Mon, Mar 12 2018, 9:11 AM
Rates have gone up, refi volumes are dropping, and LOs are having plenty of discussions with potential borrowers about “rent vs. buy.” SmartAsset has ...
Fri, Mar 9 2018, 3:53 PM
Mortgage rates must really like being where they are right now, because they've been at roughly the same levels for the past 5 days! Not only is this ...
Fri, Mar 9 2018, 9:50 AM
CoreLogic has been watching for signs of overvalued markets for some time. The company and its lead analysts Frank Nothaft, Molly Boesel, and Sam Khat...
Fri, Mar 9 2018, 9:15 AM
Let’s end the week with a non-mortgage related note about nature. You Tube has a live webcam a live webcam in the San Francisco Presidio of a Red-Tail...
Fri, Mar 9 2018, 8:29 AM
Beliefs, expectations, and assertions can be tricky business if they're not backed up by hard data. No other economic report brings as many armchair ...
Thu, Mar 8 2018, 6:35 PM
The ECB released a policy announcement this morning. They weren't expected to make any significant changes and indeed they made none. Well, to be ...
Thu, Mar 8 2018, 5:46 PM
Mortgage rates were generally unchanged for the 3rd day in a row today despite a fair amount of movement in underlying bond markets. Rates reacted to ...
Thu, Mar 8 2018, 11:29 AM
Lending standards tightened in February, especially for conforming and super-conforming (jumbo) loans. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its...
Thu, Mar 8 2018, 9:11 AM
In these days of fleeting texts, emails, and photos that last for one look, it is nice to think that some things last. News broke that a record-breaki...
Thu, Mar 8 2018, 9:11 AM
European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi's press conference (which follows the scheduled ECB policy announcement) could set the tone for bon...
Wed, Mar 7 2018, 4:41 PM
The resignation of White House Economic Advisor Gary Cohn thew markets a curveball when it was announced after the close of business yesterday. Cur...
Wed, Mar 7 2018, 3:49 PM
Mortgage rates stayed fairly close to yesterday's levels as underlying bond markets experienced some volatility throughout the course of the day. If m...
Wed, Mar 7 2018, 12:11 PM
Americans may be growing a bit pessimistic about housing, that came through loud and clear in the results of Fannie Mae's February edition of the Nati...
Wed, Mar 7 2018, 10:40 AM
Opposition to the recently announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports is beginning to emerge from the construction industry. President Donald J. ...
Wed, Mar 7 2018, 9:48 AM
At the close of business yesterday, the bond market outlook was decidedly negative. We're not talking about a colossal shift in sentiment, mind you, ...
Wed, Mar 7 2018, 9:11 AM
How about this note I received from the owner of a non-bank lender in the Northeast. “Rob, in your conversations with CEOs, is anyone talking about cu...
Wed, Mar 7 2018, 8:43 AM
The strong performance of purchase mortgage applications during the week ended February 23 didn't last long, and overall mortgage activity barely stay...
Tue, Mar 6 2018, 6:59 PM
It may or may not actually be shocking to learn that White House economic advisor Cohn has resigned , but it certainly wasn't a given. Cohn had prev...
Tue, Mar 6 2018, 5:59 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher again today, but not because of anything that happened today. Rather, it was yesterday's bond market weakness that did the...
Tue, Mar 6 2018, 9:25 AM
Lenders appear to be easing the way for lending in areas crucial to the home construction industry. The National Association of Homebuilders said its ...
Tue, Mar 6 2018, 9:19 AM
If you've ever invested or even thought about investing, you likely have a magic number when it comes to the rate of return that would motivate you to...
Tue, Mar 6 2018, 9:10 AM
“Rob, in past decades, near the end of every credit cycle, lenders seem to head back down the credit score scale and seem to be more aggressive with u...
Mon, Mar 5 2018, 5:48 PM
Bonds were moderately stronger in the overnight session thanks to European political uncertainty, among other things. One of those "other things" c...
Mon, Mar 5 2018, 4:26 PM
Mortgage rates ended higher today, after financial markets reacted to developments in last week's tariff-related news. Last Thursday, stock prices and...
Mon, Mar 5 2018, 11:16 AM
The refinance pool, homeowners who could benefit from exchanging their old first mortgage lien for a new one, is shrinking fast . Black Knight says, i...
