Thu, Sep 19 2013, 7:24 PM
There's a decent enough chance that if you didn't know what happened
yesterday, today's weakness would be just as frustrating as any other
weaknes...
Thu, Sep 19 2013, 6:56 AM
Yesterday rocked, plain and simple. A dichotomy had arisen between
the ostensible course of Fed policy and it's increasingly clear impact.
In ot...
Thu, Sep 19 2013, 5:19 PM
Mortgage rates moved moderately lower on
average today. Not all lenders improved, but most did. Those who were
in similar or higher territor...
Thu, Sep 19 2013, 3:36 PM
There was sharp disagreement among participants in at least
one panel at a forum on the future of housing sponsored by the National
Association of...
Thu, Sep 19 2013, 2:01 PM
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
( CFPB ) announced new tools yesterday that will help consumers further explore the Home
Mortgage Disclosu...
Wed, Sep 18 2013, 12:53 PM
Information collected in 2012 through
the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) was released today by the Federal
Financial Institutions Examination C...
Wed, Sep 18 2013, 12:48 PM
Ellie Mae reported today that the refinancing share
of loans has dropped 15 percentage points since rates first began to escalate
in May. The com...
Wed, Sep 18 2013, 12:44 PM
MBS and Treasuries are now back in to their best levels of the day
(pricing snapshot below is taken just after 11am, but we've improved
since then...
Wed, Sep 18 2013, 12:25 PM
Parsing the Fed is everyone's
favorite game, so before the Fed wraps its sixth meeting of 2013 this
afternoon, it's time to play "Build Your Own Fed...
Wed, Sep 18 2013, 10:57 AM
Building permits for the construction of
new privately owned residential units fell 3.8 percent in August to a
seasonally adjusted annual rate of 9...
Wed, Sep 18 2013, 10:07 AM
The industry is moving toward more acceptance of non-QM loans .
The CFPB will be the first to admit that just because a loan is not QM
doesn't me...
Wed, Sep 18 2013, 8:44 AM
Mortgage applications rallied
last week from the week ended September 6 in which applications were down 13.5
percent and refinancing applications f...
Wed, Sep 18 2013, 8:29 AM
There are two kinds of market watchers in the world: those who
believe the Fed plays the largest role in setting the pace of big
movement in bon...
Wed, Sep 18 2013, 5:34 PM
Mortgage rates surged lower today following the long-awaited policy announcement from the Federal Reserve. Conforming, 30yr Fixed rates fell to ...
Wed, Sep 18 2013, 5:03 PM
A "facemelter" is a long-standing MBS Live term for a gigantic rally
in MBS prices. The Fed caused one today by flipping the script on
market exp...
Wed, Sep 18 2013, 2:09 PM
Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met
in July suggests that economic activity has been expanding at a moderate
pace. So...
Tue, Sep 17 2013, 12:56 PM
As it did following the devastation of Hurricane
Sandy, Freddie Mac has made the full menu of its mortgage relief policies available
to borrowers ...
Tue, Sep 17 2013, 12:54 PM
Fannie Mae's senior economists said
today that anticipated declines in refinance
originations suggest that mortgage industry employment, which has...
Tue, Sep 17 2013, 12:19 PM
Builder confidence in the market for newly built
single family homes held steady in September after four consecutive months of
improvements the Na...
Tue, Sep 17 2013, 12:08 PM
From this morning's MBS Live Update: The inevitable pall of silence leading up to FOMC Wednesday is much more
evident this morning, without the dist...
Tue, Sep 17 2013, 10:41 AM
Late Monday Freddie Mac issued a bulletin for its
Single-Family Servicer Guide ( Bulletin
2013-17) which covers changes to the Home Affordable Modi...
Tue, Sep 17 2013, 9:48 AM
I am really surprised at how many mortgage vets seem to have forgotten
what a business cycle is (almost like how I was surprised in 1977 when a
bu...
Tue, Sep 17 2013, 6:40 AM
Larry Summers gift to bond market trading on Sunday/Monday was that
we now have the honor of approaching Wednesday's FOMC events with the
"Larry S...
Tue, Sep 17 2013, 5:41 PM
We've been waiting for tomorrow, specifically, for nearly 4 months.
Competing reactions to the key components in the FOMC data make for an
utterl...
Tue, Sep 17 2013, 4:50 PM
As if to reinforce the gravity of the events that lie ahead, Mortgage rates were perfectly flat today, on
average, meaning that today's rate s...
