Wed, Feb 24 2016, 3:59 PM
Fannie Mae is updating its Selling Guide to include changes several areas. The changes include elimination of the continuity of obligation policy ...
Tue, Feb 23 2016, 11:01 AM
Existing home sales and home prices both increased in January, the latter again driven by a tight supply of available houses in many markets. The Nat...
Tue, Feb 23 2016, 10:39 AM
One of the sea changes that swept in with the housing crisis was the growth of single family houses as a share of rental properties . Frank Nothaft,...
Tue, Feb 23 2016, 10:31 AM
Mortgage delinquencies rose in January, topping the 5 percent mark for the first time in 11 months Black Knight Financial Services said on Monday. Th...
Tue, Feb 23 2016, 10:30 AM
Home price gains were somewhat mixed in December with some of the S&P Case-Shiller posting larger increases than in November and others negative or un...
Tue, Feb 23 2016, 10:26 AM
Actuaries, statisticians, the press, and the mortgage industry love acronyms and abbreviations, any list of which would take up this entire commentary...
Tue, Feb 23 2016, 8:52 AM
Bond markets have been slightly weaker over the past few days, but overall, still arguably trading sideways inside a narrow range. Looked at in the m...
Tue, Feb 23 2016, 5:12 PM
Sad start, but happy ending for bond markets
"Tradeflows" (the trading cues that remain after we take away any overt cues like economic data, headl...
Tue, Feb 23 2016, 4:22 PM
Mortgage rates experienced some volatility today, but ended up in slightly stronger territory on average. At first, rates were higher, as underlyin...
Mon, Feb 22 2016, 10:14 AM
Foreclosure activity declined on a month-over-month basis nationwide in January although completed foreclosures were up significantly on an annual b...
Mon, Feb 22 2016, 10:12 AM
In the last 50+ years Detroit has lost nearly two thirds of its population. (Yes, 2/3.) And now the City of Detroit is offering up a mortgage pair...
Mon, Feb 22 2016, 9:04 AM
If you're just tuning in to 2016's bond market trends, it's been a good year so far. 10yr yields began around 2.30 and fell as low as 1.53 for a f...
Mon, Feb 22 2016, 5:27 PM
Mortgage rates maintained recent sideways momentum today, holding inside a narrow range established last week. This range is particularly interesti...
Mon, Feb 22 2016, 5:09 PM
Modest losses for Treasuries and MBS by the close
Should have been worse judging by stock/oil gains
Corporate bond supply was big--also typical...
Mon, Feb 22 2016, 1:19 PM
Despite three years of solid recovery in home prices, a surprising number of homeowners don't realize what they've gained.
Most underestimate w...
Fri, Feb 19 2016, 10:36 AM
"A man goes to his nearest zoo. He walks around the entire place and the only animal there is a dog. It was a shih tzu." In a similar vein, I guess, b...
Fri, Feb 19 2016, 7:33 AM
I was hyperactively remarking to a mentor back in the day about how things were happening in markets almost exactly as I thought they would. I was ex...
Fri, Feb 19 2016, 7:13 PM
Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) released fourth quarter and year-end results for their 2015 fiscal years this week. While both GSEs post...
Fri, Feb 19 2016, 7:05 PM
Both lower home prices and decreasing interest rates contributed to an increase in home affordability during the fourth quarter of 2015 according to...
Fri, Feb 19 2016, 5:25 PM
Today was a fine day for bond markets. There were no significant gains or losses by the closing bell, and indeed no real drama in between. Treasur...
Fri, Feb 19 2016, 4:17 PM
Mortgage rates improved slightly today, on average, despite modest weakness in underlying bond markets. We discussed this possibility yesterday in ...
Fri, Feb 19 2016, 3:35 PM
Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) released fourth quarter and year-end results for their 2015 fiscal years this week. While both GSEs post...
Fri, Feb 19 2016, 3:31 PM
Both lower home prices and decreasing interest rates contributed to an increase in home affordability during the fourth quarter of 2015 according to...
Thu, Feb 18 2016, 10:43 AM
Freddie Mac is announcing changes to its Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide which the company says will provide expanded homeownership opportuniti...
Thu, Feb 18 2016, 8:39 AM
Rates fight to hold under important long-term ceiling (marked by 1.84% in 10yr yields)
Assessing possibility that last week was a long-term bounce ...
