Tue, Jan 26 2016, 5:22 PM
Bond markets held their ground today, which is quite the accomplishment considering stocks rallied. Rates and stocks have been strongly correlated...
Tue, Jan 26 2016, 5:21 PM
Mortgage rates did something they haven't done all year today. They actually improved in the face of a stock rally. In fact, it was the third be...
Tue, Jan 26 2016, 4:20 PM
California has long been acknowledged as the trend-setting
state. Let's hope that isn't the case
for home prices. On the same day that
both S&P...
Mon, Jan 25 2016, 10:58 AM
Rumors are swirling that AIG has decided to pursue a partial spin-off of its mortgage insurance business,
United Guaranty (UG). Stay tuned for t...
Mon, Jan 25 2016, 7:33 AM
This week has the potential to begin fairly slowly. Market participation will undoubtedly be affected on some level by the massive snow storm that h...
Mon, Jan 25 2016, 5:41 PM
If you don't live in the Northeast and if you don't read/watch the news, there was a big snow storm. In New York City, for instance, it was the 2nd ...
Mon, Jan 25 2016, 4:33 PM
Mortgage rates moved slightly lower today, recovering some of Friday's losses. Those losses introduced the risk that 2016's dominant trend towa...
Fri, Jan 22 2016, 11:29 AM
The
FHA's insurance fund is out of the headlines , having moved above the
mandated 2% level. (Yes, for the first time since 2008!) Everyone agree...
Fri, Jan 22 2016, 11:23 AM
It is hard to sort out the closings scheduled for December
from those delayed into the month from November by problems with the new
Truth-in-Lending...
Fri, Jan 22 2016, 7:32 AM
Enquiring minds want to know... In fact, even inquiring minds are fairly curious as to whether or not the pleasantly surprising bond market rally wil...
Fri, Jan 22 2016, 6:27 PM
It was a year of significant improvement in the distressed
home arena. According to Black Knight
Financial Services there was a 22 percent decreas...
Fri, Jan 22 2016, 6:24 PM
Bond markets continued to do the exact same thing they've been doing all year: follow stocks/oil. Today was the first day of the year that stocks h...
Fri, Jan 22 2016, 6:02 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher at their quickest pace of 2016 today. Rates have been faithfully following the slide in equities prices, albeit at a ge...
Thu, Jan 21 2016, 10:59 AM
In the midst of the Know Before You Owe or TRID rule implementation which she says " devoured the industry's bandwidth ," Faith Schwartz, Corelogic's ...
Thu, Jan 21 2016, 10:57 AM
After it jumped up by three full days
in November the average time to close a first mortgage loan stabilized in
December at 49 days. The November ...
Thu, Jan 21 2016, 10:48 AM
New home sales, according to an unofficial estimate from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) declined by 5 percent
in December compared to the p...
Thu, Jan 21 2016, 10:27 AM
Underwriters will want to know that IBISWorld has identified the top ten sectors with expected rapid growth price in 2016 .
Legal services are expe...
Thu, Jan 21 2016, 7:32 AM
Historically, any time we see the biggest bouts of selling in equities markets, a conversation about "safe-haven" assets is usually not far behind. ...
Thu, Jan 21 2016, 5:29 PM
Today was the 4th day of the year that stocks closed higher than they opened. In other, far from coincidental news, it was also the 4th day of the ...
Thu, Jan 21 2016, 4:38 PM
Mortgage rates held mostly flat today, and that's an accomplishment! Lenders set mortgage rates based primarily on the prices of mortgage-backed-se...
Wed, Jan 20 2016, 10:48 AM
If
you think regulatory trends aren't influencing businesses, big and
small, think again. In the latest "big" example, insurance company
MetLi...
Wed, Jan 20 2016, 10:31 AM
Both housing starts and residential construction permits
declined in December compared to November.
A joint release from the U.S. Census Bureau and...
Wed, Jan 20 2016, 9:00 AM
Applications
for mortgages rose significantly during the week ended January 15 as fixed rate
mortgage interest rates fell to the lowest levels sin...
Wed, Jan 20 2016, 7:32 AM
If you've been tuned in to any reasonable extent--and no one would blame you if you weren't--you're already well aware that Bonds have been on fire ...
Wed, Jan 20 2016, 5:36 PM
The S&P closed at its lowest level since April 2014 today and intraday prices were at their lowest levels since February 2014. If yesterday's $28/bar...
