Mon, Mar 6 2017, 5:19 PM
After moving higher for 5 days in a row, mortgage rates finally moved a bit lower today. The improvement was fairly small, however, merely undoing Fri...
Mon, Mar 6 2017, 1:40 PM
A strong fourth quarter helped push mortgage originations for the whole of 2016 to the highest level in four years . Black Knight's Mortgage Monitor r...
Fri, Mar 3 2017, 11:56 AM
Homeowners are opening their favorite piggy bank again — their homes. As home values rise faster than expected, that increased homeowner wealth sudden...
Fri, Mar 3 2017, 9:12 AM
For me the last few weeks included travel to events in Florida, Texas, Southern California, and now The Mortgage Collaborative’s event in Arizona. And...
Fri, Mar 3 2017, 8:43 AM
As you're likely aware, rates have been in a very well-behaved consolidation range since mid-November. The trendlines connecting the "lower highs" an...
Fri, Mar 3 2017, 4:34 PM
Economic data was stronger this morning with the best ISM Manufacturing "business activity" reading since 2011. Along with comments from Fed's Powell...
Fri, Mar 3 2017, 4:08 PM
Mortgage rates rose by the smallest amount of the week today, but they rose nonetheless. That caps a streak of 5 straight days spent moving in an unfr...
Thu, Mar 2 2017, 9:31 AM
Here’s a public service announcement for folks in Detroit: check to see if you should boil your water before you drink it . Apparently drinking water ...
Thu, Mar 2 2017, 8:55 AM
In addition to ISM Non-Manufacturing, tomorrow brings multiple Fed speeches, including Yellen and Vice Chair Fischer in the early afternoon. It's exc...
Thu, Mar 2 2017, 5:29 PM
The shifting of the mortgage market toward more purchases as well as declining origination volumes are expected to boost the incidence of mortgage fra...
Thu, Mar 2 2017, 5:25 PM
You couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a news story about the Snapchat IPO or a friend/colleague asking if you were going to buy some. While i...
Thu, Mar 2 2017, 4:14 PM
Mortgage rates were only modestly higher today, extending the recent losing streak to its 4th straight day. This keeps the average conventional 30yr f...
Wed, Mar 1 2017, 11:03 AM
Construction spending had been expected to recover from the 0.2 percent loss it suffered in December. Analysts polled by Econoday were looking for an ...
Wed, Mar 1 2017, 9:37 AM
Freddie Mac's Insight forecast for February looks at reports that consumer price inflation is rising, and the ensuing debate over "whether or not we a...
Wed, Mar 1 2017, 9:02 AM
There is some rate and price at which a borrower and lender will meet, whether it is residential loans, commercial, personal, auto, etc. But apparentl...
Wed, Mar 1 2017, 8:21 AM
There was a lot of build-up for last night's Trump speech. I won't tell you that it didn't turn out to be a market mover, but it wasn't nearly as p...
Wed, Mar 1 2017, 7:40 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said mortgage applications rose , on a seasonally adjusted basis, during the week ended February 24, although t...
Wed, Mar 1 2017, 4:39 PM
The past 2 days have been almost exclusively about a rapid adjustment in Fed rate hike expectations (see the chart in the Day Ahead for a visual). ...
Wed, Mar 1 2017, 3:45 PM
Mortgage rates moved sharply higher today, bringing the average top tier 30yr fixed quote back to 4.25% from 4.125% previously. That doesn't exactly m...
Tue, Feb 28 2017, 12:07 PM
The spring housing market started early this year, not because of higher-than-average temperatures but because of hotter-than-average demand and overh...
Tue, Feb 28 2017, 10:11 AM
The end is near. CoreLogic said today that the market share of home sales accounted for by distressed properties may return to normal levels by the en...
Tue, Feb 28 2017, 10:09 AM
Black Knight Financial Services reported on Monday that its Home Price Index posted another 5.7 percent annual increase in the national rate of apprec...
Tue, Feb 28 2017, 10:07 AM
Home prices accelerated their growth again in December. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, which covers all nine U.S. ...
Tue, Feb 28 2017, 9:46 AM
The last day of February, already? Wasn’t it just New Years? Time flies by, things progress. Yesterday the Chamber of Digital Commerce, the world’s la...
Tue, Feb 28 2017, 8:30 AM
Today is the last day of February. 'Month-end' is different than other days for bond markets because it serves as a deadline for money managers to ...
