Fri, Jul 15 2016, 12:00 PM
During Happy Hour tonight you can work this one into the conversation: Minnesota has 90,000 miles of shoreline. Is that a lot? It is more than Califor...
Fri, Jul 15 2016, 12:00 PM
Who is Gary Johnson? He’s the Libertarian candidate for president this year. And given the “unusual” presidential situation this year, and the current...
Fri, Jul 15 2016, 8:31 AM
Granted, economic data in the US is far from the only game in town at the moment. In fact, it's probably one of the least important games there is, ...
Fri, Jul 15 2016, 6:34 PM
Except for the very end of the trading session, today was all about domestic economic data and all about the logical bond market weakness that followe...
Fri, Jul 15 2016, 5:39 PM
Mortgage rates have been moving higher, in general, this week. That upward momentum tends to coincide with weakness in broader bond markets. For i...
Fri, Jul 15 2016, 3:30 PM
While markets don't believe the Fed will really raise interest rates this year, it could surprise them with at least one hike later in the year.
...
Thu, Jul 14 2016, 12:46 PM
New home sales are predicted to have dipped by a
fraction in June in a report Thursday from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Based on informa...
Thu, Jul 14 2016, 8:30 AM
Bonds are back on the ropes again to start the day as the Bank of England (BOE) surprised markets by holding rates steady. This was their way of fl...
Thu, Jul 14 2016, 5:20 PM
Bond markets weakened overnight as Yen/USD surged higher (meaning Yen is weakening versus the dollar). This has to do with the potential for new stim...
Thu, Jul 14 2016, 4:28 PM
Mortgage rates were slightly higher again today, and this time, it's personal! OK, so it's not really "personal," but it is now more of a concern f...
Wed, Jul 13 2016, 10:28 AM
“Cuz they ain’t makin’ any more of it” is the traditional response to the question about why should anyone buy real estate. But builders, straining to...
Wed, Jul 13 2016, 9:06 AM
Have you ever wondered why technical analysts and other seemingly savvy market commentators tend to reference moving averages that are nice, round nu...
Wed, Jul 13 2016, 8:18 AM
Record low interest rates coupled with a major American holiday made for a bit of chaos as regards mortgage applications. The Mortgage Bankers Asso...
Wed, Jul 13 2016, 6:04 PM
US bond markets were completely done moving by the time the domestic session began. Case in point, 10yr yields ended the day at 1.473, exactly the sa...
Wed, Jul 13 2016, 4:56 PM
Mortgage rates moved just slightly lower today, following a fairly abrupt spike over the first two days of the week. This the sort of movement that...
Tue, Jul 12 2016, 11:54 AM
Lou Holtz observed, "Never tell your problems to anyone....80% don't care and the other 20% are glad you have them." People who don’t understand econo...
Tue, Jul 12 2016, 9:21 AM
Back in the good old days during the infancy of the financial crisis, much was made of Bernanke's study of Japan's massive, long term , secular defla...
Tue, Jul 12 2016, 6:42 PM
The very next day after Brexit headlines sunk 10yr yields to long-term lows in late June, we began talking about "1.53%" in 10yr Treasury yields. Thi...
Tue, Jul 12 2016, 5:01 PM
Mortgage rates are on the move, heading noticeably higher after a more subtle increase yesterday. With that, this week now stands as the first majo...
Tue, Jul 12 2016, 2:40 PM
CoreLogic reported on Tuesday that the foreclosure inventory, the number of homes in some stage of foreclosure, had dropped to 390,000 in May, represe...
Tue, Jul 12 2016, 1:10 PM
The Brexit decision continues to reverberate and Freddie Mac, in its current issue of Outlook sees it as both a plus and a minus for the U.S., and n...
Mon, Jul 11 2016, 9:35 AM
I certainly see “out of office” replies increase during the summer. But some people seem to take as little vacation as possible, sometimes making thos...
Mon, Jul 11 2016, 9:04 AM
To whatever extent economic data matters, the week ahead will gradually crescendo by Friday, which boasts the two most important reports: CPI and Ret...
Mon, Jul 11 2016, 5:41 PM
If I didn't know any better, I'd say it looked like MBS were simply "tired of moving" in relative proportion to Treasuries as the latter undergo some ...
Mon, Jul 11 2016, 5:10 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher today, but not by very much, considering the amount of movement seen in other corners of financial markets. For instanc...