Mon, Mar 5 2018, 9:22 AM
The good news is that bond markets improved--albeit microscopically--during each of the past 3 weeks. That's significant because before that 3-week...
Mon, Mar 5 2018, 9:13 AM
The Senate is set to vote this week on a bill by Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, that would revise several sections of the Dodd-Frank Act . Among the bill's...
Fri, Mar 2 2018, 7:43 PM
If only it were October! The costume contest at the annual bond trader Halloween bash would be easy to win with that "2.79%" costume in the back of...
Fri, Mar 2 2018, 7:07 PM
Mortgage rates snapped back toward recent highs today. Part of this has to do with how well rates have done over the past 3 weeks. Granted, rates have...
Fri, Mar 2 2018, 12:11 PM
Freddie Mac looked at the possible effects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 in an earlier edition of its Outlook economic forecast. This month it ...
Fri, Mar 2 2018, 9:25 AM
If 2018 is a football game for bond markets, this week's trading through yesterday afternoon represented our first touchdown (let's not talk about how...
Fri, Mar 2 2018, 9:16 AM
As various parts of the nation are hunkered down due to weather, just think of “2.4 million.” That is a lot of anything, especially when that is how m...
Thu, Mar 1 2018, 6:14 PM
The title is a play on words, you see? It utilizes the word "tariff," which was the subject of much discussion and market movement today, in designat...
Thu, Mar 1 2018, 5:40 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower today--somewhat significantly relative to recent examples--ultimately hitting the best levels in more than a week for most ...
Thu, Mar 1 2018, 11:41 AM
Construction spending stalled in January. Publicly funded spending rose slightly from December but that was offset by reductions in most areas of priv...
Thu, Mar 1 2018, 9:26 AM
This is currently the best week of the year for bond markets. The same was true of last week in the sense that it was the first time in 2018 that yie...
Thu, Mar 1 2018, 9:12 AM
Welcome to March. What happened to January and February? This commentary occasionally discusses “tiny homes” (yes, okay with the Agencies if comps can...
Wed, Feb 28 2018, 4:15 PM
2.90% or something close to it continues to look like the center of a range of yields that might like to... think about... maybe... potentially... try...
Wed, Feb 28 2018, 3:55 PM
After moving back up to the highest levels in more than 4 years yesterday, mortgage rates fell slightly today. Pessimists/realists would rightfully po...
Wed, Feb 28 2018, 1:06 PM
Taken together, two recent posts in the CoreLogic Insights blog may indicate that, after several years of being a close trade-off or even more afforda...
Wed, Feb 28 2018, 10:15 AM
Pending home sales took a deep dive in January, falling to their lowest level in over three years . The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said i...
Wed, Feb 28 2018, 9:28 AM
A recent Freddie Mac Insights article looks back at earlier incidences of rising rate environments, and how the higher rates affected several populati...
Wed, Feb 28 2018, 9:09 AM
As an industry we don’t want headlines about the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) spending $31,000 on a dining set spending $31,000 o...
Wed, Feb 28 2018, 8:51 AM
Purchase mortgage applications gained ground last week for the first time since mid-January. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said the volume of...
Wed, Feb 28 2018, 8:43 AM
You may have noticed that things have been a bit different recently for rates/bonds. Whereas almost any given day saw a move higher/weaker so far in ...
Tue, Feb 27 2018, 5:09 PM
Way back in 2014, Yellen gave her inaugural semi-annual congressional testimony on March 19th. When asked what the Fed meant by "considerable time" w...
Tue, Feb 27 2018, 4:38 PM
It was a good run for mortgage rates , relative to the rest of 2018, but after spending 3 days in a row with mild-to-moderate improvements, rates quic...
Tue, Feb 27 2018, 10:25 AM
Like one of those one-a-decade astrological anomalies, issuance of three home price reports for December along with a quarterly summary coincided toda...
Tue, Feb 27 2018, 10:02 AM
Today's key event will be the fielding of questions by Fed Chair Powell at the semi-annual congressional testimony. Sometimes known as the Humphrey H...
Tue, Feb 27 2018, 9:13 AM
Every home owner was, at one time, a first-time home buyer, right? Now it seems that every lender, investor, politician, and special interest group is...
