Tue, Jun 21 2022, 11:52 AM
Bonds are starting out the new week just barely below the mid-point of last week's big, volatile trading range. Getting here required a moderate amou...
Tue, Jun 21 2022, 10:56 AM
Here in Honolulu, talk among those gathered for the MBA Hawai’i annual conference includes the rise in adjustable-rate mortgage lending by depositorie...
Fri, Jun 17 2022, 8:06 PM
In a year where mortgage rate volatility has been extreme, this week made everything else look tame by comparison. While it will never show up in wee...
Fri, Jun 17 2022, 11:26 AM
It's been the phrase we love to hate since late May when bond yields encountered firm resistance as they failed to break below 2.7% for 4 straight day...
Fri, Jun 17 2022, 10:30 AM
There are strange things going on out there. Revlon filing for bankruptcy. Atlanta’s mayor calling for limits on investors buying homes. Delta Airline...
Thu, Jun 16 2022, 4:37 PM
Mortgage rates are still in the process of bouncing back from an ultra-sharp spike to the highest levels since 2008 seen on Tuesday. Clarity from the...
Thu, Jun 16 2022, 4:23 PM
Treasuries Thunder Back Positive Territory; MBS Underperform
This morning's headline suggested a sideways, v...
Thu, Jun 16 2022, 12:24 PM
As rates made their way lower in the month of May, our ongoing thesis was that gains would be limited by the fact that a true rally required many mont...
Thu, Jun 16 2022, 11:18 AM
As might have been expected considering the sixth consecutive drop in the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB’s) Housing Market Index release...
Thu, Jun 16 2022, 11:14 AM
If you can't think of a word or phrase, say, "I forgot the English word for it." That way people will think you're bilingual instead of an idiot. It i...
Wed, Jun 15 2022, 6:48 PM
The pace of the spike in mortgage rates over the past several days has been nothing but staggering --especially considering it began when rates were ...
Wed, Jun 15 2022, 6:06 PM
Builders are increasingly nervous about the impact inflation and higher interest rates might have on prospective home buyers in coming months. The Nat...
Wed, Jun 15 2022, 4:47 PM
Big Victory After Powell Says Toss Up Between 50 and 75 Next Meeting
Whether we're talking about the past week, month or year, the war continues...
Wed, Jun 15 2022, 2:01 PM
Although overall Overall economic activity edged appears to have picked up after edging down in the in the first quarter, household spending ...
Wed, Jun 15 2022, 11:24 AM
It's hard to think of too many other Fed announcements with more potential volatility than today's. 4 short business days ago, the market knew exactl...
Wed, Jun 15 2022, 10:26 AM
“Do you know that humans eat more bananas than monkeys? Think about it, when was the last time you ate a monkey?” Words and terms are important. At th...
Wed, Jun 15 2022, 8:29 AM
Mortgage application volume increased during the week ended June 10 after four straight weeks of declines. However, the overall gains shown by data fr...
Tue, Jun 14 2022, 5:31 PM
Yes, mortgage rates really moved above 6% yesterday for the first time since 2008. Yesterday's coverage addressed the core of the matter (definitely ...
Tue, Jun 14 2022, 4:53 PM
Lock or Float Ahead of The Fed?
Ideally, you've been locking at app all month as the only argument for float...
Tue, Jun 14 2022, 12:03 PM
While we await FEMA to declare the Yellowstone area a disaster (page down and spend 40 seconds watching the video) is “niches to riches” the new infor...
Tue, Jun 14 2022, 12:00 PM
***REQUIRED READING for anyone who doesn't fully understand why the 4.5 UMBS coupon is far better to follow than the 5.0 intraday (for now).***
The...
Mon, Jun 13 2022, 4:57 PM
It's hard to quantify just how bad today was for mortgage rates because there's no quality day-over-day mortgage rate data from before 2009 (when we c...
Mon, Jun 13 2022, 4:07 PM
One of The 5 Worst Days in Over a Decade
At one point today, bonds had lost more ground than any other day i...
Mon, Jun 13 2022, 12:53 PM
Bonds had two options after last Friday's sell-off. They could either take a few lumps and get back to the business of looking for a long-term ceilin...
Mon, Jun 13 2022, 10:03 AM
Life is too short to waste time matching socks. Yes, time flies. Remember a year ago, when a) the announcement of Juneteenth, the new Federal holiday,...
