Fri, Oct 25 2013, 4:26 PM
Today was a boring day in bond
markets. Volume was low. Trading ranges held inside previous days'
trading ranges. Benchmarks ended the week per...
Fri, Oct 25 2013, 4:03 PM
While it seems counterintuitive, could higher home prices lead an increase
in home sales? Two Federal Reserve Bank
of San Francisco senior economis...
Fri, Oct 25 2013, 1:32 PM
Savvy entrepreneurs or established organizations
have little to fear from the new qualified mortgage (QM) and Ability-to-Repay
(ATR) regulations abo...
Fri, Oct 25 2013, 1:06 PM
The Mortgage Bankers Association responded on Thursday to the re-proposed
Risk Retention rule submitted for comment by six regulatory agencies last
...
Fri, Oct 25 2013, 1:02 AM
Here's essentially where we're at... Bond markets came to a
crossroads on 9/18 and chose a friendlier path for those who enjoy
stable-to-higher b...
Thu, Oct 24 2013, 12:34 PM
Builders
who remodel residential properties are seeing continued activity in their
segment of the homebuilding market the National Association of Ho...
Thu, Oct 24 2013, 12:28 PM
Bond markets haven't had much to go on since Tuesday's jobs report
inspired a decisive move to the best levels in months. This morning was
no exc...
Thu, Oct 24 2013, 10:57 AM
A federal grand jury found the former Countrywide
Financial and one of its executives guilty of mortgage fraud on Wednesday in a
whistle-blower gene...
Thu, Oct 24 2013, 9:50 AM
There was a substantial increase in
September in the purchasing activity of what it called institutional investors
RealtyTrac said today. Persons...
Thu, Oct 24 2013, 9:20 AM
With recent changes in QM/ATR rules along with intolerance for any
error which may impinge marketability or the ability to expeditiously
foreclose...
Thu, Oct 24 2013, 6:53 AM
On some levels, yesterday's trading session could have been frustrating for
bond bulls (aka fans of lower rates) due to the late day sell-off. A ...
Thu, Oct 24 2013, 5:19 PM
Today was another session where the movement is best characterized as
"incidental"--that is to say, bond markets didn't set out with any
salient g...
Thu, Oct 24 2013, 3:39 PM
Mortgage rates held steady for the most part on Thursday, keeping them in line with 4 Month Lows (a milestone reached last Friday ).
There wer...
Wed, Oct 23 2013, 12:38 PM
Home prices posted a 19 th
consecutive monthly gain in August the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)
said on Wednesday. FHFA's purchase only Ho...
Wed, Oct 23 2013, 12:29 PM
Treasuries rallied overnight in rather underwhelming fashion.
Volume was moderate and the trading range was fairly narrow.
Yesterday's weak NFP ...
Wed, Oct 23 2013, 10:58 AM
The national foreclosure rate jumped over 4 percent in September Lender
Processing Services, Inc. (LPS) said today, but the foreclosure inventory
...
Wed, Oct 23 2013, 10:11 AM
I am spending a couple days in Kansas before heading to North
Carolina, and around here the old saying goes, "The older the buck, the
stiffer the ...
Wed, Oct 23 2013, 9:11 AM
The volume of mortgage applications received by
the nation's lenders was virtually unchanged during the week ended October 18
the Mortgage Bankers...
Wed, Oct 23 2013, 7:08 AM
September 18th's FOMC Announcement set off warning bells about a
potential move lower for rates but such a move was always to be
dependent on Sept...
Wed, Oct 23 2013, 4:57 PM
Mortgage rates fell again today,
but at a gentler pace than yesterday, bringing them to new 4-month
lows. With no meaningful economic data to...
Wed, Oct 23 2013, 4:30 PM
Since 8:40am yesterday morning, bond markets have been exceptionally
calm compared to past examples of decently sized moves following the
monthly ...
Tue, Oct 22 2013, 12:42 PM
Today's Employment Situation Report--rescheduled from the original
October 4th release data--has been easily up to the task of inspiring a
break o...
Tue, Oct 22 2013, 9:35 AM
I travel to a lot of engagements (this week is Los Angeles, Kansas,
and North Carolina, and then to DC for the conference) and am jealous of
my co...
Tue, Oct 22 2013, 6:55 AM
Will absence have made the heart grow fonder when it comes to bond
markets' affections for the payrolls data? Yes, it already has. If
Treasuries...
Tue, Oct 22 2013, 5:01 PM
In the post-meltdown era of hyper-regulation, lenders are
understandably
not eager to stick their necks out any further than necessary. Many in
...
