Thu, Jun 28 2018, 5:12 PM
Referring to today as "modestly" weaker is a debatable choice. On the one hand, trading levels hit the 3pm close in modestly weaker territory. No ar...
Thu, Jun 28 2018, 4:43 PM
Mortgage rates haven't been too interested in making big moves recently. Today was no exception. In fact, most lenders' rate quotes would be indiscern...
Thu, Jun 28 2018, 10:40 AM
Persons who buy or refinance a condominium using a Freddie Mac mortgage may soon be able to skip having a traditional on-the-ground appraisal. The com...
Thu, Jun 28 2018, 8:57 AM
Ever wonder where manufactured houses are centered? Here’s a nifty map . They are being touted as a possible solution to the nation’s housing shortage...
Thu, Jun 28 2018, 8:09 AM
Ben Carson, MD, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) told the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday that his d...
Wed, Jun 27 2018, 4:49 PM
The last time trading levels in bond markets were this strong at the close of business, it was on the most dire day of the Italian political drama--th...
Wed, Jun 27 2018, 4:01 PM
Mortgage rates finally fell today after remaining flat for the last 3 business days. There are a few possible explanations for the friendly move, but ...
Wed, Jun 27 2018, 10:21 AM
The number of new contracts for existing home sales barely made it onto the bottom rung of analysts' expectations in May. The National Association of ...
Wed, Jun 27 2018, 9:35 AM
Monty Python isn't for everyone, but the old TV series is chock full of life lessons and random knowledge that really helps round out one's trivia pro...
Wed, Jun 27 2018, 9:06 AM
Freddie Mac reported today that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 6.3 percent in May. The portfolio balance at the end o...
Wed, Jun 27 2018, 9:01 AM
Today is the last day for the Supreme Court session, and the rumor is that Justice Anthony Kennedy will soon announce his retirement from the $250k/ye...
Wed, Jun 27 2018, 8:10 AM
The sharp uptick in mortgage applications during the week ended June 15 was short lived. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported a strong reve...
Tue, Jun 26 2018, 5:16 PM
Multifamily and commercial mortgage debt grew by $44.3 billion in the first quarter of 2018, a quarter-over-quarter increase of 1.4 percent, and the l...
Tue, Jun 26 2018, 5:11 PM
Bonds traded almost exactly the same range as they did yesterday. This time around, volumes were 33% lower, bringing them in line with recent lows ...
Tue, Jun 26 2018, 4:27 PM
Mortgage rates were flat for the 3rd straight day today, keeping them in a holding pattern just slightly below the highest levels in years. This has b...
Tue, Jun 26 2018, 10:17 AM
The producers of the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price indices injected a dose of reality into their report for April. David M. Blitzer Managing D...
Tue, Jun 26 2018, 9:56 AM
Technical analysis is an important ingredient in most market-watching recipes--at least when it comes to those who are compelled to watch markets most...
Tue, Jun 26 2018, 9:02 AM
The interest rate environment is like the weather: we all talk about it, but no one can do anything about it. Lenders have certainly noticed that sinc...
Mon, Jun 25 2018, 4:53 PM
So much for the stock lever! Though, to be fair to conventional wisdom , falling stock prices definitely did help bond yields move lower this mornin...
Mon, Jun 25 2018, 4:33 PM
Conventional wisdom holds that interest rates tend to move in the same direction as stocks. This makes logical sense from a classical investment portf...
Mon, Jun 25 2018, 2:50 PM
There was plenty of foreshadowing, but Fannie Mae's Chief Economist Doug Duncan said last week that cost-cutting has risen as a priority for mortgage ...
Mon, Jun 25 2018, 10:43 AM
The sales of new homes surged in May, outpacing the consensus of expectations, and while one months' data is just that, both median and average home p...
Mon, Jun 25 2018, 9:26 AM
Experienced loan officers know that much of their success is a number’s game: W number of cold calls result in X number of potential leads, X number o...
Mon, Jun 25 2018, 9:14 AM
Most financial metrics are almost always either MOVING or CONSOLIDATING . Those are pretty broad terms--especially when it comes to watching the m...
Fri, Jun 22 2018, 7:24 PM
Monday was the slowest day of the year in terms of volume. Volatility was also very muted by the time US markets fired up for the day. But here come...
