Tue, May 5 2015, 6:17 PM
Given how critical first-time homebuyers are
to the housing system the Urban Institute says it is important to accurately
measure how present they...
Tue, May 5 2015, 6:11 PM
Bond markets sold off again today, though it wasn't necessarily destined to be the case. In other words, it actually took several events working to...
Tue, May 5 2015, 3:49 PM
Mortgage rates haven't been able to catch a break recently. Case in point, over the past 3 weeks, there have only been two days where rates manage...
Tue, May 5 2015, 1:22 PM
Ever have one of those days where it seems that the odds are hopelessly stacked against you? That's the sort of week and a half that bond markets hav...
Mon, May 4 2015, 9:53 AM
By
now the remains of the pizza lunches for everyone working OT to deliver
a successful April have been cleared away, and lenders are optimistic
...
Mon, May 4 2015, 7:34 AM
After rising to the highest side of the long term trend last week, yields have a chance to explode higher, or re-commit to the range this week. "Expl...
Mon, May 4 2015, 5:29 PM
The last 5 days have been ugly for bond markets--not quite as the beginning of February, but this time around, we aren't bouncing off multi-year lows....
Mon, May 4 2015, 4:18 PM
Mortgage rates continued higher today, extending a troubling move up to the highest levels since early March. Normally, movement in domestic inter...
Mon, May 4 2015, 3:45 PM
After looking at housing booms and busts in 20 countries,
three economists have concluded that the likelihood of a boom ended in a
housing market cy...
Mon, May 4 2015, 2:34 PM
Black Knight's
Mortgage Monitor report for May took
a close look at complaint trends lodged with the Consumer Financial Protection
Agency (CFPB)....
Mon, May 4 2015, 1:28 PM
With UK and Japan bank holidays, cash Treasuries didn't really have an overnight session (London and Tokyo are the hubs for Treasury trading during th...
Fri, May 1 2015, 12:16 PM
Treasuries and MBS are at the weakest levels in exactly a month and a half. The time frame preceding the March FOMC Announcement saw markedly weaker ...
Fri, May 1 2015, 11:38 AM
The
first quarter of 2015 was the third in a row that more than half of the
refinances funded through Freddie Mac were cash out transactions. Th...
Fri, May 1 2015, 11:00 AM
Total construction spending fell in March from February
levels and remained only slightly higher than one year earlier the Census
Bureau said today....
Fri, May 1 2015, 10:57 AM
Today
is Lei Day in Hawai'i. I guess Zillow doesn't consider Honolulu a "Metro Area".
Recently Zillow Research analyzed property taxes in the "la...
Fri, May 1 2015, 7:32 AM
Yesterday's morning headline asked if the recent move was weak enough that we should expect a bounce or so weak that it suggested further selling. In...
Fri, May 1 2015, 4:35 PM
Today wasn't necessarily a worst-case-scenario for bond markets, but it was reading from the same script. It's the version of the story where the e...
Fri, May 1 2015, 3:49 PM
Mortgage rates are in the midst of a serious move higher . This requires some context though, because not all serious moves higher are the same. ...
Fri, May 1 2015, 3:31 PM
As the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau enters its second year as the oversight regulator for the mortgage industry, the bulk of media focus is on ...
Thu, Apr 30 2015, 12:37 PM
During yesterday's bond market rout, a lousy reading on domestic data (GDP) effectively did nothing to stem the tide of overnight weakness. Today, th...
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...
