Mon, Aug 31 2015, 4:18 PM
Mortgage rates moved moderately higher today as bond traders adjusted their holdings for the end of the month. Mortgage rates are dictated by tra...
Mon, Aug 31 2015, 1:35 PM
The day started off well for domestic bond markets as weakness in Asia translated to some safe-haven demand for US Treasuries. At the start of the do...
Fri, Aug 28 2015, 12:14 PM
I, being a capital markets guy, was very interested in the MBA sending a comment letter
to the Basel Committee on its proposal, " Interest Rate Ri...
Fri, Aug 28 2015, 8:21 AM
After rallying steadily for more than a month and after seeing that rally accelerate quickly into Monday afternoon, Treasuries and MBS underwent 2.5 d...
Fri, Aug 28 2015, 4:44 PM
I was writing reprice alerts and chatting with the MBS Live community during the time that I'd normally be writing the Mid-Day commentary. By the t...
Fri, Aug 28 2015, 3:37 PM
Mortgage rates didn't move much today. Depending on the lender, effective rates were either slightly higher or lower vs yesterday, with the avera...
Fri, Aug 28 2015, 3:23 PM
We've previously explored the "Do's and Don'ts" for homebuyers, and
uncovered some vital tips that can help or hinder the home buying
process. In...
Fri, Aug 28 2015, 3:21 PM
We have been reading for several years now
about two trends that appear troubling for the housing industry - a declining
rate of homeownership and a...
Fri, Aug 28 2015, 2:52 PM
It appears that people who are currently renting their homes are not necessarily
merely homebuyers in waiting as conventional wisdom has held. Fre...
Fri, Aug 28 2015, 1:39 PM
Fannie Mae has published a set of changes to its Selling Guide . The changes affect verification of
self-employed income , Home-Style Renovation l...
Fri, Aug 28 2015, 1:37 PM
The debate over whether the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform
and Consumer Protection Act was desperately needed or a pox upon the land survives
even as...
Fri, Aug 28 2015, 1:15 PM
The very short version of a very long story is that bond markets are leveling-off within a range. Using the 10yr yield as a benchmark, that range...
Thu, Aug 27 2015, 11:29 AM
Much has been made recently of the surprising lack of response on the part of bond markets to the massive sell-off in stocks. That shoe is now on t...
Thu, Aug 27 2015, 10:35 AM
RealtyTrac's July U.S. Home Sales report is a tale of extremes .
July sales of properties in foreclosure and all-cash transactions both dipped
to m...
Thu, Aug 27 2015, 10:27 AM
The index measuring pending home sales held on to its winning
streak in July, but its grip slipped a bit.
The National Association of Realtors® (NA...
Thu, Aug 27 2015, 9:52 AM
What's the difference between apathy and ignorance? I don't know and I don't care.
The odds are pretty good that practically every residential lende...
Thu, Aug 27 2015, 7:32 AM
You'll see more and more of this in the coming days/weeks--the various iterations of "China dumping US Treasuries at an insane pace!" Oh no!
Wait...
Thu, Aug 27 2015, 4:44 PM
Mortgage rates were just barely higher today, greatly decreasing the momentum in a now 3-day losing streak. The timing of these movements is impo...
Thu, Aug 27 2015, 4:44 PM
After two days of relatively brutal selling, bond markets finally opted for much less brutal selling. In fact, 10yr yields were in positive territo...
Wed, Aug 26 2015, 11:47 AM
Bigger-picture trading themes are still driving the bond market movement this week. Namely, bonds had been eager to consolidate more than a month of ...
Wed, Aug 26 2015, 9:01 AM
There was virtually no
movement last week in the various indices measuring mortgage application
volume. The Mortgage Bankers Association's
(MBA's)...
Wed, Aug 26 2015, 7:33 AM
Recent volatility isn't just the product of illiquid summertime trading against the backdrop of surprising announcements from global central banks. M...
Wed, Aug 26 2015, 5:00 PM
Longer duration bonds got hit hard today. Case in point, 30yr bonds are up nearly 13bps while 5's are only up 6bps. The better performances in the...
Wed, Aug 26 2015, 4:25 PM
Mortgage rates continued slightly higher today , though they appeared to have second thoughts about that at first. In fact, several lenders made m...
Wed, Aug 26 2015, 3:03 PM
Wildfires
in the west have already burned more than 7 million acres . (To put
things in context, the entire state of California has about 101 mil...
