Tue, Jan 13 2015, 10:47 AM
"I
didn't make it to the gym again today. That makes five years in a row."
Speaking of streaks, ""Even if you played 60 million hands of poker for...
Tue, Jan 13 2015, 7:31 AM
Yesterday morning, we discussed the technical outlook for bond markets in the context of "open options." In other words, the technical studies were...
Tue, Jan 13 2015, 5:03 PM
MBS and Treasuries both spent time trading on either side of unchanged today. The swings between the days highs and lows were bigger than normal , a...
Tue, Jan 13 2015, 4:21 PM
Mortgage rates fell only modestly
today, but it was enough for the best rate sheets since mid-May 2013.
That's a new 20 month low, on averag...
Tue, Jan 13 2015, 3:19 PM
Last week,
President Obama and HUD announced a reduction in the mortgage insurance premium
(MIP) fees charged on FHA loans. Most FHA borrowe...
Mon, Jan 12 2015, 12:26 PM
Stocks, oil, Euros, and other assets that bespeak growth and risk are weaker today while bond markets are stronger. The opposite was initially the ...
Mon, Jan 12 2015, 11:02 AM
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has
issued a critical update related to last week's announcement of FHA
premium changes. The update contai...
Mon, Jan 12 2015, 10:28 AM
Not
everyone is wild about the FHFA (which oversees Freddie & Fannie)
joining the Federal Home Loan Bank System. Last week the MBA submitted
its...
Mon, Jan 12 2015, 7:35 AM
In terms of the technical trends as of last week, domestic bond markets became more balanced by the end of the week. Before that, they were certainly...
Mon, Jan 12 2015, 5:14 PM
Treasuries were initially a bit weaker in the overnight session, but along with German Bunds, found their footing around 7am. MBS and Treasuries cros...
Mon, Jan 12 2015, 4:06 PM
Mortgage rates fell modestly again today, bringing them as close to last Tuesday's 19-month lows as they've been, on average. Some lenders are a...
Fri, Jan 9 2015, 12:21 PM
Details and clarifications are now available
for lenders and borrowers regarding President Obama's Thursday announcement of
reduced FHA mortgage ins...
Fri, Jan 9 2015, 10:34 AM
I
guess it is a "new" economy? Coca-Cola has announced plans to lay off
about 1,800 employees globally, in an effort to cut costs by roughly US
...
Fri, Jan 9 2015, 7:44 AM
Markets don't always read from a script. Beyond that, there just aren't many past examples of moves like the one at the beginning of 2015, but so far...
Fri, Jan 9 2015, 5:16 PM
European stocks tanked today. The move was underway within minutes of the morning's payrolls data which initially looked like it might give domestic ...
Fri, Jan 9 2015, 3:53 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower after this morning's Employment Situation Report, though not necessarily because of it. After 2 days spent correcting...
Fri, Jan 9 2015, 3:03 PM
Owners of some 90 percent of mortgage properties in the U.S.
now have some degree of equity in their homes.
CoreLogic said today that 273,000 prop...
Fri, Jan 9 2015, 2:49 PM
It was notable in the years after the
housing collapse that the composition of investors in single family real estate
changed drastically. Long t...
Fri, Jan 9 2015, 2:39 PM
Even though consumers are becoming increasingly optimistic about
the economy and comfortable that it is heading in the right direction, results
of t...
Fri, Jan 9 2015, 1:26 PM
It's been a surprisingly busy morning for financial markets, and very little of that has to do with NFP. Bonds were slightly stronger overnight and...
Thu, Jan 8 2015, 10:39 AM
Stuart Quinn, a policy research and strategy analyst for CoreLogic
summarizes 2014 as a period of consumption for housing market participants when
i...
Thu, Jan 8 2015, 10:27 AM
Accessibility to mortgage credit rose in December. The Mortgage Bankers Association said today
that its Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) we...
Thu, Jan 8 2015, 10:22 AM
Congrats
to Allan Landon, the former CEO of Bank of Hawaii Corp. President
Barack Obama plans to nominate him to be a Federal Reserve governor
a...
Thu, Jan 8 2015, 7:41 AM
At this point, it's getting more and more tempting to just give up the typical pre-NFP hullabaloo. I mean really, how many more "all eyes on NFP" hea...
Thu, Jan 8 2015, 4:13 PM
Mortgage rates continued drifting slightly higher after a strong move to 19 month lows on Tuesday. The caveat is that today's rates are only hig...
