Thu, Oct 19 2017, 9:42 AM
A new Bulletin from Freddie Mac makes several changes to its Seller Guide . The most impactful changes relate to the way sellers can calculate student...
Thu, Oct 19 2017, 9:26 AM
Yesterday I had some interesting geographic involving the United States that prompted Tony H. to send a few more items. The closest state to Africa? I...
Thu, Oct 19 2017, 8:34 AM
The past 3 days were disconcerting for bond markets--especially yesterday, which saw yields move higher at their quickest pace in two weeks. This thr...
Wed, Oct 18 2017, 4:58 PM
Everything seemed so simple last Friday when bonds were surging past technical barriers in strong volume--ostensibly ringing the dinner bell for mor...
Wed, Oct 18 2017, 4:13 PM
Mortgage rates moved modestly higher today despite bigger movement in underlying bond markets. In part, this is a byproduct of the way rates behaved a...
Wed, Oct 18 2017, 9:58 AM
The U.S. Census Bureau is mum on causation, but results from the southern region would indicate that the August and September hurricanes probably drov...
Wed, Oct 18 2017, 9:51 AM
Fannie Mae has lowered its third quarter projections for GDP growth by 0.2 percent to an annualized 2.4 percent based on its assessment of the overall...
Wed, Oct 18 2017, 9:43 AM
Ah mid-October... All too often in the 2009-2014 time frame, we'd seen abrupt reversals of trends at this time of month. We haven't really been on ...
Wed, Oct 18 2017, 9:12 AM
The volume of mortgage applications increased last week for the first time since early September. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Mark...
Tue, Oct 17 2017, 4:52 PM
Treasuries and MBS have spent the past 2 days trading well inside the range set by last Friday's volatility (big rally following CPI data). Unfortuna...
Tue, Oct 17 2017, 3:51 PM
Mortgage rates were at their best levels in roughly a month last Friday afternoon. Since then, they've risen modestly on each of the past two business...
Tue, Oct 17 2017, 10:35 AM
After reacting strongly to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma with a four-point drop in September, the Housing Market Index (HMI) regained its footing in Octo...
Tue, Oct 17 2017, 10:26 AM
It has been a rather dismal spring and summer for construction, one in which permitting has declined in three out of the last four months. Going more ...
Tue, Oct 17 2017, 9:22 AM
Does the Fed Chairman make a difference? Yes. Taylor and Powell’s names continue to be mentioned, although Trump is set to interview Janet Yellen Thur...
Tue, Oct 17 2017, 9:18 AM
As we discussed last week, the positive technical signals don't get much clearer than they did after Friday's CPI data (weak inflation helped bonds br...
Mon, Oct 16 2017, 5:02 PM
Mortgage rates were sideways to slightly higher today, depending on the lender. Underlying bond markets suggested a bit more movement, and that will l...
Mon, Oct 16 2017, 5:01 PM
If the only things you could observe about today's bond trading were volumes and "buy vs sell," there were a few moments where things got fairly inte...
Mon, Oct 16 2017, 9:27 AM
It looks like it will be touch and go for bonds as the week begins. If yields or technicals touch certain overhead ceilings, you should go lock...
Mon, Oct 16 2017, 9:26 AM
Given the latest tax plan, will the mortgage interest deduction stay, but become worthless? The GOP blueprint would double the standard deduction for ...
Fri, Oct 13 2017, 4:30 PM
There was a time--in fact, there was a stretch of several years--when inflation-related reports just didn't matter . I would have been the first to ...
Fri, Oct 13 2017, 2:47 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower today. For many lenders, it was the biggest drop in more than a month and it also brings them to the best levels in roughly...
Fri, Oct 13 2017, 10:56 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association's Mortgage Credit Access Index, released earlier this week, showed continued slight easing in the credit markets, esp...
Fri, Oct 13 2017, 9:24 AM
Per Fed Chair Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve has been working to revise post-crisis financial regulations, making them less onerous and better suit...
Fri, Oct 13 2017, 8:18 AM
My apologies to baseball fans, both of you. The "judge" in today's case is this morning's CPI (Consumer Price Index) data. Bonds have been deliberat...
Thu, Oct 12 2017, 8:04 PM
Bond markets are matching their best 3-day performance in over a month with today's stronger closing levels. Unlike the previous examples, the curr...