Tue, Oct 22 2013, 4:41 PM
Mortgage rates fell abruptly today,
after the long-awaited Employment Situation Report painted a
bleaker-than-expected picture for labor marke...
Tue, Oct 22 2013, 4:28 PM
In the first few seconds of trading following this morning's NFP
release, 10yr yields dropped from 2.59 to 2.54. From there, they eased
gently lo...
Tue, Oct 22 2013, 4:05 PM
In a move some borrowers and
originators might consider "too little, too late" both Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac announced today they are expanding t...
Tue, Oct 22 2013, 3:28 PM
Pending homes sales in California dipped
by 1.8 percent on the California Association of Realtors® (C.A.R)
Pending Home Sales Index, falling to 106...
Tue, Oct 22 2013, 2:07 PM
The 'Value of Construction Put in
Place' survey for August was published on Tuesday, three weeks after its
scheduled release. The Census Bureau
re...
Tue, Oct 22 2013, 1:10 PM
In its October Outlook Freddie Mac says that the resurgent housing
market supported economic growth in the second quarter but the recovery appears...
Mon, Oct 21 2013, 11:49 AM
Bond markets were just slightly weaker overnight, but Treasuries
held inside Friday's range at first. Fannie 3.5 MBS opened just in line
with Fri...
Mon, Oct 21 2013, 11:02 AM
Even though sales of existing homes
drifted off the record levels established in the previous two months, September
sales were higher by double digi...
Mon, Oct 21 2013, 10:18 AM
It is being billed as the largest
single-institution settlement arising from the financial crisis. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) has agreed to pay $13
billi...
Mon, Oct 21 2013, 9:41 AM
Some of the information out there is "about as reliable as a
Realtor's photograph." But rumors continue to swirl about the health of
companies. On...
Mon, Oct 21 2013, 7:50 AM
For all the sound and fury produced over the past two weeks, trading
levels in bond markets returned more-or-less in line with the trajectory
that...
Mon, Oct 21 2013, 5:08 PM
Today's session could as easily not have happened, and it wouldn't
change anything about the bigger picture. The same could be true for
most any ...
Mon, Oct 21 2013, 3:47 PM
Mortgage rates rose modestly today,
but remained in line with the lower levels seen since last week's
debt-ceiling deal. The difference betwe...
Mon, Oct 21 2013, 1:04 PM
Residential remodeling eased off in
August, dropping by 13 percent from the July seasonally adjusted annual rate of
3.434 million to 2.987 million...
Fri, Oct 18 2013, 12:46 PM
Yesterday's rally was strong. Today, not so much. That's OK
because if we were to extend the rally (2 day rally, really, totaling
over a point o...
Fri, Oct 18 2013, 9:57 AM
It is a proven fact that ghosts, ghouls, vampires, werewolves, and
the like all live forever. (I either read it in the National Enquirer or
Nation...
Fri, Oct 18 2013, 7:22 AM
Clues provided by early overnight bullishness in bond markets were
accurate in that both Treasuries and MBS returned to the ranges that had
recent...
Fri, Oct 18 2013, 5:11 PM
Despite declining FHA loan
originations (from 120,917 in April 2013 to 105,995 in July), HUD issued
Mortgagee Letter 2013-24 on August 15, tighteni...
Fri, Oct 18 2013, 5:01 PM
Mortgage rates fell only slightly today,
but with yesterday already near 4-month lows, today's moderate
improvement makes it official--at leas...
Fri, Oct 18 2013, 4:50 PM
When the potential government shutdown became an increasing reality
into late September, bond markets entered in to a narrow, sideways
range. Whe...
Thu, Oct 17 2013, 12:32 AM
Congress apparently thought the 10/17 debt ceiling deadline was a
much bigger deal than financial markets. It's not that markets didn't
perceive ...
Thu, Oct 17 2013, 11:59 AM
After adding half a point yesterday, Fannie 3.5 MBS are up another half
point today (Fannie 3.5s as of 11:55am) as the ill effects of the
governme...
Thu, Oct 17 2013, 10:50 AM
LA Dodgers' Tommy Lasorda reportedly said, "I found out that it's not
good to talk about my troubles. Eighty percent of the people who hear
them d...
Thu, Oct 17 2013, 6:39 PM
Surprisingly enough, after the government shutdown, both Treasuries
and MBS are back to levels they were trading at- well--before the
shutdown. T...
Thu, Oct 17 2013, 6:25 PM
Home sales in California were down over
5 percent in September as buyers, according to the California Association of
Realtors® (C.A.R.) reacted to...
