Wed, Jul 8 2015, 6:59 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower at a healthy pace today, ultimately hitting the best levels in just over a month. It was the 4th straight day of impr...
Wed, Jul 8 2015, 6:52 PM
Treasuries began the overnight session moving lower in yield with Asian equities markets once again selling-off. Shortly after Europe came online, th...
Wed, Jul 8 2015, 4:08 PM
Another milestone was reached on Wednesday as the government
sponsored enterprises (GSEs) and their conservator the Federal Housing Finance
Agency m...
Wed, Jul 8 2015, 1:01 PM
Today's NYSE outage is all anyone can talk about at the moment, but markets haven't really paid it much attention. Keep in mind that a majority of ...
Tue, Jul 7 2015, 12:23 PM
Are you in debt? You're not alone - and check out this United States debt clock - enough to make your stomach turn over.
Back in February the Col...
Tue, Jul 7 2015, 7:33 AM
It's a tricky, deceptive, and interesting time to be watching or trading financial markets, let alone merely discussing them with friends, colleagues,...
Tue, Jul 7 2015, 5:37 PM
Mortgage rates put in a more mixed performance today, owing to volatility in underlying markets. The day began well, following overnight improve...
Tue, Jul 7 2015, 5:33 PM
The day began well for bond markets, led lower in yield by a sharp sell-off in the Euro currency overnight (lowest levels since June 1st). Other gl...
Tue, Jul 7 2015, 4:35 PM
Probably the headline take-away from Fannie Mae's June
National Housing Survey was the more upbeat attitude of potential home sellers
toward the hou...
Tue, Jul 7 2015, 3:46 PM
Home prices increases
decelerated slightly on an annual basis in May compared to April according to a
report from CoreLogic on Tuesday. The
comp...
Tue, Jul 7 2015, 1:14 PM
Whether it's Greece, China, commodities, wages, stock market corrections, or the Fed's rate hike outlook, global markets are moving away from risk so ...
Mon, Jul 6 2015, 12:37 PM
Treasuries have safe haven appeal on a global scale. This is frequently seen when Asian markets are open for the first few hours of each trading day ...
Mon, Jul 6 2015, 10:54 AM
In
legal & training news, "After years of grappling with the fallout
over legacy loans and the industry's pivot towards regulatory
compliance, t...
Mon, Jul 6 2015, 7:33 AM
Greece held their referendum over the weekend on whether to accept the most recent batch of reform proposals form Eurozone creditors, despite those ...
Mon, Jul 6 2015, 7:13 PM
MBS and Treasuries improved at a healthy clip today, and almost exclusively due to the referendum in Greece over the weekend. The opening yields in...
Mon, Jul 6 2015, 5:58 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower with more conviction to begin the week as global markets reacted to weekend events in Europe. Specifically, Greece ...
Mon, Jul 6 2015, 5:05 PM
Despite years of low interest rates an estimated 6.1 million
homeowners could still both qualify for and benefit from a traditional
refinance accord...
Thu, Jul 2 2015, 11:41 AM
The National Association of Realtors® reported last week
that f irst time buyers had increased their share of existing home sales in May
by two per...
Thu, Jul 2 2015, 11:39 AM
Bond markets came into the domestic session in markedly weaker territory, but not for any overt reason. Yields merely drifted defensively higher ahea...
Thu, Jul 2 2015, 10:15 AM
It
seems that lenders have had a more difficult time obtaining tax
information from the IRS this year. I collected the tax-related updates
ove...
Thu, Jul 2 2015, 7:33 AM
With markets closed tomorrow, NFP (the nonfarm payrolls component of the employment situation report) arrives a day early today, and despite all the f...
Thu, Jul 2 2015, 5:22 PM
Mortgage rates made an anti-climactic move lower today after the big jobs report proved slightly disappointing to markets. Stocks and bond yie...
Thu, Jul 2 2015, 5:18 PM
As far as days with big initial reactions to economic data go, today was about as boring as they come. The first part of the problem was the overnigh...
Thu, Jul 2 2015, 4:51 PM
In the S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices report for
April David M. Blitzer, Managing Director and
Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones...
Thu, Jul 2 2015, 4:01 PM
A new analysis by CoreLogic shows an increased risk of
mortgage application fraud associated with purchase loans while loans made for
refinancing ...
