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
...
Tue, Dec 29 2015, 9:14 AM
There continues to be little to observe or conclude in this 'holiday-light' trading environment. While today's data will provide at least something...
Tue, Dec 29 2015, 5:09 PM
Treasuries were significantly weaker today as oil, Europe, and equities all bounced higher. The move was led by a reversal in European bond markets...
Tue, Dec 29 2015, 4:27 PM
Mortgage rates moved slightly highe r today. While it wasn't a big move in the grand scheme of things, rates were already fairly close to their hi...
Mon, Dec 28 2015, 12:02 PM
Fetch
your HP 12c - here's some math magic. Take 259, multiply it by your
age, and then multiply that by 39. You'll see an interesting result.
(...
Mon, Dec 28 2015, 9:15 AM
2015's winter holidays are laid out nicely for financial markets. Both Christmas and New Years Day fall on Fridays. This makes it much easier to pre...
Mon, Dec 28 2015, 7:35 PM
While oil prices did move lower in the overnight session, and while stock markets followed that move, bond markets were a bit more independent. Speci...
Mon, Dec 28 2015, 6:49 PM
Mortgage rates were sideways to slightly lower today as underlying bond markets continue to operate in holiday mode. While that can occasionally ...
Mon, Dec 28 2015, 5:19 PM
The new RESPA-TILA Know Before You Owe regulations, commonly
called TRIID, was cited as a probable reason for a three day increase in the
average ti...
Thu, Dec 24 2015, 12:43 PM
Almost any article you see today on mortgage rates will say the same thing: "rates are roughly unchanged from last week." Almost every article w...
Thu, Dec 24 2015, 11:50 AM
Freddie
Mac's Office of the Chief Economist takes an intensive look at marketplace
lending in the December issue of its Insights
and Outlook . ...
Thu, Dec 24 2015, 11:45 AM
As
much of the nation reels from storms and their damage, and lenders
review their disaster policies, there is one thing we don't have to
worry ...
Thu, Dec 24 2015, 7:32 AM
It's hard to look at the ultra long term correlation between Fed Funds and mortgage rates and NOT be concerned about rates moving higher in 2016. ...
Thu, Dec 24 2015, 1:53 PM
stone silent and slightly positive
no economic motivation
a few traders closed short positions, which helps bonds improve
Today was by far...
Wed, Dec 23 2015, 11:22 AM
It
is the holiday season. Some of us abstain from drinking alcohol, some
of us don't. And among those that don't abstain, some drink a little and
...
Wed, Dec 23 2015, 10:51 AM
Newly constructed single-family homes continued to sell well
in November however October's earlier robust report was scaled down
dramatically . Th...
Wed, Dec 23 2015, 10:49 AM
There was, as expected
only a minimal immediate impact on either mortgage rates or mortgage
application volume in the few days following the Feder...
Wed, Dec 23 2015, 7:32 AM
It's no mystery that bond markets have been remarkably flat this holiday season. While the absolute range in 10yr yields during that time has been ...
Wed, Dec 23 2015, 5:37 PM
Mortgage rates moved up for the second consecutive day, but in an uncommon way. Mortgage-backed-securities (MBS) are the financial instruments th...
Wed, Dec 23 2015, 5:32 PM
While "whatever it takes to stay sideways" makes it sound like some sort of passionate goal, it's really just a byproduct of the season (or a simple...
Tue, Dec 22 2015, 12:11 PM
Yesterday I posted some USDA rural housing updates ,
and received a couple notes from astute readers on a couple errors. The
upfront guarantee fe...
Tue, Dec 22 2015, 11:20 AM
Existing home sales declined considerably in November
although the National Association of Realtors, in reporting the data, blamed in part new
dis...
Tue, Dec 22 2015, 7:33 AM
Today's chart illustrates the liquidity challenges that crop up at this time of year. The difference between last Friday and yesterday was really nig...
Tue, Dec 22 2015, 7:06 PM
Super light volume and participation
Data was overlooked (on-target GDP and weaker Existing Sales)
Oil and European yields pushed US rates a bit...