Wed, Aug 26 2015, 2:48 PM
The topline news while accurate is also growing monotonous : housing market continues to improve. Freddie Mac added another chapter to the seemingl...
Tue, Aug 25 2015, 12:38 PM
Per loan profits increased
in the second quarter the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said today, aided
by purchase volume and loan size. MBA's
...
Tue, Aug 25 2015, 11:45 AM
In financial markets, a flight-to-safety generally refers to investors moving out of riskier assets (like stocks, and certain commodities) and into sa...
Tue, Aug 25 2015, 11:25 AM
While the disappointing new home sales reported last month for
June were revised even lower today July sales redeemed at least some of the
loss. Th...
Tue, Aug 25 2015, 11:15 AM
Two
major indicators of home price trends released today showed continued
appreciation although larger gains were reported by the S&P/Case-Shiller
...
Tue, Aug 25 2015, 7:32 AM
Given our focus on trends in mortgage rates, we often discuss lenders' intraday reprices. At the moment, however, there is an entirely different kin...
Tue, Aug 25 2015, 5:55 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher today as global markets managed to avoid the same sort of panicked volatility seen yesterday. The month-long trend to...
Tue, Aug 25 2015, 5:55 PM
Bond markets finally did what they've wanted to do for several sessions now: square up some of the trading positions from the recent rally. That ral...
Tue, Aug 25 2015, 2:52 PM
There is nothing like some bond market volatility to drive up hedge costs and push down secondary marketing results, right?
Capital markets depart...
Mon, Aug 24 2015, 11:45 AM
Black Knight Financial Services said on Monday that as of the end of June
home prices nationally had returned to within 5.8 percent of their peak ex...
Mon, Aug 24 2015, 11:40 AM
You know how that Monday morning alarm clock can be the most- well... 'alarming' of the week? It's not that different for the opening bells of variou...
Mon, Aug 24 2015, 11:02 AM
"In
the physical sciences, knowledge is cumulative. In the financial
markets, it is cyclical." I was reminded of this by Brent Nyitray, CFA
and ...
Mon, Aug 24 2015, 7:33 AM
Global financial markets are in something of a freefall at the moment. It's not like a pure freefall, but more like one of those wing suit things fro...
Mon, Aug 24 2015, 5:37 PM
Mortgage rates did manage to move lower again today. And that move does bring them to the best levels in more than 3 months. But apart from that...
Mon, Aug 24 2015, 5:35 PM
It'll be hard to miss today's news as it related to equities markets. Even the non-financial news will be talking about today's 588 point drop in the...
Mon, Aug 24 2015, 3:41 PM
Fannie
Mae's economic team said on Monday that the economic outlook for the second
half of 2015 is less upbeat than anticipated.
Second quarter ...
Fri, Aug 21 2015, 12:21 PM
The rest of the global marketplace is harshing the mellow of US bond markets. Treasuries and MBS are wondering what all the fuss is about , having h...
Fri, Aug 21 2015, 10:58 AM
The eyes of Texas are upon the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau - and not in a kindly way. Two
different actions out of Texas are challenging ...
Fri, Aug 21 2015, 10:47 AM
Black Knight Financial Services released its "First Look" at
its July loan level performance data which continues to show a decline in most
measures...
Fri, Aug 21 2015, 9:37 AM
What does the CFPB think of residential lenders? One indication might be the videos of borrower horror stories
posted on its website. I, for one, ...
Fri, Aug 21 2015, 7:33 AM
The "Death Cross" will be back in the news soon if stocks have many more days like yesterday (that's when the 50-day moving average falls below the ...
Fri, Aug 21 2015, 5:12 PM
Mortgage rates moved moderately lower yet again. This extends a winning streak that began on July 14th, making it the longest positive trend in 2...
Fri, Aug 21 2015, 5:12 PM
About 10 days into July's bond market rally, I posed the question: What if 2015 doesn't turn out to be the big bounce ? It started out with the fo...
Thu, Aug 20 2015, 11:00 AM
While first-time buyers fell back,
existing home sales scored their third consecutive monthly gain in July. The National Association of Realtors® (N...
Thu, Aug 20 2015, 9:03 AM
I
continue to hear about the overkill in paperwork as lenders attempt to
cover their collective "assets" against potential liabilities. But that
...
