Mon, Nov 23 2015, 10:51 AM
Pending sales, which had declined in
both September and October did indeed prove to be a leading indicator for
existing home sales in October. The
...
Mon, Nov 23 2015, 9:58 AM
What
is a huge concern of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? It isn't rates, or
credit risk. It is having their business flow, and that of their
client...
Mon, Nov 23 2015, 9:37 AM
Last Friday, I talked about some of the general bond market dynamics we tend to see around this time of year. It wouldn't be a bad idea to check tha...
Mon, Nov 23 2015, 5:36 PM
Traders punched the clock, made their trades, and went home today. Before the clock-punching, there was the overnight session, in which European bond...
Mon, Nov 23 2015, 4:32 PM
Mortgage rates rose today for most lenders, albeit modestly. In fact, several lenders were unchanged from Friday's latest levels with the rest ...
Mon, Nov 23 2015, 1:38 PM
The story of today is largely a two-parter, and a fairly simple one at that. Part 1: bonds weaker in Europe. Part 2: bonds stronger in the US. The ...
Fri, Nov 20 2015, 10:09 AM
Those of you who are expecting Millennials
to shift gears and start becoming homeowners will have to keep holding your
breath. A new Freddie Mac su...
Fri, Nov 20 2015, 9:45 AM
With the year nearing an end Fannie Mae's chief
economist Doug Duncan and his Economic & Strategic Research (ESR) Group are
holding to their most r...
Fri, Nov 20 2015, 9:22 AM
Did
you know that November is American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage
month? There are currently 5.4 million American Indians and Alaska
Nati...
Fri, Nov 20 2015, 9:09 AM
For bond markets, the week of the Thanksgiving holiday tends to be fairly formulaic . It's not that the same thing happens every year, but with almo...
Fri, Nov 20 2015, 5:10 PM
Once again, the bulk of the day's recap was inadvertently captured in the mid-day-commentary. Feel free to read that instead of this if you want. ...
Fri, Nov 20 2015, 4:37 PM
Mortgage rates started the day slightly lower compared to yesterday's latest offerings. Mid-day weakness in bond markets resulted in most lenders...
Fri, Nov 20 2015, 1:47 PM
If illiquidity shows up for the start of the holiday trading season and says "I come bearing gifts!" you do not want those gifts. They typically cons...
Thu, Nov 19 2015, 11:28 AM
Measures of mortgage distress continued to reach new eight
to ten year lows during the third quarter of 2015. The Mortgage Bankers Association's (MB...
Thu, Nov 19 2015, 11:24 AM
Is the dream of a decent education gone
for the children of middle-class Americans?
A new study by RealtyTrac indicates that if you consider standa...
Thu, Nov 19 2015, 11:00 AM
The share of cash sales inched up
slightly in August, reaching 31.7 percent, a 0.8 percent month-over-month
change. Despite the marginal change,
c...
Thu, Nov 19 2015, 10:57 AM
Ellie Mae says its October data on
closed and denied loans indicate that credit is loosening. The company said that average FICO scores continued
...
Thu, Nov 19 2015, 10:46 AM
Every day we all hear rumors, big and small, mostly unfounded.
Rumors like that large companies in the vein of Franklin American and
Freedom Mortg...
Thu, Nov 19 2015, 8:34 AM
There is no question that the Fed hinted at a brave new world for global interest rates in yesterday's Minutes release, but for most market participan...
Thu, Nov 19 2015, 5:18 PM
This will largely be a rehash of the Mid-Day commentary as it captured all of the day's relevant themes. The themes in question are at least threefo...
Thu, Nov 19 2015, 4:42 PM
Mortgage rates moved nicely lower today, relative to the recent, plodding improvements. This brings most lenders back to their lowest levels sinc...
Thu, Nov 19 2015, 2:49 PM
Home sales appeared to slam on the brakes in October, at
least according to Redfin. The company
said sales increased by only 0.3 percent compared...
Thu, Nov 19 2015, 1:28 PM
Staying on this topic of yesterday's weird juxtaposition of analysis from the Fed, today's trading is fairly logical. The juxtaposition in question i...
Wed, Nov 18 2015, 12:19 PM
Residential construction data from October were mixed, but declines were largely due to the multi-family sector . Permitting was up modestly while th...
Wed, Nov 18 2015, 10:58 AM
Where
the heck did 40 years go? Call any person who underwrites loans or
draws docs and ask if they'd like to do that for 40 straight years. The
...
