Mon, Mar 20 2017, 3:58 PM
Mortgage rates were steady-to-slightly lower today, keeping them in line with the lowest levels in 2 weeks and very close to the lowest levels of the ...
Mon, Mar 20 2017, 3:28 PM
Fannie Mae's March economic forecast was written before the FOMC announced an increase in the fed funds rate last Wednesday. The company's economists ...
Mon, Mar 20 2017, 2:39 PM
The House Financial Services Committee has scheduled a hearing on March 21 titled "The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection's (CFPB's) Unconstituti...
Fri, Mar 17 2017, 10:58 AM
Earlier this month, Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) submitted a report to the agency claim...
Fri, Mar 17 2017, 10:31 AM
FHA's mortgage share, which surged following the housing crisis and helped shore up the market, is now in a steady decline. However, the loans written...
Fri, Mar 17 2017, 9:03 AM
The Fed reported US household net worth (total asset value minus total liability value) jumped to a record $92.8 trillion in Q4 driven by stock market...
Fri, Mar 17 2017, 8:53 AM
Happy St. Patrick's Day.
Now that you're thinking about a country in Europe, let's talk about European bonds for a moment. US and European bonds...
Fri, Mar 17 2017, 5:28 PM
If wearing some green is all it takes, bonds would have escaped today pinch-free. Treasuries and MBS began the day with just a token amount of green ...
Fri, Mar 17 2017, 2:56 PM
Mortgage rates managed to maintain the improvement seen since Wednesday's Fed announcement. While the Fed did indeed hike its policy rate, the hike wa...
Thu, Mar 16 2017, 10:10 AM
Housing permits were down in February, wiping out the gains posted in January, while housing starts also reversed course , posting the year's first ga...
Thu, Mar 16 2017, 10:09 PM
Home purchase loans jumped to a 57 percent share of all mortgage originations in February, up from 53 percent in January. Data from the latest Ellie M...
Thu, Mar 16 2017, 9:50 AM
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that is stupid.” Different peopl...
Thu, Mar 16 2017, 8:29 AM
After the overnight session led bonds to open in modestly weaker territory, we're left with the sense that further gains aren't necessarily a given. ...
Thu, Mar 16 2017, 5:47 PM
The big takeaway from yesterday's Fed reaction was that the rally was finite--not motivated by a new development, but rather by a correction to an o...
Thu, Mar 16 2017, 1:12 PM
Mortgage rates are right in line with yesterday's levels, and yesterday saw rates fall at the fastest pace of the year, ultimately reaching the lowest...
Wed, Mar 15 2017, 10:31 AM
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said its new home builder members displayed a surge of confidence this month. The NAHB/Wells Fargo Ho...
Wed, Mar 15 2017, 9:19 AM
Yes, calendars have changed over a few thousand years. But the Ides of March is a day on the Roman calendar that corresponds to 15 March, marked by se...
Wed, Mar 15 2017, 8:55 AM
The volume of mortgage applications rose last week even as some interest rates reached their highest levels in nearly three years . The Mortgage Banke...
Wed, Mar 15 2017, 8:27 AM
If you've caught essentially any post in the last few weeks, there's nothing left to say about today. If, however, this is your first time reading ...
Wed, Mar 15 2017, 6:42 PM
Yesterday's recap said that bonds were dreaming about the Fed's dot plot (the economic projections released with today's Fed announcement). In spite ...
Wed, Mar 15 2017, 4:43 PM
Mortgage rates fell at their fastest pace of the year following today's rate hike announcement from the Fed. If you're wondering why mortgage rates fe...
Wed, Mar 15 2017, 2:05 PM
(Additions underlined, deletions struck through)
Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in December February indicates ...
Wed, Mar 15 2017, 1:15 PM
The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said consumer confidence is growing across the country, especially in rural and middle America. Its most r...
Tue, Mar 14 2017, 11:47 AM
New home sales are expecting to post an increase of 15.9 percent in February as compared to the previous month. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA)...
Tue, Mar 14 2017, 10:42 AM
The three major credit reporting agencies have announced a significant change in their credit reporting metrics that could both boost credit scores fo...
Tue, Mar 14 2017, 9:05 AM
Every lender should know a little about demographics . The Millennials receive the publicity, but the population aged 65 and older is expected to grow...
