Tue, Dec 17 2013, 1:30 PM
Increasing
mortgage rates eroded refinancing overall in the third quarter and refinancing
through the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) was n...
Mon, Dec 16 2013, 11:56 AM
More than any other day so far in December, today is chock full of that special holiday spirit
that makes for almost inconsequentially light activ...
Mon, Dec 16 2013, 10:39 AM
A Freddie Mac senior vice president is using
the company's blog to debunk a few myths she says may be keeping homeowners
from refinancing through ...
Mon, Dec 16 2013, 10:18 AM
The value of
US pensions has soared this year. Per JPMorgan Chase, pensions now cover 96% of future obligations! Pension values
have seen the bi...
Mon, Dec 16 2013, 7:24 AM
Exhaustion was evident in last week's bond market trading. We discussed that " year-end exhaustion " quite a bit in this post .
To make a long st...
Mon, Dec 16 2013, 5:13 PM
MBS are heading out right in line with Friday's latest levels. The day began well, and bond markets even made gains
following the stronger-than-e...
Mon, Dec 16 2013, 3:55 PM
Mortgage rates were unchanged yet again to begin the new week, and thus remain near recent highs with 4.625% the most prevalently quoted rate fo...
Mon, Dec 16 2013, 3:52 PM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency
(FHFA) is inviting public comments on a new proposal to "gradually reduce" loan
limits for mortgages purchased ...
Mon, Dec 16 2013, 1:26 PM
In the second in a series of white
papers exploring the "Foundation for a Sound Housing Market" CoreLogic looks at
the Ability-to-Repay (ATR) and Qu...
Fri, Dec 13 2013, 12:43 PM
"Exhaustion" was the theme of this morning's commentary , and today's price action is confirming that .
One of the byproducts of exhaustion is a ...
Fri, Dec 13 2013, 12:19 PM
After asking for taxpayer assistance for
the first time in its 79 year history last September, a new actuarial report
says the Federal Housing Admin...
Fri, Dec 13 2013, 11:01 AM
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
has issued new guidelines for lenders who manually underwrite FHA-backed
mortgage loans. The new underwr...
Fri, Dec 13 2013, 10:11 AM
The
old saying goes, "If there is only one attorney in a town, he'll starve to
death. If there are two attorneys in a town, they'll both get rich." ...
Fri, Dec 13 2013, 7:16 AM
It's been a rather exhausting year for bond markets. Unlike the past
3 years, 2013 marks a substantial dose of selling. Not only that, but
the s...
Fri, Dec 13 2013, 5:12 PM
A new study from the Harvard Joint
Center on Housing Studies in conjunction with the McArthur Foundation looks at
the growing importance of rental h...
Fri, Dec 13 2013, 4:57 PM
The four federal agencies most
involved in supervision of financial institutions as they work to comply with
new Dodd-Frank Act regulations said tod...
Fri, Dec 13 2013, 4:47 PM
One of the bullet points in this morning's commentary said "bond markets
would rather be napping." As it turns out, they made that dream a
realit...
Fri, Dec 13 2013, 3:46 PM
Mortgage rates were unchanged today on average, and thus remain near recent highs with 4.625% the most prevalently quoted rate for ideal, confor...
Thu, Dec 12 2013, 12:36 PM
The Jobless Claims is one of the cornerstones of the economic data
environment. It prints every week, same time, dame day. It's
relatively easy ...
Thu, Dec 12 2013, 11:06 AM
The Mortgage Bankers
Association (MBA) said today that applications for the purchase of newly
constructed homes declined in November by about 18 p...
Thu, Dec 12 2013, 11:00 AM
While mortgage delinquency rates are
expected to continue their decline to more normal levels next year, multiple
factors will slow that drop from...
Thu, Dec 12 2013, 10:26 AM
The
bitcoin movement just became a little more complicated: JPMorgan Chase is going
after the bitcoin biz by patenting a similar system. But these...
Thu, Dec 12 2013, 9:51 AM
Foreclosure
starts reached a 95 month low in November.
RealtyTrac, in its November U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, said that a
total of 52,826 pr...
Thu, Dec 12 2013, 4:46 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher again today ,
bringing them just shy of the highest rates of the past several months
seen last Wednesday. The most...
Thu, Dec 12 2013, 4:39 PM
Bond markets moved back and forth within fairly narrow ranges
today, although most of that sideways movement took place at weaker
levels. This wa...
