Thu, Jul 18 2013, 2:11 PM
The second day of Bernanke Q&A with Congressional committees is done
and with shockingly little fanfare. Then again, it's not that
shocking cons...
Wed, Jul 17 2013, 12:46 PM
In this morning's Housing Starts data, we saw what we were expecting to
see in yesterday's NAHB data. In this sense, the morning's headline " All E...
Wed, Jul 17 2013, 10:31 AM
Building permits and housing starts
both declined in June according to data released this morning by the
U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Ho...
Wed, Jul 17 2013, 9:40 AM
Huh? I head to Southern California today, but the big news comes from Illinois. Cole Taylor Mortgage looking for a buyer ? It probably won't be the...
Wed, Jul 17 2013, 9:21 AM
After
months of delay the Senate voted Tuesday evening to confirm Richard
Cordray as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau...
Wed, Jul 17 2013, 9:16 AM
Purchase
applications shored up application volume during the week ended July
12 after four straight weeks of decline. Refinancing activity
continu...
Wed, Jul 17 2013, 5:50 PM
Even though it was only by a small margin, both production MBS and
Treasuries finish the day with a majority of the morning's gains
intact. This ...
Wed, Jul 17 2013, 4:54 PM
Mortgage rates improved moderately today,
making it back to levels not seen since July 3rd. That makes today
something of a symbolic victory ...
Wed, Jul 17 2013, 3:04 AM
The case could scarcely be made any more clearly that all eyes are on Bernanke today, but the caveat of "potential energy "
is very much in order. ...
Tue, Jul 16 2013, 12:56 PM
This morning's Day Ahead
characterized the current trading environment in bond markets as an
"excessively moderate consolidation." So far today...
Tue, Jul 16 2013, 12:38 PM
Is the 116 basis
points (bps) rise in rates from 3.35 percent to 4.51 percent within
the May 3 to July 12 th
enough to stall the housing recovery...
Tue, Jul 16 2013, 12:31 PM
The Housing Market Index (HMI) shot up
six points in July, reflecting the highest level of builder
confidence in the market for new homes since Ja...
Tue, Jul 16 2013, 12:12 PM
"The death of cash is greatly
exaggerated ." CoreLogic concurs with that quote from Mark Twain in
an article analyzing the impact cash sales has h...
Tue, Jul 16 2013, 11:29 AM
Everyone has complaints about something. Mortgage lenders are the target of plenty of complaints. As one reader noted, "This is a classic self-fulfill...
Tue, Jul 16 2013, 7:17 AM
With Bernanke's congressional testimony still a day away, Tuesday's session offers an opportunity to either make something
of yesterday's ostensib...
Tue, Jul 16 2013, 5:06 PM
Mortgage rates held almost perfectly steady
today. Any lenders that offered noticeably different rates were
generally in slightly lower terri...
Tue, Jul 16 2013, 5:03 PM
The last two days may as well have not even happened. With the small
exception of Retail Sales, the current week has been all about Bernanke
Test...
Tue, Jul 16 2013, 2:06 PM
A perennial frontrunner of housing market trends, California's data
speaks to recent assertions that rising rates will affect sales more
than valu...
Tue, Jul 16 2013, 1:38 PM
Freddie Mac calls "Taper Talk" is
the main topic of conversation in the financial world, that is,
speculation about the timing and speed that the Fe...
Mon, Jul 15 2013, 12:30 PM
Bond markets looked indecisive overnight, holding flat in the European
session, before moving into weaker territory as domestic participants
began...
Mon, Jul 15 2013, 10:05 AM
Sure lots of depository and non-depository lenders made big bucks last year. But what about this year? Probably not .
Last
week I was remiss in ...
Mon, Jul 15 2013, 9:22 AM
It would be a Hansel and
Gretelian task to follow the back and forth between the American Enterprise
Institute (AEI) and the Department of Housing a...
Mon, Jul 15 2013, 5:14 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower
to start the week, adding on to last week's solid recovery from 2yr
highs a week before. As expected, rates took t...
Mon, Jul 15 2013, 5:10 AM
The extent to which bond markets will be able to continue building on
last week's consolidation will be predicated on this week's data and
events....
Mon, Jul 15 2013, 5:10 PM
Apart from the heavy volume that followed Retail Sales this morning, the
day was quiet for Treasuries and especially for MBS. It's not
impossible...