Tue, Sep 17 2013, 2:44 PM
Home remodeling appears to be growing even more
steadily that other sectors of the residential construction industry. Building permits for improveme...
Mon, Sep 16 2013, 12:03 PM
On Sunday evening, Larry Summers announced his withdrawal from
consideration for the Fed Chair position. Stock and Bond futures
rallied big durin...
Mon, Sep 16 2013, 10:24 AM
On Friday the 13th the CFPB released the final amendments
to the Loan Officer Compensation, Servicing, QM and HOEPA Rules. The
official release ...
Mon, Sep 16 2013, 9:34 AM
Between a slight decrease this month and a massive negative revision
to the previous month, the California real estate market turned on a
dime acc...
Mon, Sep 16 2013, 7:25 AM
From the moment the Fed officially began considering a reduction in
asset purchases in late June, and even when unofficial consideration
ramped up...
Mon, Sep 16 2013, 6:16 PM
Mortgage rates improved again today, bringing
them to their best levels of month, just on par with rate sheets from
late August. Conforming, ...
Mon, Sep 16 2013, 4:32 PM
Interest rates have been determined and methodical about their slog
higher from May 2nd levels. That's been well over a full percentage
point bot...
Mon, Sep 16 2013, 2:45 PM
Monthly sales figures from the California
Association of Realtors® (C.A.R.) confirm indications from DataQuick data
posted earlier today that the re...
Fri, Sep 13 2013, 12:59 PM
The Treasury Department has released a graphics-filled Power Point presentation
titled The Financial Crisis Five Years
Later , Response, Reform, a...
Fri, Sep 13 2013, 12:14 PM
Darrin Benhart, Deputy
Comptroller for Credit
and Market Risk, Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said in
a speech on Wednesday that the...
Fri, Sep 13 2013, 11:54 AM
For bond markets, it's another day of "positivity, but with a
catch." That's been the case with every single drop of positive
momentum this week!...
Fri, Sep 13 2013, 10:56 AM
Japan's Nikkei newspaper is
quoting unnamed sources saying that former Clinton Administration Treasury Secretary
Lawrence Summers will be the next...
Fri, Sep 13 2013, 10:23 AM
After 36 years of space travel and months of heated debate among
scientists, NASA confirmed Thursday that Voyager 1 has indeed left our
solar syst...
Fri, Sep 13 2013, 5:42 PM
Mortgage rates improved slightly today, bringing
them to their best levels of week. The day's economic data, which
stood a chance to push rat...
Fri, Sep 13 2013, 4:43 PM
It takes some measure of bravery to bet big rates moving
significantly lower or higher from current levels when the rest of the
market is so decid...
Fri, Sep 13 2013, 3:42 PM
A second
set of amendments and clarifications to the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau's (CFPB) January 2013 mortgage rules will be released this...
Fri, Sep 13 2013, 1:43 AM
At this point, next week's FOMC events are on a pedestal so high that
their actual stature may be hard-pressed to live up to the legend.
After al...
Fri, Sep 13 2013, 1:34 PM
The panel of
four witnesses that appeared before the Senate Banking Committee hearing on the
Essential Elements of Housing Finance Reform were large...
Thu, Sep 12 2013, 12:21 PM
Citi is a global bank, and unfortunately for some of its workforce, there will be fewer of them in the mortgage group. Per FOX Business, Citigroup pl...
Thu, Sep 12 2013, 10:25 AM
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform
and Consumer Protection Act and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
which it created appear to be a lo...
Thu, Sep 12 2013, 9:55 AM
Falling foreclosure starts pulled overall foreclosure activity down 2
percent in August compared to July and 34 percent lower than one year earlier. ...
Thu, Sep 12 2013, 8:14 AM
Yesterday traded like the Thursday of an auction week rather than a Wednesday, in that there was a noticeable sigh of relief
in bond markets after...
Thu, Sep 12 2013, 5:08 PM
Mortgage rates held almost perfectly flat today, after
starting the day in stronger territory and losing ground in the
afternoon. As such, Co...
Thu, Sep 12 2013, 4:34 PM
Today's commentary began with the observation that yesterday seemed
more like the culmination of an auction cycle than the middle of one.
Today's...
Thu, Sep 12 2013, 2:46 PM
The Director of the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau (CFPB) finally got to present the Bureau's third Semi-Annual
Report to the House Financial...