Tue, Jan 7 2014, 7:00 AM
Even during non-holiday weeks, Mondays tend to run a little light and yesterday was no exception. That said, it did manage the best volume of any s...
Tue, Jan 7 2014, 4:48 PM
Mortgage rates fell
at their fastest pace in 2014 and to their best levels. Such a feat
was only manageable due to what has been an exceptional...
Tue, Jan 7 2014, 4:37 PM
Bond markets trudged farther into positive territory today, this time crossing into the best levels since December's FOMC Announcement for MBS and s...
Tue, Jan 7 2014, 1:55 PM
Smaller markets and those with a strong
energy sector are recovering faster than the nation as a whole the National
Association of Home Builders (NA...
Mon, Jan 6 2014, 12:29 PM
This holiday season I was struck by
similarities between the toothless abominable snowman in Rudolph the Red Nosed
Reindeer and an ideology I have b...
Mon, Jan 6 2014, 12:08 PM
Bond markets were just slightly stronger overnight. Tradeflows in Treasuries haven't been infinitely more robust than Thursday or Friday, but they ar...
Mon, Jan 6 2014, 11:18 AM
So
here we are at the in the first full week of 2014 - and we have some
important things that will definitely impact residential mortgage
len...
Mon, Jan 6 2014, 7:00 AM
After 2 weeks with exceptionally light activity due to holidays and inclement weather in New York, bond markets get back to business today. Not only ...
Mon, Jan 6 2014, 4:37 PM
In several ways, today is/was something of a warm up for the rest of the week. In fact, tomorrow could be similar in that the biggest events of the...
Mon, Jan 6 2014, 3:42 PM
Mortgage rates were flat to slightly lower
today. Activity continued to ramp up following the holidays in the
financial markets most directly...
Mon, Jan 6 2014, 2:38 PM
The New York
Times is reporting that, weather permitting, the Senate may vote Monday
night on the nomination of Janet L. Yellen to lead the Federa...
Mon, Jan 6 2014, 1:59 PM
After a long and contentious delay Melvin L. Watt
was sworn in today to a five year term as Director of the Federal Housing Finance
Agency (FHFA)....
Mon, Jan 6 2014, 1:31 PM
Mel Watt has now officially
taken the reins of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA),
replacing Acting Director Edward J. DeMarco. He was sworn...
Fri, Jan 3 2014, 12:12 PM
As the next step in its "Know Before You Owe"
initiative the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) plans to look at
what goes on at the home p...
Fri, Jan 3 2014, 12:07 PM
Last
Saturday I mentioned a misspelling in a mortgage document ("...MERS holds
leugal title..."). It turns out that it is not a MERS or Fannie iss...
Fri, Jan 3 2014, 11:34 AM
As expected, we're seeing a lot of reports of thinly staffed trade desks in NY thanks to the snow storm. Almost all of the volume in Treasury futur...
Fri, Jan 3 2014, 4:29 PM
Mortgage rates were even more unchanged
today than yesterday. Not only was the average rate among various
lenders unchanged, but individual l...
Fri, Jan 3 2014, 4:20 PM
MBS began the day on a down note with prices off 5/32nds. In the absence of data (or anything at all, really), bond markets found their footing bet...
Fri, Jan 3 2014, 3:54 PM
As Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac eliminated their 100% and 97% purchase loans
following the housing meltdown, FHA financing once again became a
pre...
Fri, Jan 3 2014, 3:13 PM
The days when people grew up, got married, got a job they would stay with
for life, had 2.5 children and bought a house are gone according to Mortgag...
Fri, Jan 3 2014, 2:53 AM
If there is any reason for market participants to tune in today, it will be the late day speech from Bernanke. That's not happening until 2:30pm howe...
Thu, Jan 2 2014, 12:39 PM
A recent study by Fannie Mae found some distinct differences in the ways
higher income earners look for a mortgage compared to lower income
earne...
Thu, Jan 2 2014, 12:29 PM
In 2011, The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced lawsuits
against 18 financial institutions for securities violations and/or
fraud rel...
Thu, Jan 2 2014, 11:56 AM
We're once again seeing tradeflows overpower economic data in terms of bond market motivation. Most of this morning's data was stronger than expect...
Thu, Jan 2 2014, 11:07 AM
Spending on residential construction increased by
1.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from October to November
while
overall construction...