Wed, Jan 20 2016, 5:01 PM
Mortgage rates fell today , bringing them back in line with the lowest levels in more than 2 months and very near the best levels since late April 20...
Tue, Jan 19 2016, 12:16 PM
Tom
Finnegan contacted me yesterday saying, "Rob, yesterday you published a
list of reasons why loans are not currently being purchased. One of th...
Tue, Jan 19 2016, 10:59 AM
Builder confidence in the new home market, while on the surface unchanged
from December, has now dropped 5 points since establishing a decade-long ...
Tue, Jan 19 2016, 7:32 AM
Stocks and bond yields don't always follow each other, but their correlation is not only undeniable so far in 2016, it's been the most important bond ...
Tue, Jan 19 2016, 5:00 PM
Rising prices, especially in major cities like San
Francisco, Seattle, and Boston which hit new price highs in 2015 have created
renewed concerns a...
Tue, Jan 19 2016, 4:54 PM
For the 3rd time this year, the S&P avoided making new intraday lows, and for the 3rd time this year, mortgage rates moved higher. I am not a fan of ...
Tue, Jan 19 2016, 3:54 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher today, but remained near the lowest levels in more than 2 months. Friday's drop was uncharacteristically sharp and put ...
Fri, Jan 15 2016, 10:51 AM
I've
spent some time going through airport security last week & this
week with time in Texas, Northern California, Colorado, and now Ft.
Lauderd...
Fri, Jan 15 2016, 7:32 AM
It's been an utterly hopeless week for domestic economic data so far, with nary a top tier report in sight. Not only that, but after last week's ADP ...
Fri, Jan 15 2016, 4:00 PM
What's a risk meltdown? What's a "risk market" for that matter? This is just a shorthand term for anything investors are normally buying when stoc...
Fri, Jan 15 2016, 2:56 PM
Mortgage rates surged lower at the quickest pace of the year today as stocks and oil prices continued suffering heavy losses. At present, investors...
Fri, Jan 15 2016, 1:02 PM
Two factors appear poised to positively affect
the ability of households to purchase a home according to Fannie Mae's economists. In their initial...
Thu, Jan 14 2016, 10:50 AM
It seems at times that the wave of foreclosures will never
end. At the end of 2015, according to
RealtyTrac's 2015 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report r...
Thu, Jan 14 2016, 9:05 AM
I'd
recently heard of an English teacher in high school who preached,
"Practice safe text, use commas...and never miss a period." How about
neve...
Thu, Jan 14 2016, 7:32 AM
Sometimes all the analysis and planning in the world can't prepare you for how something actually transpires. More than a few traders had plans headi...
Thu, Jan 14 2016, 5:26 PM
Our old standby for information on all-things-CFPB has
slammed a new "fact sheet" issued by the agency regarding the treatment of construction-to-per...
Thu, Jan 14 2016, 5:24 PM
Bond markets only managed to hold steady today, and it felt like the worst day of the year . There are mortgage-specific reasons for that, however, ...
Thu, Jan 14 2016, 4:54 PM
For the first time this year, mortgage rates spent the second straight day without moving any lower. While that may sound like a bad thing, it ...
Wed, Jan 13 2016, 9:55 AM
Dodd-Frank
rules require public companies to provide their shareholders with an
advisory vote (non-binding) on the compensation of the most highly...
Wed, Jan 13 2016, 9:34 AM
The weekly mortgage application report from the Mortgage Bankers
Association (MBA) was another recounting of a post-holiday rebound. Last Wednesday'...
Wed, Jan 13 2016, 7:33 AM
Yesterday's bond market rally came out of left field, not just for market watchers, but for market participants as well. In fact, one of the driving...
Wed, Jan 13 2016, 5:41 PM
10yr yields fell 1.4bps today and Fannie 3.0s ended the day 3/32nds better in price. Those stats could describe any bland, uneventful day for bond ...
Wed, Jan 13 2016, 4:57 PM
Mortgage rates held their ground today, keeping them near the lowest levels in more than 2 months. There were no major economic reports, but financ...
Wed, Jan 13 2016, 4:36 PM
The
House Committee on Financial Services held its second day of hearings on
Wednesday regarding the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). N...
Tue, Jan 12 2016, 10:52 AM
Seen
recently: "The lottery gives you a one-in-two hundred million chance of
not going in to work tomorrow. Alcohol gives you one-in-five." What a...