Fri, Jun 10 2022, 10:58 PM
2022 has already had its fair share of bad news for mortgage rates, but this week was not to be outdone. It began as just another reasonably bad week...
Fri, Jun 10 2022, 4:04 PM
Bonds Obliterated by CPI Reaction and Fed Fear
If the bond market is forced to digest a surprisingly hot inf...
Fri, Jun 10 2022, 12:42 PM
As feared, today's CPI data has proven to be the most capable market mover of the week, by a wide margin. Unfortunately, that volatility is playing o...
Fri, Jun 10 2022, 10:27 AM
Start the day with a little something non-mortgage? Ira S. with U.S. Mortgage, on his time off, of course, found “River Runner.” One can basically cli...
Thu, Jun 9 2022, 3:37 PM
Bonds Consolidating at Higher Yields Ahead of CPI
The end of the week is marked by a battle with 3-letter ab...
Thu, Jun 9 2022, 3:18 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher this morning as the bond market reacted to a new policy announcement from the European Central Bank (ECB). If you're thin...
Thu, Jun 9 2022, 2:45 PM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) publishes a monthly index that attempts to quantify how tight or loose lending standards are compared to a comm...
Thu, Jun 9 2022, 11:39 AM
As has been the case for most of the past 2 weeks, European bonds have been arguing for a move to higher rates and US bonds have been reluctantly foll...
Thu, Jun 9 2022, 11:18 AM
Plenty of folks in our biz can be accused of having aprosexia. (No, I didn’t join some “Word of the Day” club.) But lenders and originators have to be...
Wed, Jun 8 2022, 4:48 PM
Rates jumped significantly higher last week and have continued drifting up at a gradual pace since then. The average lender remains in territory that...
Wed, Jun 8 2022, 4:13 PM
Yields Quickly Forced to Defend Monday's Ceiling
Bonds started off on the defensive today with a weaker hand...
Wed, Jun 8 2022, 3:48 PM
It's a fairly sobering headline any way you word it: mortgage applications hit the lowest levels in 22 years last week according the the Mortgage Bank...
Wed, Jun 8 2022, 11:55 AM
After a bumpy start to the week on Monday, the bond market is still trying to define a sideways range that serves as a waiting room where traders will...
Wed, Jun 8 2022, 11:06 AM
Yesterday in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, at the Indiana Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual conference, one of the non-mortgage conversations that I had was...
Tue, Jun 7 2022, 3:52 PM
Mortgage rates are primarily determined by mortgage-specific bonds (MBS, or mortgage-backed securities to be exact). MBS share similarities with the ...
Tue, Jun 7 2022, 3:24 PM
Is Today's Bounce Enough to Reinforce the Range?
After 5 straight trading days of weakness and 3 stubborn da...
Tue, Jun 7 2022, 2:30 PM
Fannie Mae conducts a monthly survey on homebuying sentiment, officially known as the Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI). It tracks buyer/seller at...
Tue, Jun 7 2022, 9:43 AM
At the risk of repeating ourselves regarding bond market trends of the past few months, 2022's initial rate rout clearly gave way to something more 's...
Mon, Jun 6 2022, 4:19 PM
Bonds Surprised by Supply Even Though They Knew Supply Was Coming
Whether in reference to the regularly sche...
Mon, Jun 6 2022, 3:53 PM
Last week's mortgage rate momentum served to reverse 3 of the best consecutive weeks in nearly a year--themselves a reversal of the worst 4 months sin...
Mon, Jun 6 2022, 3:36 PM
In stark contrast to the recent New Home Sales data, a new white paper from Black Knight suggests that, by the time we include existing homes, there a...
Mon, Jun 6 2022, 11:49 AM
The week begins with bonds adding to recent losses as yields move back toward the top of the prevailing sideways range. There are several ways to app...
Mon, Jun 6 2022, 10:44 AM
As servicing rights continue to be sold, and residential lender layoffs are rampant, here’s a quick reminder that anyone displaced can post their resu...
Fri, Jun 3 2022, 6:05 PM
By last Friday, rates had improved so much from recent highs that we were finally able to consider that 2022's trend had shifted gears from "skyrocket...
Fri, Jun 3 2022, 4:18 PM
Why Bonds Reacted to Such a Small Beat in The Jobs Data
In today's jobs report, headline payrolls came in at...
