Thu, Apr 30 2015, 10:43 AM
I
travel around a fair amount, spending time with lenders, Realtors, and
TSA personnel. A major concern among the first two groups is whether or
...
Thu, Apr 30 2015, 7:32 AM
There are two ways to approach the weakness in bond markets over the past two days, and before we discuss them, I should warn you that I don't know ...
Thu, Apr 30 2015, 4:45 PM
Mortgage rates held their ground today, and in some cases, managed to improve after yesterday's rout. This result was far from guaranteed during t...
Thu, Apr 30 2015, 4:43 PM
After defying overnight pressure from European bond markets to open in stronger territory, domestic bond markets were soon facing their own pressure ...
Thu, Apr 30 2015, 2:32 PM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency reports that the two
government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac might
together require g...
Thu, Apr 30 2015, 2:11 PM
Remember 2010-2011 and the daily revelations about robosigning ?
Behind the shortcuts taken by servicers
in processing foreclosure documents (some...
Wed, Apr 29 2015, 10:39 AM
First
off, let me apologize for having the incorrect site in yesterday's
commentary regarding the funny history of the term "escrow" - this is th...
Wed, Apr 29 2015, 10:16 AM
Momentum appears to be building toward a
healthy spring market according to data released today on March pending home sales. The National Associat...
Wed, Apr 29 2015, 8:28 AM
A modest uptick in purchase mortgage applications during the week ended
April 24 was insufficient to offset a sizable drop in refinancing. The Mor...
Wed, Apr 29 2015, 7:34 AM
Atonal... without tone. That's what bond markets have been for nearly 6 weeks following the last FOMC Announcement. While today's is not the variety...
Wed, Apr 29 2015, 5:07 PM
Mortgage rates moved firmly up to the highest levels since March 17th. Incidentally, there was a Fed Announcement on March 18th and another Fed An...
Wed, Apr 29 2015, 5:07 PM
Heading into today, the afternoon's FOMC Announcement had the first right of refusal when it came to moving markets. As it happened, it was the morni...
Wed, Apr 29 2015, 1:13 PM
GDP was super weak (0.2 vs 1.0 forecast) and all of the important internal components were weaker as well. So naturally, bond markets rallied on the ...
Tue, Apr 28 2015, 10:30 AM
While CoreLogic says February is typically
a month in which distressed sales post a seasonal decline, real-estate owned
(REO) and short sales this p...
Tue, Apr 28 2015, 10:27 AM
S&P Dow Jones called February increases as measured by its
Case-Shiller Home Price Indices "widespread." The National Home Price Index
which covers ...
Tue, Apr 28 2015, 7:33 AM
We've made it! This will be the last day of the excruciatingly narrow range that we began discussing more than 2 weeks ago (the range itself is at le...
Tue, Apr 28 2015, 4:58 PM
Homeownership rates continued to fall during the first
quarter of 2015 while vacancy rates were stable in the short term. The Census Bureau said tod...
Tue, Apr 28 2015, 4:47 PM
It was a fairly ugly day for bond markets. MBS are down nearly a half point. Most lenders repriced negatively at least once, and rate sheets are a...
Tue, Apr 28 2015, 4:08 PM
Mortgage rates made it right to the doorstep of tomorrow's big-ticket events with very little movement over the past 5-6 weeks. Once at the door...
Tue, Apr 28 2015, 1:35 PM
Consumer Confidence numbers were much weaker than expected this morning at 95.2 vs 102.5 forecast. Normally, this would be a big benefit for bonds. ...
Mon, Apr 27 2015, 10:59 AM
Although a press release last week about a Gallup
survey showed Americans view real estate as a better long term investment
than stocks, gold, s...
Mon, Apr 27 2015, 9:07 AM
Many LOs are watching rent prices . Increasing
rent is a two-edged sword, of course, simultaneously moving households
to stop renting and buy a p...
Mon, Apr 27 2015, 7:32 AM
After a generally quiet week just passed, the week ahead offers significantly more market movement potential. There's more economic data, and several...
Mon, Apr 27 2015, 4:37 PM
As has been the case on so many Monday's lately, today would have been better-used as a 3rd day of the weekend. Fannie 3.0s were 102-09 at their lowe...
Mon, Apr 27 2015, 3:55 PM
Mortgage rates haven't been moving much lately, and today was no exception .
Some lenders were a hair better than Friday while others were just...