Tue, Dec 22 2015, 5:39 PM
Mortgage rates bounced slightly higher today, ending a 4-day winning streak that began with last Wednesday's Fed rate hike. Generally speaking, t...
Mon, Dec 21 2015, 11:09 AM
Cash sales rose incrementally in
September while continuing to diminish as a share of all sales on a
year-over-year basis. CoreLogic, in it's
mont...
Mon, Dec 21 2015, 11:00 AM
Congratulations
- from here on out we'll see more daylight in the Northern Hemisphere
every day. And for readers living in Anchorage, Alaska, wher...
Mon, Dec 21 2015, 7:33 AM
This week represents an age-old question for financial markets: Will markets be moved more by the results of the data or simply due to the illiquid ...
Mon, Dec 21 2015, 6:44 PM
Mortgage rates continued a trend of small, steady improvements into the new week today. This marks the 4th straight day of a winning streak that ...
Mon, Dec 21 2015, 6:44 PM
Heading into this week, we were well within our right to expect things to be slow for financial markets. Christmas is on Friday. Thursday is a half ...
Fri, Dec 18 2015, 10:51 AM
Few people grow up wanting to be an LO
or a capital markets gal. But plenty grow up wanting to be astronauts.
Ever wondered what an astronaut earn...
Fri, Dec 18 2015, 8:30 AM
With the relatively extreme importance of a Fed meeting that fell on December 16th, it was easier to overlook the fact that Christmas is next week . ...
Fri, Dec 18 2015, 5:40 PM
Low volume sets in for holidays
Asian markets shed risk on China/Japan headlines
Another new multi-year low for oil
stocks slide
all of th...
Fri, Dec 18 2015, 4:44 PM
Mortgage rates maintained their paradoxical descent following this week's Fed rate hike. The paradox can be accounted-for in several ways, but th...
Fri, Dec 18 2015, 3:15 PM
Should national housing policy move beyond its traditional
emphasis on homeownership to focus more broadly on "shelter?" Faith Schwartz, CoreLogic...
Thu, Dec 17 2015, 12:04 PM
Fannie Mae said Thursday there are indications
that easing lending standards may help mitigate some of the loss of housing
affordability moving into...
Thu, Dec 17 2015, 11:46 AM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency
(FHFA) has posted a proposed new rule for comment that seeks to provide greater
access to affordable housing for ...
Thu, Dec 17 2015, 11:39 AM
What are lenders talking about?
Besides the CEO of Wells Fargo saying in a recent speech that he sees,
"the wealth and investment management busin...
Thu, Dec 17 2015, 7:33 AM
Yesterday Yellen said that economic expansions don't die of old age . What she meant to say is that the Fed has been thinking a lot about the irrefu...
Thu, Dec 17 2015, 5:45 PM
Today didn't add much to the bigger picture. With the Fed hike so well telegraphed and the weakness over the previous 3 days, we may well have assume...
Thu, Dec 17 2015, 4:59 PM
Mortgage rates continued modestly lower today as financial markets continue sorting out their reaction to yesterday's Fed rate hike. As a reminde...
Wed, Dec 16 2015, 10:20 AM
Residential construction activity surged in November with
both residential construction permits and housing starts, permits especially,
beating anal...
Wed, Dec 16 2015, 10:12 AM
The financial services sector continues to evolve, or devolve as the
case may be. Certainly the wave of mergers and acquisitions continues,
and ju...
Wed, Dec 16 2015, 9:07 AM
Refinancing remained strong relative to purchase mortgage activity during
the week ended December 11 while application activity overall slipped. The...
Wed, Dec 16 2015, 8:20 PM
MBS traded less than a 3/8ths point range to end down an eighth of a point (Fannie 3.5) and 10yr yields traded an 8 bp range to end LESS THAN ONE BAS...
Wed, Dec 16 2015, 7:33 AM
Sometimes we approach days with big-ticket events with great anticipation only to be let down by the amount of excitement offered. Today is a bit di...
Wed, Dec 16 2015, 6:40 PM
Mortgage rates moved just slightly lower today, despite the long-awaited Fed rate hike. Once again, that's LOWER mortgage rates and a HIGHER Fed ...