Wed, Jul 1 2015, 11:52 AM
Greece's chief export these days is red herring . More of them hit the market overnight as Tsipras allegedly sent a letter saying he agreed to almos...
Wed, Jul 1 2015, 11:38 AM
The Fourth of July is nearly here our very own Census Bureau has dished up some tasty numerical facts. The estimated U.S. population for July Fourth t...
Wed, Jul 1 2015, 10:26 AM
An unsigned article in the National Law Review takes another
look at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)/Treasury Department handling
of the ...
Wed, Jul 1 2015, 10:22 AM
In a report prepared for submission to Congress the Federal Housing Finance Agency analyzes the guarantee fees charged by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (...
Wed, Jul 1 2015, 9:24 AM
Mortgage applications declined yet again during the week ended June
26. The Mortgage Bankers Association
(MBA) said its Market Composite Index, a...
Wed, Jul 1 2015, 7:33 AM
Yesterday saw a fairly noticeable swoop lower in bond prices (higher in yields) at the 3pm CME bond pit close. While we live in an increasingly ele...
Wed, Jul 1 2015, 5:39 PM
Mortgage rates gave up recently-enjoyed gains today. This brings them to the week's highest levels (and the 3rd highest in 2015) a day before th...
Wed, Jul 1 2015, 5:39 PM
The last two days were nice while they lasted , but today's trading levels are right back in line with most of last week. In other words, bonds sold...
Wed, Jul 1 2015, 4:08 PM
Construction spending in the public and private sectors
increased slightly in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,035.8
billion . The f...
Wed, Jul 1 2015, 4:07 PM
Highlights from the most recent update to Fannie's Selling Guide:
Conversion of
Principal Residence Requirements
At the height of the
finan...
Tue, Jun 30 2015, 11:48 AM
Although MBS are just barely into positive territory and Treasuries are just now getting back to unchanged levels after morning weakness, today is abo...
Tue, Jun 30 2015, 11:33 AM
"One." That is the extra second that June 30 th
has today to correct clocks for the earth's rotation. "330,820." That
is the number of times Amer...
Tue, Jun 30 2015, 10:47 AM
Home prices rose 1.0 percent in April. Black Knight Financial Services said its Home
Price Index for the month was at $248,000 compared to $245,000 ...
Tue, Jun 30 2015, 10:10 AM
House prices continued to increase in
April but the gains lost a bit of momentum compared to the previous month,
reversing the acceleration noted by...
Tue, Jun 30 2015, 7:34 AM
It's a big day for Greece.
No, not today, when the country will 'default' on it's €1.7 bln payment to the IMF. No, not July 5th when the Greek pe...
Tue, Jun 30 2015, 4:10 PM
Mortgage rates had their 2nd straight day of improvements today--something that's been uncommon since the beginning of May. Additionally, the ...
Tue, Jun 30 2015, 4:10 PM
European and US headlines did their rendition of 'dueling banjos' this afternoon. On the European side, we had potentially fake news out of a country...
Mon, Jun 29 2015, 11:19 AM
I
doubt the average U.S. household is sitting around worrying about
interest rates. It's probably more like earthquake preparedness than
anythin...
Mon, Jun 29 2015, 5:31 PM
Mortgage rates spiked to the highest levels of the year on Friday after hovering close to them for several days. But news out of Europe over the...
Mon, Jun 29 2015, 5:31 PM
Nothing like some good, old-fashioned 'stock lever' to restore one's faith in classic market paradigms. That's the one where traders " sell stocks, b...
Mon, Jun 29 2015, 2:20 PM
The early morning hours for US bond markets were somewhat disheartening as gains steadily evaporated into the 10am hour. Up until that point, it look...
Mon, Jun 29 2015, 1:51 AM
After falling abruptly from June highs near 1.14 at the start of last week, the Euro currency finished Friday under 1.12. Visually and actually, the ...
Mon, Jun 29 2015, 1:37 PM
Pending home sales hit their highest level in over nine years in May,
indicating that the strong existing and new home sales announced last week are
...
Fri, Jun 26 2015, 11:21 AM
Yesterday
the Supreme Court weighed in on disparate impact in what was viewed as a
win for housing advocates & the CFPB and a setback for the ba...
Fri, Jun 26 2015, 11:14 AM
The trend continues to be unfriendly this morning. Markets are defending against the possibility that the weekend brings a Greek debt deal. Headline...