Tue, Jan 12 2016, 7:33 AM
There have been and continue to be two distinct ways to view the past week and half. The first is to consider the weakness in stocks and the gains ...
Tue, Jan 12 2016, 5:40 PM
The final rule for membership in the Federal Home Loan
Banking System (FHLBank) was announced on Tuesday by its regulator the Federal
Home Finance...
Tue, Jan 12 2016, 5:39 PM
The number of completed foreclosures nationwide in November was
down to about 30 percent of the level in the worst days of the housing crisis. CoreL...
Tue, Jan 12 2016, 5:36 PM
Today was interesting in the sense that it challenged some of the assumptions that have been easy to hold so far in 2016, namely: that bond markets ...
Tue, Jan 12 2016, 4:47 PM
Mortgage rates moved moderately, but somewhat precipitously lower today. How can the improvement be both moderate and precipitous? A fair questi...
Mon, Jan 11 2016, 10:45 AM
Plenty
of people around the industry believe that the three popular rating
agencies (Standard & Poor's, Fitch, and Moody's) have escaped their
p...
Mon, Jan 11 2016, 7:33 AM
One of my favorite wry market witticisms over the years is a variation of the seminal: " the trend is your friend ." This seemingly obvious, simplist...
Mon, Jan 11 2016, 6:37 PM
As we've been discussing fairly regularly, bond markets have been consistently dragged to better and better levels so far in the new year, by massive ...
Mon, Jan 11 2016, 5:23 PM
Mortgage rates finally pulled back (higher)--albeit slightly--after spending most of the past 2 weeks moving significantly lower. Much of the recen...
Mon, Jan 11 2016, 4:07 PM
Consumers are displaying a bit of bearishness toward the
economy according a Federal Reserve Bank of New York's recent survey of how
they expect o...
Mon, Jan 11 2016, 4:00 PM
Years into the refinance boom Black Knight Financial
Services estimates there are still millions of homeowners who could qualify for
and benefit fro...
Fri, Jan 8 2016, 9:59 AM
Residential
lending, and real estate in general, is impacted by legal maneuvering
big and small. Sure the big cases and settlements garner the h...
Fri, Jan 8 2016, 7:25 AM
Bond markets were able to put some green on the screen again yesterday, but that's not as positive a development as it normally is. We talk sometimes...
Fri, Jan 8 2016, 6:54 PM
Today's NFP data was exactly what we needed to let us know what has been going on so far in 2016. It was so strong that it left no doubt as to how ...
Fri, Jan 8 2016, 5:28 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower today, despite an exceptionally strong jobs report--something that typically sends rates screaming higher. Recently, how...
Thu, Jan 7 2016, 11:01 AM
Credit available as measured by the Mortgage Bankers
Association's (MBA's) Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) appeared to
have declined in De...
Thu, Jan 7 2016, 10:31 AM
By
most accounts 2015 was a decent year for many builders, lenders, and
real estate firms - especially here in Texas where I'm spending a few
da...
Thu, Jan 7 2016, 10:21 AM
Bond markets continue defying the odds so far in 2016, with another strong performance in the overnight session (although things may be leveling off...
Thu, Jan 7 2016, 8:26 PM
Bond markets continue being forced to go wherever global equities markets tell them to go. The sheer scale of the selling in China, Europe, and the U...
Thu, Jan 7 2016, 5:06 PM
Mortgage rates inched slightly lower today, adding to an already impressive string of improvements in the new year. Rates typically take most of th...
Wed, Jan 6 2016, 10:15 AM
The Wall Street Journal reports banks are beefing up cybersecurity defenses
by taking actions that include banning employees from using USB drives...
Wed, Jan 6 2016, 9:51 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is playing catch-up this morning
after a two week holiday hiatus for its Weekly Mortgage Applications
Survey....
Wed, Jan 6 2016, 9:06 AM
Bond markets are coming out of the overnight session with a pleasantly surprising advantage, and a good reminder that our fate can be influenced by m...
Wed, Jan 6 2016, 6:31 PM
Bond markets had a great day. Right from the start of the overnight session, Asian equities markets were pulling global bond yields and stock price...
Wed, Jan 6 2016, 5:27 PM
Mortgage rates moved respectably lower today, nearly making it to the best levels in a month. Whereas the average conventional 30yr fixed quote h...