Sun, Jul 14 2013, 10:11 PM
Here's another weekly installment of
Do's and Don't's for prospective borrowers embarking on, or
already engaged in the home mortgage process. ...
Fri, Jul 12 2013, 10:56 AM
The bill, which is still in draft form,
is sponsored by Republican members of the House Financial Services
Committee led by its chairman Jeb Hensarl...
Fri, Jul 12 2013, 8:21 AM
Bernanke's Wednesday night soothe-saying (as opposed to
soothsaying--it's funny if you think about it) was enough to get bond
markets through Thur...
Fri, Jul 12 2013, 5:16 PM
Mortgage rates
didn't manage the same sort of surge lower as that seen yesterday. In
fact, some lenders were unchanged, but on average, rates f...
Fri, Jul 12 2013, 4:54 PM
For all the sturm and drang surrounding mid-day market movements
inspired by dueling ideologies between Fed speakers, MBS are inching
toward the d...
Fri, Jul 12 2013, 3:08 PM
Generation X Americans, those born
between 1965 and 1979, formed the largest single group of homebuyers
in a recent survey conducted by the Nation...
Fri, Jul 12 2013, 2:45 PM
Over two-thirds of the $3.4 billion in checks issued to borrowers
who were aggrieved by various foreclosure mistakes or inequities had
been cashed a...
Fri, Jul 12 2013, 1:50 PM
"Rob, has the CFPB or the Federal Reserve put out anything on ARM loans?" You bet it has. It is a nice primer , with pretty colors, easy-to-read prin...
Fri, Jul 12 2013, 1:21 PM
Today has almost been a carbon copy of yesterday where MBS started out
the day holding highs, ticked just a bit higher at 10am and started
heading...
Thu, Jul 11 2013, 9:37 AM
Regulators
are proposing to exempt three types of loans from some of the
appraisal requirements for so-called higher priced mortgages . The
r...
Thu, Jul 11 2013, 9:36 AM
Even
as foreclosure activity is slowing dramatically nationwide, it
appears that judicial foreclosure states are revving up to clear
backlogs w...
Thu, Jul 11 2013, 8:45 PM
Prices below are for July MBS as of 4:05pm. Just after 5pm, those
prices dropped abruptly for Fannie and Freddie 30yr Fixed MBS
(collectively "Cl...
Thu, Jul 11 2013, 7:32 PM
Mortgage rates
were lower today right out of the gate, continuing a move set in motion
by comments from Fed Chairman Bernanke late in yesterday'...
Thu, Jul 11 2013, 5:32 PM
At this point , no one expects too much fundamental change to the agencies before 2015.
(This year will continue to see groundwork being laid; ne...
Thu, Jul 11 2013, 5:06 PM
The
Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) has just released the first
installment of a new measure of loan activity designed as a monthly
companion ...
Thu, Jul 11 2013, 3:08 PM
Data from the 2011 American Housing Survey which was released today
provides a bonanza of information for housing advocates and researchers
as we...
Thu, Jul 11 2013, 2:17 PM
Clarifications
and updates proposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
(CFPB) for the new Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and RESPA rules were
...
Thu, Jul 11 2013, 1:48 AM
Bernanke spoke late enough in the day yesterday that his
market-moving question and answer session escaped the brunt of the
domestic session's blo...
Wed, Jul 10 2013, 9:49 AM
I received many inquiries about the source of metric definitions
(doesn't that sound highfalutin!). The accounting definitions that help
compare f...
Wed, Jul 10 2013, 8:51 AM
Mortgage
application activity continued to slide last week , down 4 percent on
a seasonally adjusted basis from the week before, the fourth straig...
Wed, Jul 10 2013, 8:13 PM
Note the timestamp in the snapshot below is from 4:04pm. MBS were
pretty beat up at that point in the day, but were soon to get a lift
from Berna...
Wed, Jul 10 2013, 7:22 PM
Mortgage rates
moved higher today, taking them back in line with Monday's offerings on
average. The weakness came in two stages. The first rou...
Wed, Jul 10 2013, 6:44 AM
The first two days of the week have progressively undone much of last
Friday's damage. but neither has been much to write home about in terms
of v...
Wed, Jul 10 2013, 4:23 PM
The
Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) has released the fifth and last in
a series of concept papers outlining its suggestions for immediate
step...
Wed, Jul 10 2013, 4:19 PM
A number of investors have filed suit
in two different courts against the U.S. Government over its
management of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (t...