Wed, Nov 18 2015, 8:44 AM
It was another holiday muddled week for the Mortgage Bankers Association's
Market Composite Index. The index, a
measure of applications volume, ro...
Wed, Nov 18 2015, 7:33 AM
If I were to deliver my normal pre-Fed shtick, I would probably point out the fact that the Fed has a tendency to use the Minutes release to promote a...
Wed, Nov 18 2015, 6:22 PM
As expected, today's Fed Minutes were a non-event. Well, almost... While the bulk of the Minutes release was simply a wordier version of the October...
Wed, Nov 18 2015, 4:57 PM
Mortgage rates were just slightly higher today, keeping them in a holding pattern just shy of 4-month highs. This after an abrupt move higher fro...
Wed, Nov 18 2015, 1:32 PM
With the 2pm release of the Minutes from the most recent Fed meeting less than an hour away, bond markets are clearly in consolidation mode. Both Tre...
Tue, Nov 17 2015, 10:52 AM
Well that didn't last long.
After jumping to the highest level in a decade in October the Housing
Market Index (HMI) a measure of builder confidenc...
Tue, Nov 17 2015, 10:10 AM
I
do a little traveling (this week, hopefully, is California, Colorado,
and Kansas) so it was interesting to see that Pro Teck Valuation
Service...
Tue, Nov 17 2015, 8:30 AM
We had a good run last week of modest gains that followed the abrupt selling-spree that began in late October. In other words, rates rose quickly , ...
Tue, Nov 17 2015, 5:26 PM
Mortgage rates had an interesting day today, with most lenders beginning at slightly higher levels, but improving by the end of the day. The aver...
Tue, Nov 17 2015, 5:26 PM
Bond markets bounced back from a weaker morning trading session to end the day largely unchanged. The selling began at 3am, shortly after the start o...
Tue, Nov 17 2015, 2:20 PM
Ever heard of Carlyle? Is that like Cargill? How about Veritas? En vino? No?
Well, 2 of the above are almost exclusively responsible for bond...
Mon, Nov 16 2015, 10:52 AM
Many
nations are a hodge-podge of ethnic diversity, and the U.S. Census
Bureau tells us that there are at least 350 languages spoken across our
...
Mon, Nov 16 2015, 7:33 AM
There are several past examples of global tragedies affecting domestic interest rates. It's not uncommon to see far less grotesque events than those ...
Mon, Nov 16 2015, 5:37 PM
For a few moments in the middle of the day, it looked like bond markets might be thinking about getting something going insofar as making the recen...
Mon, Nov 16 2015, 4:53 PM
Mortgage rates moved slightly lower for the third straight day and have now spent 4 days without moving higher. Like the previous two business da...
Mon, Nov 16 2015, 3:48 PM
FHA's Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund (MMIF) is back in the
money . Housing and Urban Development
Secretary Julian Castro told Congress today that ...
Mon, Nov 16 2015, 3:42 PM
While we have all been
sitting around waiting for millennials to take the homeowner plunge we have
apparently overlooked that both they and their pa...
Mon, Nov 16 2015, 1:29 PM
It's been a slow day in terms of market-specific news as most major media outlets continue to focus on Paris. The only relevant market impact was the...
Fri, Nov 13 2015, 12:10 PM
After last months' disappointing Census Bureau report on September
new home sales - down 11.5 percent from a solid August - one might hope for an
Oc...
Fri, Nov 13 2015, 10:46 AM
Lots
of people love Friday the 13ths - we've had a few this year but there
will be only one in 2016 (May). The Gregorian calendar is full of
won...
Fri, Nov 13 2015, 7:33 AM
Because that's what you want right? I actually do have a very high probability prediction regarding rates over the next three months. If you can...
Fri, Nov 13 2015, 6:24 PM
If you happened to tune in for today's mid-day commentary , that was essentially the recap for today. But who likes opening links? So here's anothe...
Fri, Nov 13 2015, 5:03 PM
For the third straight day, mortgage rates have avoided moving any higher . Each of the past two days have seen only modest improvements. That ...
Fri, Nov 13 2015, 1:58 PM
It's still not making a ton of sense to refer to bond markets as moving in the same way that other markets are, but today is as close as we've gotten ...
Thu, Nov 12 2015, 10:59 AM
WalletHub published its findings from analyzing the 2015 best and worst small cities in America .
The analysis compared 1,268 U.S. cities with a po...
