Thu, Sep 17 2015, 5:07 PM
Mortgage rates came roaring back today after the Fed held steady at record-low policy rates. While the Fed Funds Rate doesn't directly dictate mo...
Wed, Sep 16 2015, 11:55 AM
You can now review every federal agency ( even the CFPB ) on Yelp. There is an agreement in place that allows agencies to claim pages and respond to r...
Wed, Sep 16 2015, 11:46 AM
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo
Housing Market Index (HMI) ratcheted up another point this month continuing a
steady ri...
Wed, Sep 16 2015, 9:09 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported that, as usually
occurs during a holiday week, mortgage applications declined significantly during
t...
Wed, Sep 16 2015, 7:32 AM
It's pretty simple. 2015 is just like 2012-2013 , but replace the taper tantrum with the rate hike anxiety. Apart from that, things look eerily sim...
Wed, Sep 16 2015, 5:20 PM
Bond markets began the overnight session with a small corrective move back toward lower yields but flat-lined at 2.26 (10yr yields). Selling pressu...
Wed, Sep 16 2015, 3:50 PM
Mortgage rates almost made it through the past two months without any major move higher (except those moves that were correcting the major moves l...
Wed, Sep 16 2015, 3:35 PM
It was only one point but the average FICO score on closed
loans did decrease slightly in August to 724, the lowest average score since
February 2...
Wed, Sep 16 2015, 1:28 PM
What is there to say about a day that has been so flat and uninteresting--especially compared to yesterday's craziness? Treasuries have essentially r...
Tue, Sep 15 2015, 10:35 AM
Owners of more than three-quarters of a
million U.S. homes regained equity in those homes during the second quarter of
2015. CoreLogic said on Tu...
Tue, Sep 15 2015, 10:06 AM
Financial markets exuded a distinct lack of inspiration yesterday, not unlike a concert audience when the opener is a band they've never heard of . S...
Tue, Sep 15 2015, 9:48 AM
A recent MBA Chart of the Week
focused on the Independent Mortgage Banks net production income and
purchase share. The independent mortgage ba...
Tue, Sep 15 2015, 6:42 PM
Today saw a good, old-fashioned pre-Fed "lead off." Or perhaps that should be a BAD lead off, considering bond markets lost considerable ground. Whe...
Tue, Sep 15 2015, 5:14 PM
Mortgage rates had been holding their breath and waiting calmly for Thursday's big announcement from the Fed. Today saw the breath-holding come to ...
Tue, Sep 15 2015, 4:52 PM
Low interest rates are typically thought of as advantageous
to borrowers but not so good, perhaps even harmful to investors. The Wells Fargo/Gallup ...
Mon, Sep 14 2015, 12:48 PM
Bond markets were moderately strong overnight , both at home and abroad, but the gains left Treasuries and MBS well within the narrow range that has ...
Mon, Sep 14 2015, 12:09 PM
It has been almost a month since the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced the final goals for affordable housing for mortgages and rental...
Mon, Sep 14 2015, 10:11 AM
One
of the problems with servicing loans in Hawaii, or even for
"mainlanders" originating loans there, is name pronunciation. How does
someone f...
Mon, Sep 14 2015, 7:33 AM
I heard a rather excitable radio personality refer to this week's FOMC meeting as the "most important central bank meeting in the history of monetary...
Mon, Sep 14 2015, 5:27 PM
It was a tediously calm Monday for bond markets, with one or two exceptions. The first would be that the overnight trading session did see a moderate...
Mon, Sep 14 2015, 5:23 PM
Mortgage rates are officially holding their breath ahead of Thursday's FOMC Announcement. It's not mortgages, specifically, but the entire bond m...
Mon, Sep 14 2015, 3:24 PM
CoreLogic has released figures showing that residential real
estate in 14 of the 100 top real estate markets in the country were overvalued
in the s...
Fri, Sep 11 2015, 12:36 PM
The Mortgage Bankers
Association has rolled out a series of flyers and a PowerPoint presentation as
resources ahead of the impending implementation ...
Fri, Sep 11 2015, 12:20 PM
At yesterday's close, bond markets were once again pushing the upper limits of the pre-Fed range. As I discussed this morning , bond markets are ci...
Fri, Sep 11 2015, 10:15 AM
Is the residential loan officer job at a bank
going to go the way of the pinsetter in a bowling alley, the guy who
delivered blocks of ice for the...