Thu, Dec 12 2013, 4:10 PM
Both very small mortgages and
some "streamlined" refinancings will exempted from certain of the
appraisal requirements for higher-priced mortgag...
Thu, Dec 12 2013, 2:54 AM
In general, Treasury auctions haven't elicited as much reaction on
the part of MBS as they did back in 2008-2010 when markets were still
feeling o...
Wed, Dec 11 2013, 12:53 PM
Treasuries were only moderately weaker overnight despite the
potential for a "QE off" move after yesterday's budget deal
announcement ("QE off" c...
Wed, Dec 11 2013, 11:06 AM
After first delaying action on his
nomination for months and then rejecting it in October the Senate finally
confirmed Mel Watt as the new director...
Wed, Dec 11 2013, 10:58 AM
Five US regulators writing the Volcker
rule have ended three years of debate and approved a ban on proprietary
trading by some banks. The Commodit...
Wed, Dec 11 2013, 9:26 AM
The slight rise in mortgage application
volume during the week ended December 6 was the first increase in six weeks . The
Mortgage Bankers Associat...
Wed, Dec 11 2013, 7:40 AM
The big news for mortgage markets out last night is the confirmation
of Mel Watt to take over for Demarco as FHFA Director (technically, Watt
will...
Wed, Dec 11 2013, 6:25 PM
Mortgage rates moved sharply higher today,
erasing more than half of the improvement seen in the relief rally of
the past 3 days. That rally ...
Wed, Dec 11 2013, 5:32 PM
After bond markets showed a surprising amount of strength following NFP,
we'd discussed to possibility of a more developed bounce back lasting
any...
Wed, Dec 11 2013, 3:08 PM
The
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has issued its final rule
defining a "Qualified Mortgage" (QM) as required by the Dodd-Frank...
Tue, Dec 10 2013, 12:11 PM
Times are strange in early December. First off, we have bond
markets generally stronger despite Friday's better-than-expected NFP.
While we've b...
Tue, Dec 10 2013, 11:43 AM
Wanda
DeLeo, Deputy Director of the Conservatorship Division of the Federal Housing
Finance Agency (FHFA) told a Senate Banking Committee hearing th...
Tue, Dec 10 2013, 10:35 AM
Mortgage credit was slightly less available in
November than it was in October the Mortgage Bankers Association said
today. MBA's new Mortgage Cr...
Tue, Dec 10 2013, 10:03 AM
Back in the '00s I remember watching
a Discovery Channel show on people summiting Mt. Everest. One of the amateur
climbers matter-of-factly said tha...
Tue, Dec 10 2013, 7:17 AM
After yesterday's lackluster, if positive, session, today holds the
promise of slightly more participation. Not only are Tuesdays generally
a bet...
Tue, Dec 10 2013, 4:29 PM
Mortgage rates moved
slightly lower again today, bringing them back in line with the lowest
levels of the month. Recent improvements are somewh...
Tue, Dec 10 2013, 4:21 PM
Both Treasuries and MBS continued the trend of post-NFP
improvements today, paradoxical though they may be. The only apparent
threat to the posti...
Mon, Dec 9 2013, 12:14 PM
Lender Processing Services (LPS) Mortgage Monitor for October reports that
48 percent of outstanding second lien home equity lines of credit (HEL...
Mon, Dec 9 2013, 11:51 AM
Bond markets have been utterly silent so far today with stable, narrow trading ranges, no significant events, and limited volume.
Treasuries held a...
Mon, Dec 9 2013, 11:10 AM
Completed
foreclosures dropped dramatically in October CoreLogic said today, falling to
48,000 for the month compared to 64,000 in September and 6...
Mon, Dec 9 2013, 9:43 AM
The Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) announced late Friday that the maximum loan eligible for a Federal
Housing Administration (FHA...
Mon, Dec 9 2013, 9:30 AM
My
Dad called me yesterday, wondering if they delivered e-mail on Sundays.
After all, the post office is delivering on Sundays for Amazon, right? ...
Mon, Dec 9 2013, 7:56 PM
As part of the Strategic Plan for the conservatorships, FHFA
announced another installment of increased Guarantee fees ("G-Fee") for
Fannie Mae an...
Mon, Dec 9 2013, 7:12 AM
Last week was certainly interesting due to Friday's post-NFP movement
in MBS. After the stronger headline came out (203k payrolls vs 180k
forecas...
Mon, Dec 9 2013, 4:58 PM
The Departments of Housing and Urban Development and
Treasury issued their joint Housing Scorecard on Monday. The Scorecard summarizes information...