Fri, Jun 22 2018, 6:50 PM
Mortgage rates moved slightly higher today. Yet again, underlying bond markets suggested another fate. In other words, if mortgage rates were perfectl...
Fri, Jun 22 2018, 12:33 PM
In back-to-back blog posts in the National Association of Home Builder's (NAHB's) Eye on Housing Blog , Paul Emrath details both the extent of the cur...
Fri, Jun 22 2018, 10:20 AM
The Trump Administration formally rolled out a plan on Tuesday to massively reorganize the federal government . The proposal is largely the work of Of...
Fri, Jun 22 2018, 9:20 AM
When a single, clearly-delineated event was responsible for 30bps of movement in 10yr yields in the matter of a few days, it's hard to get too worked ...
Fri, Jun 22 2018, 9:00 AM
Don't have the time, or money, to take a trip to Scottsdale, Ariz., to see Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home and studio, Taliesin West? Well, that issu...
Thu, Jun 21 2018, 5:35 PM
Mortgage rates were microscopically higher today, which is paradoxical on two levels. The first paradox has to do with today's bond market improvement...
Thu, Jun 21 2018, 5:31 PM
Grandparents will always have at least a few stories about "the way things used to be." Those old ways may seem inefficient, strange, wonderful , or...
Thu, Jun 21 2018, 10:26 AM
There has been a lot of hand-wringing for going on two years or so about the incredible shrinking inventory of homes for sale . This week CoreLogic an...
Thu, Jun 21 2018, 9:50 AM
By now, it's no great secret that pundits, analysts, and financial firm principals are pontificating on the next economic downturn. Guesses vary, b...
Thu, Jun 21 2018, 9:46 AM
There was another 0.1 percent increase in the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA's) House Price Index (HPI) in April. The index, which is calculat...
Thu, Jun 21 2018, 9:07 AM
Huh? Rumors again that FHLB Atlanta is exiting the HFLB Xtra mortgage program effective at the end of this year? Who can keep track of all the rumored...
Thu, Jun 21 2018, 8:04 AM
Loans for home purchasing continue to dominate mortgage originations and Ellie Mae says they may now represent the largest share of loans since the re...
Wed, Jun 20 2018, 7:04 PM
Before the Italy drama picked up at the end of May, bonds were very much on the bad side of the fence. Italy quickly punted rates to the other side ...
Wed, Jun 20 2018, 4:48 PM
Mortgage rates moved modestly higher today after holding in roughly the same territory for the past 3 days. This brings them back in line with last Th...
Wed, Jun 20 2018, 10:55 AM
Analysts were expecting existing home sales to rebound in May after they fell behind year-ago levels in April. However, the National Association of Re...
Wed, Jun 20 2018, 10:06 AM
I talk quite a bit about the " long-term trend " or the "longer-term trend" these days. It most frequently comes up in some iteration of the followin...
Wed, Jun 20 2018, 8:59 AM
onight/tomorrow morning is the summer solstice. I am in Minneapolis at an ACUMA workshop and where the sun will set tonight at 9:03. (I suppose ACUMA ...
Wed, Jun 20 2018, 8:16 AM
Mortgage interest rates waffled, moving in different directions depending on the product last week, but the volume of mortgage applications increased ...
Tue, Jun 19 2018, 4:15 PM
June began with yields plateauing after rising from the Italy-inspired lows of late May. 10yr yields managed to avoid breaking above 3% until last we...
Tue, Jun 19 2018, 3:19 PM
Mortgage rates didn't move much today, despite a somewhat decent improvement in bond markets. Overnight, trade war brinksmanship between the US and Ch...
Tue, Jun 19 2018, 11:27 AM
The White House announced on Monday the nomination of Kathy Kraninger as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to replace acting dir...
Tue, Jun 19 2018, 9:59 AM
Residential construction data was mixed for May as reported on Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. ...
Tue, Jun 19 2018, 8:59 AM
When I grow up I want to live in a ranch style… shipping container? If you have a builder complaining about lumber costs or labor to frame a house, th...
Tue, Jun 19 2018, 8:57 AM
You're welcome! I knew if I lamented the slow and boring nature of the week ahead yesterday that I could trick the bond market into doing something ...
Tue, Jun 19 2018, 8:35 AM
Despite a slowing rate of economic growth in the second estimate for the first quarter, Fannie Mae's economists are holding firm in their forecast for...