Mon, Apr 27 2015, 3:15 PM
U.S. home
prices were up 0.7 percent from January to February according to the Home Price
Index (HPI) report released by Black Knight Financial Se...
Mon, Apr 27 2015, 1:08 PM
Domestic bond markets are as quiet as quiet can be today. The silence was most deafening at the start of the overnight session where the range was ...
Sat, Apr 25 2015, 5:01 PM
Many lenders are watching this battle of industry frustration from the sidelines: Quicken vs. the DOJ, and vice versa . Prior to the government suing...
Fri, Apr 24 2015, 12:27 PM
Lenders appear at least moderately encouraged by new efforts
on the part of Fannie Mae and FHA to lower the costs and increase the
availability of...
Fri, Apr 24 2015, 12:24 PM
The most notable feature of today's trading session has been the weaker than expected components of the Durable Goods data. In other words, the hea...
Fri, Apr 24 2015, 10:57 AM
Apparently all is forgiven and forgotten and Americans are
again embracing real estate as more than just shelter. For the second year in a row a G...
Fri, Apr 24 2015, 9:55 AM
Filling key positions in our industry is not
an easy task sometimes, but as one banking vet I know likes to say,
"give me someone with a little bi...
Fri, Apr 24 2015, 7:33 AM
After the March 18th FOMC Announcement, bond markets rallied. 10yr yields went from 2.05 to 1.90 on that Wednesday. The following day, they sold of...
Fri, Apr 24 2015, 5:33 PM
Up until this morning's Durable Goods data, bonds looked ready to go either way. MBS and Treasuries were slightly weaker, somewhere around halfway ba...
Fri, Apr 24 2015, 5:09 PM
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is
tweaking its bulk loan sales program to give distressed borrowers a better shot
at staying ...
Fri, Apr 24 2015, 3:45 PM
Mortgage rates barely budged again today, which means they've been able to hold under an important ceiling as we head into next week's Fed Announce...
Thu, Apr 23 2015, 12:27 PM
From yesterday's first reprice alert on MBS Live at 9:34am ET:
"There is also the ongoing theme of corporate bond issuance. Several more deals ...
Thu, Apr 23 2015, 10:20 AM
Freddie Mac's Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi) for
February shows that the U.S. housing market continues to stabilize and has
recovered from a ...
Thu, Apr 23 2015, 10:17 AM
Home prices nationally are now within 3 percent of the peak
they reached in March 2007. The Federal
Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released its pu...
Thu, Apr 23 2015, 9:59 AM
Seeing opportunity from the inevitable
flood of aging baby boomers, Wells Fargo has announced formation of a new
specialty business group focused on...
Thu, Apr 23 2015, 9:58 AM
The U.S. Census Bureau reported that nearly 10 percent of U.S.
residents are not happy with their current housing, neighborhood, local
safety or p...
Thu, Apr 23 2015, 7:34 AM
Over the years, we've discussed the concept of "history repeating" in terms of similar market themes playing out, both qualitatively and quantitativel...
Thu, Apr 23 2015, 5:16 PM
Mortgage rates didn't move much today. While a few lenders were modestly improved, most were unchanged or offering slightly higher rates. This st...
Thu, Apr 23 2015, 5:16 PM
With 10yr yields at 1.952, we're certainly not out of the woods yet, but we can at least hold out some hope of exiting the woods. That wasn't such ...
Thu, Apr 23 2015, 2:32 PM
A
second company has now reported a recent increase in the number of underwater residential
properties in the U.S. Last month
Corelogic said tha...
Thu, Apr 23 2015, 2:25 PM
New home sales settled down a bit in March after a dramatic
surge in the Northeast in February that drove national sales figures up nearly
8 perce...
Wed, Apr 22 2015, 12:56 PM
A noncommittal, sideways grind only has so much noncommittal and sideways in it before breaking out. This one was already overdue and already showing...
Wed, Apr 22 2015, 11:40 AM
The spring housing market blasted in across the county last
month and existing home sales jumped 6.1 percent from the February level to the
highes...
Wed, Apr 22 2015, 10:59 AM
Earth Day is celebrated on April 22 nd and this year marks the 45 th
anniversary. Leave it to the Census Bureau
(known as "The Bureau with a ca...
Wed, Apr 22 2015, 9:11 AM
Borrowers responded to some of the lowest interest rates in several
months by stepping up applications for mortgage financing. The Mortgage Bankers ...
