Wed, Aug 30 2017, 5:50 PM
Bond markets had a reasonably good day, all things considered. The caveat is that we shouldn't read much of anything into today's trading because i...
Wed, Aug 30 2017, 4:32 PM
Mortgage rates were technically higher today vs yesterday, but unless you've been following day-to-day movements under a microscope, you probably won'...
Wed, Aug 30 2017, 2:29 PM
To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the demise of the ARM may have been greatly exaggerated . The market share of ARMs (adjustable rate mortgages) dr...
Wed, Aug 30 2017, 12:51 PM
Houstonians in the flood stricken areas are focused on surviving and looking for a place to stay, not finding a way to pay their monthly bills or mort...
Wed, Aug 30 2017, 10:09 AM
We've seen it before and we'll likely see it again. Bond markets (and most other markets, for that matter) respond quickly to some unexpected headlin...
Wed, Aug 30 2017, 9:26 AM
I love it when a roomful of 50, 60, or 70-year old residential lenders is complaining to me about a lack of “new blood” in the business, and I ask the...
Wed, Aug 30 2017, 9:13 AM
Applications for both home purchase mortgages and refinancing declined last week, pulling overall volume lower for the second week in a row. The Mortg...
Tue, Aug 29 2017, 6:28 PM
It's all well and good to highlight North Korea's missile launch as the dominant market mover for the day. It absolutely was. But it takes a little ...
Tue, Aug 29 2017, 6:00 PM
It's one thing for the highly competitive environment of "rate table" advertising (where lenders compete and you get confused) to be reporting mortgag...
Tue, Aug 29 2017, 3:16 PM
The bottom line for many mortgage banks recovered significantly in the second quarter of 2017, after two quarters of severely declining profits. The M...
Tue, Aug 29 2017, 1:29 PM
Another day, another Wells Fargo consumer lawsuit. This time the bank is confronting a class action suit accusing it of improperly charging mortgage c...
Tue, Aug 29 2017, 12:11 PM
Freddie Mac reported today that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 1.8 percent in July. The portfolio balance at the end ...
Tue, Aug 29 2017, 10:32 AM
Although home prices were generally expected to begin cooling off by the middle of 2017, the most recent Case-Shiller Home Price Index suggests the st...
Tue, Aug 29 2017, 9:48 AM
Amid the recent slow summertime trading, there are only a few things that stand a chance of catching the market's collective eye. Somewhere near the ...
Tue, Aug 29 2017, 9:27 AM
Different words have different meanings for different people. For example, instead of using the word “marriage,” Kim Kardashian prefers the phrases “l...
Mon, Aug 28 2017, 7:25 PM
It's not normal for a 5yr Treasury auction to cause the biggest move in any given day for bond markets. That's an honor typically reserved for 10yr...
Mon, Aug 28 2017, 5:32 PM
Mortgage rates held steady today, as the news cycle was dominated by Hurricane Harvey. That's not to say that natural disasters prevent movement in mo...
Mon, Aug 28 2017, 9:35 AM
Sometimes, events are such that the typical summertime trading patterns aren't easily seen in terms of trading ranges and volatility. For instance, i...
Mon, Aug 28 2017, 9:13 AM
Tropical Storm Harvey is very slowly creeping back toward the Gulf of Mexico but it was moving at only three miles per hour as of early Monday, so Sou...
Fri, Aug 25 2017, 5:54 PM
Today's Jackson Hole symposium couldn't have been any more anticlimactic even if this year's topic were "How to Deliver Anticlimactic Speeches on Mone...
Fri, Aug 25 2017, 3:25 PM
Mortgage rates were unchanged today, on average. Some lenders were slightly better, others were slightly worse, but none were very far from yesterday'...
Fri, Aug 25 2017, 10:54 AM
In July, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said it was rethinking implementation of its rules changing reporting requirements for the Ho...
Fri, Aug 25 2017, 10:51 AM
My boss arrived at work in a brand-new Lamborghini. I said, "Wow, that's an amazing car!” He replied, "If you work hard, put all your hours in, and st...
Fri, Aug 25 2017, 9:58 AM
I've waited until the day itself to abbreviate the Fed's Jackson Hole symposium with the beloved "J-Hole." Pretty impressive considering how much fun...
Thu, Aug 24 2017, 4:50 PM
Bond markets have been generally rallying since early July. The apparent inspiration for that rally was the sell-off that preceded it. That weakne...