Thu, Jan 8 2015, 4:12 PM
Dear HUD,
First of all, thanks for dropping annual MI. That's cool and all, but the way you're rolling this out is causing confusion. The Mortgag...
Thu, Jan 8 2015, 1:14 PM
Once again, bond markets find themselves in weaker territory simply due to the corrective forces that follow strong rallies, and once again, resilient...
Wed, Jan 7 2015, 12:28 PM
Domestic economic data, as expected, was passed over in favor of more meaningful forces. At the moment, those forces include Eurozone economic condit...
Wed, Jan 7 2015, 10:06 AM
In mid-November the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
announced that its Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund (MMI) had returned to
solvency . The fu...
Wed, Jan 7 2015, 9:58 AM
Black Knight Financial Services, a division of Fidelity
National Financial, has released its "first look" at November mortgage
performance data. ...
Wed, Jan 7 2015, 9:56 AM
Plenty
of LOs and lenders rely on the FHA's programs for their livelihood.
(FHA loans account for about 10% of all applications, VA 11%, USDA 1%.)...
Wed, Jan 7 2015, 9:17 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association, which traditionally closes its office during
the end of the year holiday season, played catchup today with results ...
Wed, Jan 7 2015, 5:03 PM
Mortgage rates moved slightly higher today, but remained close to the lowest they've been since May 2013. The only day with any lower rates sinc...
Wed, Jan 7 2015, 5:03 PM
It actually turned out to be a rather boring day for the parts of the bond market with which we normally concern ourselves. Treasuries and conformi...
Wed, Jan 7 2015, 4:49 AM
Think of all those times that we began discussing FOMC events days, weeks, and even months in advance. Indeed there may be no other greater market mo...
Tue, Jan 6 2015, 10:51 AM
Home prices
are projected to finish out the year with a downtick although prices will
still be significantly higher than at the same point in 2013...
Tue, Jan 6 2015, 10:44 AM
I'm hooked on watching Buying Alaska, but heck it could be Buying Bismarck, ND for
all I care; there's just something interesting about looking at ...
Tue, Jan 6 2015, 7:33 AM
From an old-school, conventional market-watching point of view, there is significant data on tap today in the form of ISM Non-Manufacturing at 10am. ...
Tue, Jan 6 2015, 5:35 PM
Both Treasuries and MBS hit their best closing levels since May 2013 today as the global flight-to-safety continues. Make no mistake that this move h...
Tue, Jan 6 2015, 3:33 PM
Mortgage rates are on an absolute tear. In the past 2 days, they've rocketed a full eighth of a point lower. They're a full quarter point lower t...
Tue, Jan 6 2015, 1:33 PM
Overnight Treasury trading was positive, largely due to spillover from a much more forceful move in European bond markets. Multiple asset classes a...
Mon, Jan 5 2015, 12:55 PM
Heading into Christmas, US bond markets began pulling away from European markets in a mostly unfavorable way. In other words, Treasuries and MBS were...
Mon, Jan 5 2015, 10:44 AM
"The
first five days after the weekend are the toughest." And after two
holiday weeks, this week is going to seem pretty long. And how the heck
...
Mon, Jan 5 2015, 7:33 AM
This week promises to be nothing like the last 2. Market participation already began ramping back up on Friday and that should be exponentially tru...
Mon, Jan 5 2015, 5:10 PM
Mortgage rates have fallen substantially in the first week of 2015. While a few of the most aggressive lenders have been able to offer top tier bo...
Mon, Jan 5 2015, 5:03 PM
2014 was a decisively flatter year for the Treasury yield curve. That means that longer-term (7, 10, 30yr) rates were constantly moving lower relat...
Fri, Jan 2 2015, 12:43 PM
Mortgage rates improved significantly to kick off the new year. The gains are a combination of actual improvement in bond markets and lenders lowe...
Fri, Jan 2 2015, 11:29 AM
Surprisingly and refreshingly, today's ISM Manufacturing data has been a clear source of motivation for trading activity today. After it came out a...
Fri, Jan 2 2015, 10:27 AM
The U.S. Census Bureau projected the United States population to be 320.1 million as of yesterday.
(And no, not all of them contribute to NAR.) Th...
Fri, Jan 2 2015, 7:33 AM
I like to periodically offer a reminder on something I wish I'd understood sooner when it comes to financial markets. While we do indeed live in a hi...