Mon, Jul 11 2016, 5:08 PM
Mortgage credit availability appeared to decrease
again in June. It was the fourth
consecutive month the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA's) Mor...
Mon, Jul 11 2016, 5:06 PM
In its "first look" at May mortgage data published last month Black Knight Financial Services noted that the prepayment rate for mortgages, historical...
Fri, Jul 8 2016, 11:51 AM
The nation’s thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the five Dallas police officers who were killed and six others wounded after snipers fired...
Fri, Jul 8 2016, 8:20 AM
Perhaps as long ago as April 2014, when the first major talk of the European Central Bank's impending QE plan began circulating, domestic economic dat...
Fri, Jul 8 2016, 5:36 PM
I wouldn't go so far as to say "the impossible happened today," but at the very least, we could call it "the improbable." A lot was at stake headin...
Fri, Jul 8 2016, 4:44 PM
Mortgage rates held surprisingly steady despite a strong employment headline. The big jobs report came out today, and it showed payroll creation at...
Thu, Jul 7 2016, 10:20 AM
Doug T. writes, “There's a strange new trend in the office: people are putting names on food in the company fridge to keep them cold. Today I had a sa...
Thu, Jul 7 2016, 9:00 AM
After an epic run to all-time Treasury lows (and nearly all-time mortgage rate lows) bond markets are flashing warning signs about a bounce. This sor...
Thu, Jul 7 2016, 4:51 PM
Bonds slightly weaker overnight; no major drama
AM employment data (ADP and Jobless Claims) prompted more selling
Stock prices and bond yields b...
Thu, Jul 7 2016, 4:35 PM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has released an update on the progress made toward the Single Security that is expected to replace those cur...
Thu, Jul 7 2016, 2:46 PM
Fannie Mae's Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI), an outgrowth of its National Housing Survey, pulled back a bit in June, largely due to weakened o...
Thu, Jul 7 2016, 2:02 PM
Mortgage rates finally ended an impressive winning streak today, rising for the first time in 9 days. Rates began that streak with a massive move l...
Wed, Jul 6 2016, 11:06 AM
Huh? Uber has a new update that allows users to file a lawsuit against the company directly in the app? What will they think of next? In a more seri...
Wed, Jul 6 2016, 8:42 AM
Bond markets enter domestic session at new all-time low yields
Yet again, there are no stand-out, individual motivations
All about he big pictu...
Wed, Jul 6 2016, 7:56 AM
The rate drop that kicked in immediately after the June 23 Brexit vote in the United Kingdom was reflected, dramatically so, in the volume of mortga...
Wed, Jul 6 2016, 5:25 PM
Treasury yields hit new intraday all-time lows overnight
Traders were lined up to sell at the open (profit-taking)
Weakness continued after stro...
Wed, Jul 6 2016, 4:23 PM
Mortgage rates fell again today, extending an already-uncanny winning streak to its 8th straight day. The most recent improvements bring the averag...
Wed, Jul 6 2016, 2:18 PM
If you were to review a pile of mortgage applications randomly pulled from all of those submitted what age group do you think would look the best, t...
Wed, Jul 6 2016, 1:53 PM
The performance of loans serviced by the seven national banks reporting to the Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) improved during the first...
Tue, Jul 5 2016, 10:23 AM
CoreLogic is reporting that the rate of home price increases, as measured by its Home Price Index (HPI) slowed considerably in May from its rate in ...
Tue, Jul 5 2016, 10:13 AM
Last week we noticed that Ginnie Mae volumes had passed Freddie Mac , so the absence of big banks doing that business was certainly taken up by non...
Tue, Jul 5 2016, 9:36 AM
Global yields begin week at new all-time lows
Underlying reasons haven't changed
What ends this?
If you only look at the US as a represent...
Tue, Jul 5 2016, 4:00 PM
10yr yields traded well into the 1.3's, surpassing previous low of 1.381
No specific motivation at home or abroad, though there are several support...
Tue, Jul 5 2016, 3:05 PM
Mortgage rates dropped noticeably today, bringing quite a few lenders down to 3.25% in terms of conventional 30yr fixed quotes on top tier scenarios...
Fri, Jul 1 2016, 11:28 AM
Investors who purchase distressed loans through the FHA's Distressed Asset Stabilization Program (DASP) are going to have to toe a stricter line w...
