduct of a s...
Fri, Jun 29 2018, 8:50 AM
Here’s something that’s kind of interesting. Half of all zero net energy homes have been built in California . “Cali,” a nickname despised by resident...
Fri, Jun 29 2018, 8:38 AM
Housing inventory shortages, lack of new construction, and the not-unrelated issues of rising prices and falling measures of affordability have been m...