Thu, Aug 24 2017, 4:21 PM
The quarterly report from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) based on its National Delinquency Survey seems like old times. MBA reports that most,...
Thu, Aug 24 2017, 2:35 PM
Mortgage rates haven't moved much at all recently. While that leaves us little to talk about if we're examining rate changes on a daily basis, it's a ...
Thu, Aug 24 2017, 11:06 AM
Sales of existing homes, like those for newly constructed ones, performed poorly in July. The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said today that ...
Thu, Aug 24 2017, 9:59 AM
It is hard to believe that it has taken more than a decade , but Black Knight Financial Services says the foreclosure inventory, after a 12,000-proper...
Thu, Aug 24 2017, 9:47 AM
Take your pick. A second home can mean endless headaches, unexpected costs, and shattered plans. On the other hand, a vacation home might mean a great...
Thu, Aug 24 2017, 9:22 AM
Most of my analysis in July and August focused on the positive technical boundary (aka "floor") at 2.21-2.22. As of yesterday, that floor is increasi...
Wed, Aug 23 2017, 5:26 PM
If there were a magical ratio comparing the overall movement in bond markets to the relevance of the factors motivating the movement, it would be off...
Wed, Aug 23 2017, 4:54 PM
Mortgage rates reversed yesterday's move today, falling back in line with recent lows--also the lowest levels since November 2016. At this time of yea...
Wed, Aug 23 2017, 4:38 PM
With mortgage volumes expected to decline, more lenders are telling Fannie Mae that they intend to loosen their credit standards. The company's second...
Wed, Aug 23 2017, 10:50 AM
New home sales in July were expected to remain steady after scoring a slight gain in June, instead they plunged to a rate even lower than those a year...
Wed, Aug 23 2017, 9:25 AM
Coincidentally, yesterday's Day Ahead talked about "pivot points." Now today, we see a prime example of a pivot point in action. Although I labele...
Wed, Aug 23 2017, 9:12 AM
Trends? A few weeks ago, Ally offered to beat any other lender’s price. And last week 360 Mortgage Group announced a new platform that will allow cust...
Wed, Aug 23 2017, 8:42 AM
The volume of refinancing applications, shored up by interest rates that remained at seven- and eight- month lows, rose for the fifth time in the last...
Tue, Aug 22 2017, 4:23 PM
I'm not shy about dismissing the conventional wisdom of bond yields and stock prices following each other. We're talking about some iteration of th...
Tue, Aug 22 2017, 2:56 PM
Mortgage rates rose today, but by a small enough amount that it shouldn't crush too many hopes and dreams. For all intents and purposes, rates remain ...
Tue, Aug 22 2017, 10:32 AM
We have a dedicated primer on pivot points here . But let's look at a timely example with the pivot points we've been tracking in recent weeks. Act...
Tue, Aug 22 2017, 9:56 AM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported on Tuesday that home prices were up in 48 states and the District of Columbia during the second qua...
Tue, Aug 22 2017, 9:22 AM
From LOs to investors, no matter the real estate market, the story is the same: “Loosen up the credit guidelines all you want, but if there’s no inven...
Mon, Aug 21 2017, 4:47 PM
It's a good thing financial media outlets aren't too shy about covering topics outside the financial sphere because without the eclipse, there would h...
Mon, Aug 21 2017, 4:10 PM
Mortgage rates held steady to start the new week. This keeps them in line with the best levels since November 2016. There were no interesting developm...
Mon, Aug 21 2017, 10:58 AM
Real residential investment subtracted from GDP in the second quarter of the year to the greatest extent since the third quarter of 2010. Fannie Mae's...
Mon, Aug 21 2017, 9:56 AM
Welcome! Here is a safe haven from all of the eclipse talk. It won't be mentioned at all in this article. Never mind that it's in the title and the...
Mon, Aug 21 2017, 9:21 AM
What does $980k buy in the SF suburb of Vallejo, CA? A property designed by Julia Morgan (think Hearst Castle) with floating stairways, over-sized eve...
Fri, Aug 18 2017, 8:20 PM
In the Day Ahead, we discussed bond traders' probable goals regarding keeping things as calm as possible. This depended on unexpected headlines and m...
Fri, Aug 18 2017, 7:54 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower again. Drama surrounding the Trump administration was also present. But this time around, the political theater wasn't resp...
