Mon, Dec 12 2016, 9:04 AM
Fed policy is one of the biggest, most consistent market movers for bonds. With such a high likelihood of a hike, bond markets surely must be focu...
Mon, Dec 12 2016, 4:58 PM
We were hoping to see some traction for bond markets after today's Treasury auctions, and we got it! Unfortunately, the overnight session pushed yiel...
Mon, Dec 12 2016, 4:17 PM
Mortgage rates were mixed today, depending on the lender, as well as the time of day. Earlier this morning, most lenders were quoting slightly higher ...
Mon, Dec 12 2016, 2:23 PM
Multi-family housing, in the words of a Freddie Mac executive vice president, is on a roll . David Brickman says his company is on track to purchase a...
Fri, Dec 9 2016, 12:08 PM
A post on CoreLogic's blog just came to our attention. It was written (by Stuart Pratt, the company's newly appointed senior vice president of Governm...
Fri, Dec 9 2016, 10:51 AM
A post on CoreLogic's blog just came to our attention. It was written (by Stuart Pratt, the company's newly appointed senior vice president of Governm...
Fri, Dec 9 2016, 10:28 AM
Here’s something you won’t see in North America: the sale and transfer of 1.3% of the last mass of the continent. It just happened in Australia with t...
Fri, Dec 9 2016, 8:45 AM
Bonds weren't entirely clear in telling us if yesterday's ECB tapering announcement was a " good thing that simply needed to be digested," or if it...
Fri, Dec 9 2016, 4:29 PM
You're familiar with the sippy bird (or " drinking bird ")? For years, these little birds have been offering traders the ability to get out of the of...
Fri, Dec 9 2016, 3:13 PM
Mortgage rates rose meaningfully today, with most lenders coming close to the highest levels in more than 2 years (on December 1st). Keep in mind thou...
Thu, Dec 8 2016, 12:32 PM
Freddie Mac just announced that it has implemented Release 1, utilizing the Common Securitization Platform (CSP) . The Release was launched on Novembe...
Thu, Dec 8 2016, 10:57 AM
Analysts from the Urban Institute recently put a hard number on tight credit. The company says that lenders failed to make about 5.2 million mortgages...
Thu, Dec 8 2016, 10:48 AM
A dramatic uptick in consumer perceptions about household income kept Fannie Mae's Home Purchase Sentiment (HPSI) Index from tanking in November. Even...
Thu, Dec 8 2016, 10:40 AM
The number of "underwater" homeowners continued to decrease at a rapid pace in the third quarter of 2016 as home values grew. Negative equity, often r...
Thu, Dec 8 2016, 9:39 AM
“I find it ironic that the colors red, white, and blue stand for freedom, until they're flashing behind you.” The OCC doesn’t have flashing lights, bu...
Thu, Dec 8 2016, 8:26 AM
The European Central Bank (ECB) changed things up today, to some extent. Unlike the Fed, which always unveils its big policy changes in the "announ...
Thu, Dec 8 2016, 6:22 PM
Yesterday we discussed the rally in bonds as a function of short-covering . That meant traders were in a defensive position on Tuesday night--bettin...
Thu, Dec 8 2016, 5:42 PM
Mortgage rates were only somewhat higher today, on average, and some lenders were actually right in line with yesterday's offerings. All this despite ...
Wed, Dec 7 2016, 12:24 PM
Profit margins increased for mortgage lenders in the third quarter of 2015. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said independent mortgage banks and...
Wed, Dec 7 2016, 9:27 AM
Today is the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawai’i where 2,403 Americans died and 1,178 were wound...
Wed, Dec 7 2016, 8:57 AM
Mortgage application activity was essentially flat on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ended December 2 while swinging broadly on a non-sea...
Wed, Dec 7 2016, 8:54 AM
From time to time, we see various financial markets take a "lead-off." Just like in baseball, the lead-offs occur because the base-runner knows whe...
Wed, Dec 7 2016, 5:41 PM
"Big" is a relative term these days, to be sure. In fact, 4.8bps in 10yr yields and 10/32nds in Fannie 3.5 MBS prices isn't too terribly big, but...
Wed, Dec 7 2016, 5:03 PM
Mortgage rates moved moderately lower today, as financial markets positioned themselves for an important announcement from the European Central Bank (...
Tue, Dec 6 2016, 10:30 AM
Home price growth accelerated further in October according to CoreLogic. The company's Home Price Index (HPI) increased 6.7 percent from the prior Oct...