Tue, Mar 14 2017, 8:32 AM
The entire week is clearly focused on Wednesday afternoon's Fed events (chiefly, the Fed' economic projections, which will give us an idea of how th...
Tue, Mar 14 2017, 5:51 PM
We know the Fed will hike tomorrow and we know the "dots" (a reference to the dot-plot the Fed uses to convey it's rate hike expectations) will be the...
Tue, Mar 14 2017, 5:10 PM
Mortgage rates held steady today, on average, despite moderate improvements in underlying bond markets. Typically, bond market improvement results in ...
Tue, Mar 14 2017, 2:14 PM
As anniversaries go, it's not much of one to celebrate, but this year the foreclosure crisis marks its tenth year. Since Mid-2007, more than 7.8 milli...
Mon, Mar 13 2017, 10:31 AM
It seems the general public is not moving. Not because they don’t way to, but because of… the influence of government regulations !? The regulatory en...
Mon, Mar 13 2017, 9:17 AM
In 2011-2012, the notion that the Fed would " never " be able to extricate itself from an endless cycle of quantitative easing was not entirely uncomm...
Mon, Mar 13 2017, 5:37 PM
Bonds got back to their weaker ways after a very brief, shallow correction last Friday. We had increasingly expected that "green day," and were und...
Mon, Mar 13 2017, 4:21 PM
Mortgage rates rose for the 10th time in the past 11 days today, bringing them very close to highest levels in 3 years. You'd have to go back to April...
Fri, Mar 10 2017, 9:36 AM
The last time I checked Americans enjoy living indoors, especially given storms like today’s in the Northeast. How’s this for a combination of edifice...
Fri, Mar 10 2017, 8:15 AM
Bonds are right on the edge of the relative abyss. If 10yr yields break much higher today, we'll be operating in territory not seen since early 2014....
Fri, Mar 10 2017, 4:43 PM
ADP provided a cruel gift on Wednesday. It isn't the most trusted advance indicator of the infinitely more important NFP data, but when it beats th...
Fri, Mar 10 2017, 4:14 PM
Mortgage rates held steady today, despite a key report from the Labor Department showing stronger-than-expected job creation in February. Typically, a...
Thu, Mar 9 2017, 11:55 AM
The once- epidemic level of underwater properties retreated further into history in 2016 as another 1 million homeowners regained equity in their home...
Thu, Mar 9 2017, 11:49 AM
There was a slight loosening of mortgage credit access in February, as FHA and VA instituted more streamlined documentation requirements for their loa...
Thu, Mar 9 2017, 9:47 AM
In its most recent Mortgage Monitor , Black Knight Financial Services dug deeper into a topic it had raised in an earlier edition, the seasonality of ...
Thu, Mar 9 2017, 9:37 AM
With the decades of attention the Baby Boomers got vis-à-vis their homebuying habits, and all the worry about the same lavished on Millennials for the...
Thu, Mar 9 2017, 9:34 AM
I have my own opinion about reading a book versus watching YouTube videos, given our finite time every day, but this statistic is staggering: The numb...
Thu, Mar 9 2017, 8:33 AM
After confirming a breakout from the "consolidation range" (the converging lines tracing the lower highs and higher lows over the past 3 months) yes...
Thu, Mar 9 2017, 6:34 PM
The title sums it up. Bonds are having a bad time . Fed rate hike expectations started this unpleasant party last week and economic data added to t...
Thu, Mar 9 2017, 5:38 PM
Mortgage rates rose again today, bringing them further into the highest levels of the year. If there's anything redeeming about the move it's that it ...
Wed, Mar 8 2017, 9:19 AM
Yes, we change our clocks this weekend, losing an hour, although some states have escaped this ordeal by not using Daylight Savings Time. Different st...
Wed, Mar 8 2017, 8:18 AM
Not that we didn't already know this, but bond markets have been on the back foot ever since last week's rapid shift in Fed rate hike expectations. T...
Wed, Mar 8 2017, 7:57 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said today that mortgage applications for both purchases and refinancing grew during the week ended March 3. Th...
Wed, Mar 8 2017, 5:42 PM
Over the past 3 days (the white circled area in the chart below), rates have broken out of their post-election consolidation range (the outermost ye...