Fri, Sep 11 2015, 7:33 AM
Everyone knows the Fed is considering hiking its target rate for the first time in 9 years , bringing it up from all-time lows for the first time in ...
Fri, Sep 11 2015, 4:38 PM
"What is the matrix?"
This could easily have been typed by an inquisitive bond market as it sought to better understand the mysteries of its own ex...
Fri, Sep 11 2015, 3:56 PM
Mortgage rates are doing absolutely everything in their power to avoid making any sudden movements ahead of next week's potential volatility. I...
Fri, Sep 11 2015, 1:57 PM
Data collected from lenders under the
mandate of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) is due to be released later
this month but CoreLogic is adv...
Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:33 PM
While sales of lender owned real estate
(REO) and short sales continue to account for around one-fifth of all home
sales in at least five states the...
Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:09 PM
Bond markets have been under modest pressure today with the focus again being on corporate debt issuance. Equities markets have played a supporting r...
Thu, Sep 10 2015, 10:22 AM
For
those who follow legal news, and those interested in not only "blowing
the whistle" on other companies but also in "ratting out" co-workers an...
Thu, Sep 10 2015, 10:05 AM
Applications for mortgages to purchase newly constructed
homes dropped by 6 percent in August according to the Mortgage Bankers
Association (MBA)....
Thu, Sep 10 2015, 7:33 AM
I was getting ready to write something for today's headline along the lines of "econ data merely a sideshow for supply." The point would have been th...
Thu, Sep 10 2015, 5:04 PM
Even as stock markets have only managed to recover half of their losses from yesterday, longer-maturity Treasuries have nearly retraced the entire m...
Thu, Sep 10 2015, 4:21 PM
Mortgage rates were not able to build on yesterday's modest improvements. Most lenders ended up back in line with their worst recent levels. Tha...
Wed, Sep 9 2015, 9:42 AM
Yes, this commentary posts job and product announcements, and there are some today. But here's a tip, job-seekers: be careful about what you send to ...
Wed, Sep 9 2015, 9:34 AM
Whether they were concerned about the possibility of rising rates or
merely clearing the decks in anticipation of the last week of psychological
sum...
Wed, Sep 9 2015, 7:33 AM
One of the noticeable themes on the MBS Live dashboard yesterday was that of MBS ' outperformance .' In other words, MBS were holding steady to sligh...
Wed, Sep 9 2015, 5:42 PM
Mortgage rates ended the day in just slightly stronger territory compared to yesterday's latest levels. This definitely wasn't the case if you lo...
Wed, Sep 9 2015, 5:41 PM
Today's trading session began with bonds in only slightly weaker territory. The overnight session brought general pressure from stronger global equit...
Wed, Sep 9 2015, 4:59 PM
The changes to FHA loan qualification
criteria, originally scheduled for implementation in June, will instead
be implemented on the 15 th of this...
Wed, Sep 9 2015, 1:34 PM
It's the same old story for MBS: Treasuries are getting hit hard by supply pressure, both from fairly epic levels of corporate bond issuance and the r...
Tue, Sep 8 2015, 12:51 PM
Nationwide home equity has increased by
nearly $1 trillion in the 12 months ended in May. Equity is now at the highest level since
2007. In this ...
Tue, Sep 8 2015, 12:08 PM
NFP Friday saw bond markets make a weak attempt to break an extended sideways range. Today's trading activity has quickly ferried yields and prices ...
Tue, Sep 8 2015, 10:41 AM
Foreclosure statistics continue to fall, month after month
but seemingly never reach bottom or even normal levels. Anyone care to revisit Zeno's ...
Tue, Sep 8 2015, 10:33 AM
Unfortunately
I continue to receive e-mails asking complex TRID questions, better
directed to investors or the CFPB, about regulatory details, the...
Tue, Sep 8 2015, 7:33 AM
Market participants had high hopes for last week's data. It stood a good chance to help inform the consensus on the Fed's upcoming policy announcemen...
Tue, Sep 8 2015, 5:31 PM
Mortgage rates moved back up into their recent indecisive range today, foiling a halfhearted attempt to move lower late last week. Much of the in...
Tue, Sep 8 2015, 5:31 PM
It was an exceptionally flat day for MBS with Fannie 3.5s holding between 103-24 and 103-27 for the entire session. More than 90% of today's trades...