Tue, Jan 5 2016, 11:43 AM
Freddie Mac is dismissing concerns of some analysts that the
change in the Federal Reserve's monetary policy may bode ill for the housing
industry. ...
Tue, Jan 5 2016, 11:22 AM
Lots of flex in the estimates of home price increases as we
reach the end of the year. Last week
Case-Shiller put the number (as of October) at 5....
Tue, Jan 5 2016, 11:03 AM
For
anyone who likes numbers, the U.S. Census Bureau projected the United
States population was 322,762,018 on Jan. 1. This is an increase of
2,...
Tue, Jan 5 2016, 7:33 AM
Bond markets are currently in a sort of disheartening position. The Fed rate hike means that most rates should move higher, even if that happens wi...
Tue, Jan 5 2016, 5:41 PM
Although there were no significant economic reports on tap today, bond markets still faced a few hurdles--more than 20 billion of them, in fact. That...
Tue, Jan 5 2016, 5:12 PM
Mortgage rates were essentially unchanged for many lenders today and just barely higher for others. There were no major sources of inspiration as...
Mon, Jan 4 2016, 10:23 AM
"Rob,
I can't help but notice the enormous TRID frustration among so many of
your readers. While we/MBA were successful in getting the letter fr...
Mon, Jan 4 2016, 7:33 AM
There are several types of traders that play key roles in the bond market. Their motivations and concerns can be surprisingly diverse . For instanc...
Mon, Jan 4 2016, 6:57 PM
It was the first day back from the holiday market delirium and market participants needed a touchstone to kick things off. They found it in the form ...
Mon, Jan 4 2016, 4:59 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower today as financial markets roared back to life after the winter break. In this age of ever-increasing automation and d...
Mon, Jan 4 2016, 3:34 PM
California appears to have topped out in terms of price
increases, at least for the present.
While Black Knight Financial Services reports a 0.2 ...
Mon, Jan 4 2016, 3:29 PM
Both public and private spending on construction eased back
slightly in November. The Census Bureau
said on Monday that total construction spending...
Thu, Dec 31 2015, 12:41 PM
Given
my Resolutions from a year ago, and looking back at 2015, I've got
today to get skinny, save money, learn French, and undrink 987 bottles
...
Thu, Dec 31 2015, 8:51 AM
Today is a very exciting day for bond market participants. Most of them are on vacation, or at the very least, in a vacation-like state of mind. The...
Thu, Dec 31 2015, 3:53 PM
Pre-announced bond buying programs are really quite something. They have all ended up being well-telegraphed enough to allow investors to do their o...
Thu, Dec 31 2015, 2:33 PM
Mortgage rates had an interesting year to say the least. After almost universal consensus on a move toward higher rates the first few months of t...
Thu, Dec 31 2015, 1:46 AM
Sales of distressed properties made up 10.2 percent of total
home sales in October CoreLogic said on Tuesday. The October number represented a sli...
Wed, Dec 30 2015, 10:45 AM
Pending home sales dipped slightly in November, the third
time in four months they have done so. The
National Association of Realtors®
(NAR's) P...
Wed, Dec 30 2015, 10:39 AM
Death
is rarely funny, and the aftermath can be even worse. But here's an
interesting twist on things. Even in our digital world where e-mortgages...
Wed, Dec 30 2015, 9:26 AM
Bond markets--especially Treasuries--had one of their worst days of the month yesterday. Or maybe they didn't... It's hard to say for sure when vo...
Wed, Dec 30 2015, 5:59 PM
The overnight session was much less interesting for Treasuries today (compared to yesterday). In the sense that European bonds weren't pushing yields...
Wed, Dec 30 2015, 4:53 PM
Mortgage rates managed to hold steady
today after moving up to the highest levels in more than 5 months
yesterday. Rates had moved close to c...
Wed, Dec 30 2015, 3:26 PM
The Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi) produced by Freddie
Mac's Office of the Chief Economist shows that the U.S. housing market is
within the out...
Tue, Dec 29 2015, 12:25 PM
Home prices continue to confound predictions
of decelerating gains. The S&P/Case-Shiller National Home Price Index
gained 5.2 percent over the 12 ...
Tue, Dec 29 2015, 11:45 AM
Are
you reading this while figuring out what you're going to do New Year's
Eve? The latest research studies find it is nearly impossible for our
...