Thu, Oct 12 2017, 7:19 PM
Mortgage rate data collection is tricky business . Some sources rely on survey data that can have a limited collection window and a significant lag. O...
Thu, Oct 12 2017, 11:01 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is forecasting that a significant decline in new home sales occurred last month. However, like much of the othe...
Thu, Oct 12 2017, 9:46 AM
With home prices nearly back to where they were when the housing crisis began, CoreLogic's principal economist Molly Boesel compares the duration of t...
Thu, Oct 12 2017, 9:33 AM
The driving force of housing prices is supply and demand, and the demand is increasing. In the Bay Area, and for hundreds of miles north, the smoke is...
Thu, Oct 12 2017, 9:04 AM
CPI, CPI, CPI...
The "Consumer Price Index" is the one thing on this week's economic calendar that stood out as a top tier potential market mover. ...
Wed, Oct 11 2017, 5:34 PM
"Well? Get on with it!"
That about sums up what the average bond market watcher was thinking at the end of September--and possibly again after t...
Wed, Oct 11 2017, 3:44 PM
Mortgage rates haven't done much over the past few days, with the average lender offering substantially similar quotes every day in October. Depending...
Wed, Oct 11 2017, 9:44 AM
I mentioned yesterday that 6,762 institutions took a residential loan application in 2016, per Richey May’s HMDA dashboard data. For perspective, the ...
Wed, Oct 11 2017, 8:50 AM
On both MBS Live and Mortgage News Daily, there's a video in the news stream titled "Key things to watch in the Fed minutes." The commentator rather ...
Wed, Oct 11 2017, 8:18 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said mortgage applications were down during the week ended October 6, falling 2.1 percent from the previous wee...
Tue, Oct 10 2017, 4:49 PM
Bonds struggled to find a theme in their first trading day back from a 3-day weekend. Much of the international focus was on Catalonia's quest for in...
Tue, Oct 10 2017, 4:07 PM
Mortgage rates were marginally lower today compared to last week, but only when factoring in upfront finance charges. Actual quoted interest rates hav...
Tue, Oct 10 2017, 12:19 PM
Credit access hasn't improved much over the last year unless one is shopping for a jumbo mortgage loan. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) noted a...
Tue, Oct 10 2017, 11:56 AM
National delinquency rates continue at 10-year lows , and both early delinquency and transition rates are stable as well. But CoreLogic, in its July L...
Tue, Oct 10 2017, 9:28 AM
The costs of the recent hurricanes that struck in August and September are coming home to roost. The first two in the recent rolling series are, in fa...
Tue, Oct 10 2017, 9:20 AM
6,762 institutions took a residential loan application in 2016, per Richey May’s HMDA dashboard data. That is a lot of lenders!! Another big figure is...
Tue, Oct 10 2017, 9:00 AM
After having waited a day to begin trading this week due to yesterday's Columbus Day holiday, bond markets will spend today waiting for the week's mor...
Fri, Oct 6 2017, 6:22 PM
The Employment Situation (aka the jobs report, or simply, "NFP") is the granddaddy of all economic reports. Through the years, no other piece of da...
Fri, Oct 6 2017, 5:40 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher today, following a much weaker-than-expected jobs report. These are two things that essentially never go together. What ma...
Fri, Oct 6 2017, 10:23 AM
While earlier generations tended to pay off their mortgages before they retired, the leading edge of Baby Boomers, now in their late 60s and early 70s...
Fri, Oct 6 2017, 9:21 AM
Thank you to the California MBA who sponsored a tour yesterday of the Tesla Factory – the building has the 2nd largest footprint in the world (behind ...
Fri, Oct 6 2017, 8:22 AM
NFP, or "nonfarm payrolls" (the principle component of the big jobs report officially known as the "Employment Situation") are a bond market instituti...
Thu, Oct 5 2017, 4:58 PM
Generally higher yields and tepid intraday performances are nothing new for bond markets over the past week and a half. In some ways, today marked a ...
Thu, Oct 5 2017, 3:02 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher today, bringing the average lender back near 4% in terms of conventional 30yr fixed quotes for top tier scenarios. Most le...
Thu, Oct 5 2017, 11:19 AM
Is it time to bid farewell to an American-as-Apple-Pie tax deduction? Maybe. After 75 years of supporting it against all assaults, the National Associ...