Thu, Feb 18 2016, 8:09 PM
Mortgage rates finally held their ground today, earning back some of the ground lost over the past 3 days. While a substantial gap remains between ...
Thu, Feb 18 2016, 8:03 PM
Bonds unchanged overnight, then follow German Bunds toward lower yields mid-morning
Oil Inventory data hit oil prices and stocks, thus lubricating ...
Thu, Feb 18 2016, 2:00 PM
The overall delinquency rate on
mortgage loans has now fallen below historic average levels. The Mortgage
Bankers Association (MBA) said on Thursd...
Wed, Feb 17 2016, 11:02 AM
To put some perspective on things, a trillion seconds is roughly 31,710 years. The Fed indicates that household housing debt is about $8.8 trillion ...
Wed, Feb 17 2016, 9:07 AM
Applications for refinancing again drove a significant increase in mortgage applications during the week ended February 12 as mortgage rates continu...
Wed, Feb 17 2016, 8:56 AM
U.S. housing starts unexpectedly fell in January likely as bad weather disrupted building projects in some parts of the country, in what could be a te...
Wed, Feb 17 2016, 8:38 AM
Technical analysis refers to attempts to understand and predict financial market behavior based solely on financial markets themselves. Specifically,...
Wed, Feb 17 2016, 5:47 PM
Bond markets began the overnight session in fine shape, but soon succumbed to a steamroller of equity market positivity in the European session. Ri...
Wed, Feb 17 2016, 4:44 PM
Mortgage rates were just a bit higher in most cases today, although some lenders were effectively unchanged from yesterday. If you happened to stop...
Tue, Feb 16 2016, 10:54 AM
Confidence among new home builders cooled considerably this month. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said its Housing Market Index (HM...
Tue, Feb 16 2016, 10:52 AM
The mortgage industry has certainly taken its lumps in the last eight years. Things are turning around, and Jason Frazier from California's Mason McDu...
Tue, Feb 16 2016, 8:15 AM
The new, holiday-shortened week begins in much the same fashion as the previous week ended: with bond markets considering whether they are under press...
Tue, Feb 16 2016, 5:23 PM
When you have a day as weak as last Friday was, the most informative subsequent trading session is one that is either similarly weak or strongly posit...
Tue, Feb 16 2016, 3:59 PM
Mortgage rates continued slightly higher today, further distancing themselves from last week's 1-yr lows. The average lender continues to quote c...
Fri, Feb 12 2016, 11:44 AM
A proposed new rule from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), if enacted, could significantly impact mortgage workers' paychecks, and affect mortgage c...
Fri, Feb 12 2016, 11:37 AM
In a hearing on Thursday before the House
Financial Services Committee, Edward L. Golding,
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Department of...
Fri, Feb 12 2016, 11:30 AM
(Note: Monday is a federal holiday , and there will be no commentary.) Here's a note I received from the owner of an independent mortgage bank with a...
Fri, Feb 12 2016, 9:43 AM
As we all know, the MBS market is personified by a big green dragon . So far in 2016, the dragon has been breathing plenty of fire. Less publicize...
Fri, Feb 12 2016, 4:10 PM
Day's like today can't hep but give the average market watcher a bit of a sinking feeling . Was that it? Was yesterday's visit to the lowest yields...
Fri, Feb 12 2016, 3:47 PM
Mortgage rates rose rapidly today, relative to their average intraday movement potential. Things have been far from average, of course, and so it ...
Thu, Feb 11 2016, 9:39 AM
What's this? Fifty five thousand residents in one mile-high building? Doesn't Tokyo have earthquakes? Let's hope not everyone wants hot water at the...
Thu, Feb 11 2016, 7:34 AM
Stocks and bond yields ignited a fiery romance in 2016, not letting each other out of sight for almost the entire month of January. That is to say,...
Thu, Feb 11 2016, 6:57 PM
The
Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA's) early estimate of new home sales for
January projects a 14 percent increase compared to December. MBA ...
Thu, Feb 11 2016, 6:56 PM
Bond markets came thundering in to the domestic trading session today, largely following equally thunderous moves in equities and European stock/bon...
Thu, Feb 11 2016, 5:22 PM
Mortgage rates were widely available at 3.5 percent for much of the day today. At any other time from the middle of 2013 through the end of 2015, ...
