Thu, Jan 21 2016, 5:29 PM
Today was the 4th day of the year that stocks closed higher than they opened. In other, far from coincidental news, it was also the 4th day of the ...
Thu, Jan 21 2016, 4:38 PM
Mortgage rates held mostly flat today, and that's an accomplishment! Lenders set mortgage rates based primarily on the prices of mortgage-backed-se...
Wed, Jan 20 2016, 10:48 AM
If
you think regulatory trends aren't influencing businesses, big and
small, think again. In the latest "big" example, insurance company
MetLi...
Wed, Jan 20 2016, 10:31 AM
Both housing starts and residential construction permits
declined in December compared to November.
A joint release from the U.S. Census Bureau and...
Wed, Jan 20 2016, 9:00 AM
Applications
for mortgages rose significantly during the week ended January 15 as fixed rate
mortgage interest rates fell to the lowest levels sin...
Wed, Jan 20 2016, 7:32 AM
If you've been tuned in to any reasonable extent--and no one would blame you if you weren't--you're already well aware that Bonds have been on fire ...
Wed, Jan 20 2016, 5:36 PM
The S&P closed at its lowest level since April 2014 today and intraday prices were at their lowest levels since February 2014. If yesterday's $28/bar...
Wed, Jan 20 2016, 5:01 PM
Mortgage rates fell today , bringing them back in line with the lowest levels in more than 2 months and very near the best levels since late April 20...
Tue, Jan 19 2016, 12:16 PM
Tom
Finnegan contacted me yesterday saying, "Rob, yesterday you published a
list of reasons why loans are not currently being purchased. One of th...
Tue, Jan 19 2016, 10:59 AM
Builder confidence in the new home market, while on the surface unchanged
from December, has now dropped 5 points since establishing a decade-long ...
Tue, Jan 19 2016, 7:32 AM
Stocks and bond yields don't always follow each other, but their correlation is not only undeniable so far in 2016, it's been the most important bond ...
Tue, Jan 19 2016, 5:00 PM
Rising prices, especially in major cities like San
Francisco, Seattle, and Boston which hit new price highs in 2015 have created
renewed concerns a...
Tue, Jan 19 2016, 4:54 PM
For the 3rd time this year, the S&P avoided making new intraday lows, and for the 3rd time this year, mortgage rates moved higher. I am not a fan of ...
Tue, Jan 19 2016, 3:54 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher today, but remained near the lowest levels in more than 2 months. Friday's drop was uncharacteristically sharp and put ...
Fri, Jan 15 2016, 10:51 AM
I've
spent some time going through airport security last week & this
week with time in Texas, Northern California, Colorado, and now Ft.
Lauderd...
Fri, Jan 15 2016, 7:32 AM
It's been an utterly hopeless week for domestic economic data so far, with nary a top tier report in sight. Not only that, but after last week's ADP ...
Fri, Jan 15 2016, 4:00 PM
What's a risk meltdown? What's a "risk market" for that matter? This is just a shorthand term for anything investors are normally buying when stoc...
Fri, Jan 15 2016, 2:56 PM
Mortgage rates surged lower at the quickest pace of the year today as stocks and oil prices continued suffering heavy losses. At present, investors...
Fri, Jan 15 2016, 1:02 PM
Two factors appear poised to positively affect
the ability of households to purchase a home according to Fannie Mae's economists. In their initial...
Thu, Jan 14 2016, 10:50 AM
It seems at times that the wave of foreclosures will never
end. At the end of 2015, according to
RealtyTrac's 2015 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report r...
Thu, Jan 14 2016, 9:05 AM
I'd
recently heard of an English teacher in high school who preached,
"Practice safe text, use commas...and never miss a period." How about
neve...
Thu, Jan 14 2016, 7:32 AM
Sometimes all the analysis and planning in the world can't prepare you for how something actually transpires. More than a few traders had plans headi...
Thu, Jan 14 2016, 5:26 PM
Our old standby for information on all-things-CFPB has
slammed a new "fact sheet" issued by the agency regarding the treatment of construction-to-per...
Thu, Jan 14 2016, 5:24 PM
Bond markets only managed to hold steady today, and it felt like the worst day of the year . There are mortgage-specific reasons for that, however, ...
Thu, Jan 14 2016, 4:54 PM
For the first time this year, mortgage rates spent the second straight day without moving any lower. While that may sound like a bad thing, it ...
Wed, Jan 13 2016, 9:55 AM
Dodd-Frank
rules require public companies to provide their shareholders with an
advisory vote (non-binding) on the compensation of the most highly...
Wed, Jan 13 2016, 9:34 AM
The weekly mortgage application report from the Mortgage Bankers
Association (MBA) was another recounting of a post-holiday rebound. Last Wednesday'...
Wed, Jan 13 2016, 7:33 AM
Yesterday's bond market rally came out of left field, not just for market watchers, but for market participants as well. In fact, one of the driving...
Wed, Jan 13 2016, 5:41 PM
10yr yields fell 1.4bps today and Fannie 3.0s ended the day 3/32nds better in price. Those stats could describe any bland, uneventful day for bond ...
Wed, Jan 13 2016, 4:57 PM
Mortgage rates held their ground today, keeping them near the lowest levels in more than 2 months. There were no major economic reports, but financ...
Wed, Jan 13 2016, 4:36 PM
The
House Committee on Financial Services held its second day of hearings on
Wednesday regarding the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). N...
Tue, Jan 12 2016, 10:52 AM
Seen
recently: "The lottery gives you a one-in-two hundred million chance of
not going in to work tomorrow. Alcohol gives you one-in-five." What a...
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...