Thu, Jan 2 2014, 10:05 AM
The U.S. Census Bureau projected that on Jan. 1, 2014, the United States population was 317,297,938.
This represents an increase of 2,218,622, or ...
Thu, Jan 2 2014, 7:00 AM
Today's calendar of economic events includes Jobless Claims, both of the manufacturing PMIs (Markit and ISM), and Construction Spending, making Thursd...
Thu, Jan 2 2014, 4:24 PM
Volume was surprisingly high today, relative to our exceptionally low expectations. Even so, it ranks as one of the lightest days of the year, and ...
Thu, Jan 2 2014, 3:10 PM
Mortgage rates were almost perfectly flat
today. Various lenders were in slightly better or worse shape, but on
average, today's quotes will ...
Thu, Jan 2 2014, 2:48 PM
While investors placing their money and
hopes on single family houses is not a new phenomenon, CoreLogic in its current
issue of MarketPulse , says...
Tue, Dec 31 2013, 12:25 PM
Once you accept the truths in yesterday morning's chart (re-posted below), the rest of 2013 doesn't really matter. To recap:
June 19 was the ...
Tue, Dec 31 2013, 11:39 AM
Thanks to FAMC
for sponsoring the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl . It was
some great publicity for FAMC and the industry. And this is...
Tue, Dec 31 2013, 11:04 AM
One of the government sponsored
enterprises (GSEs) has reached what it says will be the last settlement of a repurchase
request related to loans i...
Tue, Dec 31 2013, 10:32 AM
The S&P/Case Shiller Home Price
Index scored its greatest year over year gain in over seven years in October
the company said today. Both the 10-Ci...
Tue, Dec 31 2013, 7:00 AM
2013 draws to a close today and it will officially break a 20 year trend in bond markets. Since 1993, 10yr yields have returned to the same boundar...
Tue, Dec 31 2013, 3:53 PM
On many occasions in 2013, I've referred to weakness as "seemingly inexplicable." This rarely has to do with the weakness defying explanation and mor...
Tue, Dec 31 2013, 2:28 PM
Mortgage rates were
little-changed today, ending the year less than a quarter of a
percentage point away from their highest levels in more than ...
Tue, Dec 31 2013, 1:30 PM
In its monthly e-magazine
Foreclosure Report RealtyTrac takes a
look at the current and potential impact of legislation designed to rescue the
na...
Mon, Dec 30 2013, 11:46 AM
Lender Processing Services (LPS) said today that its Home Price Index (HPI) was up a slight 0.1 percent in October. The index for the month was $23...
Mon, Dec 30 2013, 11:25 AM
So far today, we have a moderate amount of incidental strength to offset the slightly larger amount of incidental weakness last week. Bond markets co...
Mon, Dec 30 2013, 10:22 AM
Pending home sales technically rose slightly in November, but only after a negative downward revision to October's Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) ...
Mon, Dec 30 2013, 9:51 AM
Bloomberg reports Blackstone has purchased 41,000 homes across the US in the past 2 years to become the largest single family landlord in the countr...
Mon, Dec 30 2013, 9:00 AM
Last
week was brutally slow, punctuated by an early close on Tuesday, the
Christmas holiday on Wednesday and a general absence of volume and
vol...
Mon, Dec 30 2013, 4:49 PM
Although nothing too troubling happened today, it's hard to find anything glaringly positive. For instance, even though we have some decent gains o...
Mon, Dec 30 2013, 4:06 PM
Mortgage rates continued lower to begin the week after pulling back just slightly from 3-month highs on Friday. Activity continues to be subdu...
Mon, Dec 30 2013, 2:03 PM
In the most recent issue of CoreLogic's MarketPulse on-line magazine Sam Khater
suggests that low-end home prices can be useful in predicting the...
Fri, Dec 27 2013, 11:43 AM
First off, any examination of price movement today requires the caveat that none of it has any implication beyond the next few hours. While volume is...
Fri, Dec 27 2013, 10:46 AM
Water
water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. A growing number of Realtors
are keenly aware of the increasing concern about water and its
sc...
Fri, Dec 27 2013, 8:28 AM
There's been such an appallingly small amount of trading activity this week that it doesn't make much sense to discuss or consider market movements ...
Fri, Dec 27 2013, 6:05 PM
NOTE : Some readers may have received a glut of
previous MBS Commentary updates from 3:10 - 3:55pm. We're very sorry
for the inconvenience. It s...
