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 ...
Wed, Dec 16 2015, 2:09 PM
Naturally, this is the most changed Fed Announcement in recent memory. Strike-through indicates previous text. Underline indicates new text.
Releas...
Wed, Dec 16 2015, 1:39 PM
In order to end what it considered excessive borrowing by
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) and the Federal Home Loan Banks the
Federal Reserve,...
Tue, Dec 15 2015, 10:26 AM
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said on
Tuesday that its NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) dropped one point
in December ...
Tue, Dec 15 2015, 10:23 AM
Ninety-two percent of mortgaged homeowners now have positive
equity in their homes after more than a quarter-million emerged from being
underwater i...
Tue, Dec 15 2015, 10:04 AM
What
is this? Fear of a bubble in commercial real estate? Apparently the Fed
is increasingly concerned about asset pricing and lending practices i...
Tue, Dec 15 2015, 7:33 AM
Bond markets sold-off in a fairly big way yesterday, and for no particular reason apart from the fact that they rallied in a fairly big way on Friday....
Tue, Dec 15 2015, 5:38 PM
There's very little to report--with respect to the second half of the day--that hasn't already been covered in the quick and dirty bullet points from ...
Tue, Dec 15 2015, 4:57 PM
Mortgage rates jumped again today, moving to the highest levels more than a month ahead of tomorrow's hotly anticipated Fed Announcement. Many le...
Tue, Dec 15 2015, 1:34 PM
Here is the quickest and dirtiest way to look at bond movements over the past few days, in bullet points:
This month's ECB shocker (12/3) defle...
Mon, Dec 14 2015, 9:40 AM
"The
mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher
demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." So said William Arthur War...
Mon, Dec 14 2015, 7:33 AM
Roughly 3 months after the Fed's last stellar opportunity to enact its long-anticipated rate hike, we come to meeting that is all but certain to host ...
Mon, Dec 14 2015, 5:44 PM
It's the latest fad: junk bonds! You might not even know what that is, and you certainly don't need to. A junk bond is another term for a "high yi...
Mon, Dec 14 2015, 5:10 PM
Mortgage rates moved quickly higher today, more than erasing Friday's strong performance. If fact, most lenders are at their highest levels in mo...
Mon, Dec 14 2015, 3:19 PM
Could mortgage fraud be coming back? According to Bret Fortenberry, writing in
CoreLogic's Insights blog, there are
indications the incidence is ...
Mon, Dec 14 2015, 3:08 PM
The Office of Comptroller of the
Currency (OCC) reported on Monday that mortgage performance continued to
improve during the third quarter. Both
r...
Mon, Dec 14 2015, 2:46 PM
With the much-anticipated Fed rate hike only 2 days away, volatility continues to build in financial markets. It's not that investors disagree abou...
Fri, Dec 11 2015, 10:56 AM
Women who own small businesses in the United
States are overall more satisfied than their male counterparts with
their banking experience, accordi...
Fri, Dec 11 2015, 7:32 AM
If this week's economic data and events were auditioning for some reality show, market participants would be like the judges. This would be like one ...
Fri, Dec 11 2015, 6:49 PM
Over the next three weeks we will probably be subjected to more housing
forecasts for 2016 than ads for Chia Pets.
Here is the version provided b...
Fri, Dec 11 2015, 6:46 PM
If you didn't catch the mid-day commentary , it has a good recap of most of the day's activity. If you're not into links, here are the important par...
Fri, Dec 11 2015, 6:18 PM
Mortgage rates recovered yesterday's losses in many cases, and moved even lower in many other cases. The mortgage sector was one of the tamer per...
Fri, Dec 11 2015, 1:58 PM
Life isn't always fair for MBS. Sure, there was QE3 which specifically targeted MBS over Treasuries, leaving the latter out in the cold on a relative...