Tue, Dec 6 2016, 9:27 AM
Many years ago, it was a joke in Britain to say that, “the War Office was always preparing for the last war.” To their credit, regulators now often tr...
Tue, Dec 6 2016, 8:47 AM
I generally don't l ike the terms "oversold" (consistent weakness) and "overbought" (consistent strength). I think they lead to false confidence...
Tue, Dec 6 2016, 5:37 PM
Today's bond market trading range was the narrowest since the US presidential election, by far. 10yr yields held inside a paltry 2.9bp range (2.374 t...
Tue, Dec 6 2016, 4:44 PM
Mortgage rates barely budged today, with most lenders offering the exact same quotes as yesterday. While we have seen a few days with similar day-over...
Mon, Dec 5 2016, 12:05 PM
As everyone knows, interest rates shot up immediately in the wake of the November 8 presidential elections, triggered by a sell-off in Treasury bonds....
Mon, Dec 5 2016, 10:06 AM
Access to mortgage credit continued its recent upward trend in November. The Mortgage Bankers Association said on Monday that its Mortgage Credit Avai...
Mon, Dec 5 2016, 9:59 AM
Another piece of the President-elect Donald J. Trump's administration fell into place on Monday with the announcement that former Republican president...
Mon, Dec 5 2016, 9:50 AM
It is probably not the case that this date is celebrated by mortgage bankers from coast to coast, and forget the jokes about it being the “Mortgage Dr...
Mon, Dec 5 2016, 8:52 AM
This week, we'll finally get to see how much of an impact remains to be had for the European Central Bank (ECB) announcement. The ECB conducts their ...
Mon, Dec 5 2016, 5:29 PM
After today, we're left with a clearer picture of the prevailing short-term range in bond markets. The volatile reaction to the weekend's Italian ref...
Mon, Dec 5 2016, 3:34 PM
Mortgage rates were slightly higher today relative to last Friday's levels, leaving them near the 2-year highs seen last Thursday. Volatility continue...
Fri, Dec 2 2016, 9:27 AM
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has now joined the Federal Housing Finance Agency in raising the dollar limits for loans that qualify for FHA...
Fri, Dec 2 2016, 9:24 AM
Plenty of people are on the roads in December, traveling for the holidays. Ever curious about the basic differences between a road, a street, a boulev...
Fri, Dec 2 2016, 8:12 AM
Have you heard the one about the falling knife? And how no one wants to catch it? That's one of the market's favorite analogies for the fear experie...
Fri, Dec 2 2016, 5:17 PM
Let's change up the old fairy tale. Bond markets have been cried wolf on a few recent occasions. In my version of the fairy tale, "crying wolf" is e...
Fri, Dec 2 2016, 4:19 PM
Mortgage rates erased yesterday's losses after today's jobs report, though not necessarily because of it. The Employment Situation (affectionately ref...
Thu, Dec 1 2016, 11:43 AM
Construction spending rose only slightly in October, with residential construction coming in stronger than most other sectors. The Census Bureau said ...
Thu, Dec 1 2016, 10:00 AM
Numbers can be deceiving. U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julián Castro announced that public housing developments in the U.S. will...
Thu, Dec 1 2016, 8:32 AM
Bond markets begin the day still reeling from yesterday's OPEC-driven rout. We noted in yesterday's closing commentary that yields bounced on an omin...
Thu, Dec 1 2016, 5:44 PM
Bonds began the day in the throes of yesterday's ongoing momentum. There was a bit of a pause during Asian market hours, but European trading quickly...
Thu, Dec 1 2016, 4:02 PM
Mortgage rates spiked abruptly today, bringing them to the highest levels in well over 2 years . The average lender is now quoting conventional 30yr f...
Wed, Nov 30 2016, 10:37 AM
Pending home Sales eked out a 0.1 percent gain in October. The National Association of Realtors® said its Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) barely manag...
Wed, Nov 30 2016, 10:07 AM
Underwriters’ hands are tied in using income from something the Federal Government considers illegal. For example, Washington State had nearly $212 mi...
Wed, Nov 30 2016, 9:48 AM
Yesterday we discussed the positive impact of month-end bond buying. The only problem with month-end buying that occurs on the day before month-e...
Wed, Nov 30 2016, 8:29 AM
Thanksgiving wreaked the usual holiday-related damage on the Mortgage Bankers Association's report of mortgage activity during the week ended November...