Tue, Feb 28 2017, 6:38 PM
Treasuries and MBS made it almost all the way through the day with very little drama. There were some ups and downs, but by 4pm, trading levels wer...
Tue, Feb 28 2017, 2:32 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher today in most cases, but not by much. More interesting is the fact that rates held their ground as well as they did consid...
Mon, Feb 27 2017, 10:36 AM
The Truth-in-Lending/RESPA (TRID) rules implemented in late 2015 have placed increased pressure on the accurate forecasting of estimation of non-mortg...
Mon, Feb 27 2017, 10:24 AM
Tight inventories are again being blamed for a downturn in home sales, this time January's ones. The National Association of Realtor's® (NAR's) Pendin...
Mon, Feb 27 2017, 10:03 AM
If you’re a lender in only one state, just think about the state and federal regulations you must deal with, not to mention the investor or agency rul...
Mon, Feb 27 2017, 8:31 AM
The past 5 business days of bond market rallies brought yields right to the lower edge of 2017's range . We had been tracking these movements in ter...
Mon, Feb 27 2017, 5:34 PM
Several events helped get investors back in a riskier mood to begin the new week. Overnight reports of the "status quo" candidate polling better in...
Mon, Feb 27 2017, 4:47 PM
Mortgage rates moved slightly higher after a strong run to the lowest levels of the year as of last Friday. In general, financial markets moved toward...
Fri, Feb 24 2017, 10:53 AM
Sales of newly constructed homes, had a strong start in 2016 but flattened out toward the end of the year and ended with a dismal December. Now 2017 h...
Fri, Feb 24 2017, 10:21 AM
Boss: "Working hard here, Jimmy?" Jimmy: "Yep, ever since I heard you coming down the stairs!" Mortgage banks are working hard, but banks and other fi...
Fri, Feb 24 2017, 8:50 AM
Bond markets are looking for their 6th straight victory today. Each of the past 5 days have seen yields end the day lower than they opened. While ...
Fri, Feb 24 2017, 5:33 PM
"For no apparent reason" is a bit of an overstatement. There are several plausible reasons that bonds could be rallying as well as they are at the mo...
Fri, Feb 24 2017, 4:26 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower for 3rd straight day (and the 5th time in the past 6 days). That makes this the best winning streak of the year and it brin...
Thu, Feb 23 2017, 10:15 AM
The Urban Institute (UI) is asking "What has happened to black homeownership?" It has "declined to levels not seen since the 1960s when private race-b...
Thu, Feb 23 2017, 10:10 AM
Rising interest rates took a toll on mortgage prepayments in January. Black Knight Financial Services said the pre-payment rate (SMM) was down 29.83 p...
Thu, Feb 23 2017, 9:50 AM
"Those who have knowledge, don't predict. Those who predict, don't have knowledge.” But what if you use knowledge to predict? Research by Goldman Sach...
Thu, Feb 23 2017, 8:32 AM
Rarely do we see such a well-behaved and long-lasting consolidation trend in bond markets. This refers to a series of higher lows and lower highs. ...
Thu, Feb 23 2017, 4:53 PM
More than any other day in recent memory, today's trend was remarkably narrow for bond markets. That's not to say it was "flat," though. Indeed, the...
Thu, Feb 23 2017, 4:15 PM
It seemed just an aside in the National Association of Realtors press release regarding January existing home sales. NAR President William E. Brown, t...
Thu, Feb 23 2017, 4:08 PM
Home prices, as measured by the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA's) Housing Price Index (HPI), rose even faster on an annual basis in December t...
Thu, Feb 23 2017, 3:03 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower for the 4th time in 5 days today, bringing them to their lowest levels since February 9th. The caveat to any discussion of ...
Wed, Feb 22 2017, 11:01 AM
Existing home sales kicked off 2017 with a spurt that brought sales of single family homes, townhomes, condos, and cooperative apartments to the faste...
Wed, Feb 22 2017, 8:45 AM
Today brings a calendar item that contains the letters "FOMC." That's typically a big deal. While it could also be a big deal today, the "FOMC Minut...
Wed, Feb 22 2017, 8:25 AM
Mortgage applications activity was down slightly during the week ended February 17 compared to the previous week. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MB...
Wed, Feb 22 2017, 5:05 PM
Today's trading session was certainly more interesting than yesterday's--especially if we're counting overnight trading hours. European bond market...
