Wed, Apr 27 2022, 3:21 PM
Mortgage rates are most directly affected by trading levels in the bond market--specifically those of mortgage-backed securities or MBS. It was a som...
Wed, Apr 27 2022, 2:43 PM
Today brought 2 new scheduled data releases for the housing market. Both were fairly logical given the variables in play. So far in 2022, one of the...
Wed, Apr 27 2022, 11:06 AM
If only the bond rally of the past 2 days had begun next Monday... Due to its "one week early" timing, the result has been a technical correction tha...
Wed, Apr 27 2022, 11:03 AM
Change is mandatory. Progress is optional. Are signing bonuses a sign of progress? Perhaps not, and more a continued sign of the competitive times. “A...
Tue, Apr 26 2022, 3:54 PM
More Gains, But Harder to Hold After Europe Stopped Trading
Bonds made decent gains overnight as overseas ma...
Tue, Apr 26 2022, 3:21 PM
New, single family home sales declined by 8.6 percent in March according to data released today by the Census Bureau. That seems like a fairly substa...
Tue, Apr 26 2022, 12:14 PM
Interest in sustainable homes, those with green or energy-saving features, appears to be growing. The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) recently...
Tue, Apr 26 2022, 11:07 AM
Running feels great unless you compare it to not running. While here in Northern California for a board meeting, I received, “I read your capital mark...
Tue, Apr 26 2022, 10:44 AM
Here at the end of April, bonds are seeing a similar rally to the one seen at the end of March. At least that's true in terms of the number of days o...
Mon, Apr 25 2022, 4:11 PM
New Bounce, But Same Question
Rates rallied briskly today as investors focused on China's covid lockdowns, o...
Mon, Apr 25 2022, 3:50 PM
Thursday and Friday weren't great days for the mortgage market last week. Rates jumped sharply on Thursday and then drifted just a bit higher on Frid...
Mon, Apr 25 2022, 3:32 PM
Mortgage delinquencies hit a record low in March according to the "first look" report on mortgage performance released today by Black Knight. Hitting ...
Mon, Apr 25 2022, 11:42 AM
“I’d listen to their forecasts about as much as I’d listen to Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler dispense advice on monogamy.” Regardless of who this LO was tal...
Mon, Apr 25 2022, 9:42 AM
Global equities indices fell sharply at various opening bells (and the closing bell too, as far as Asia was concerned). This was less of a concern fo...
Fri, Apr 22 2022, 6:26 PM
It's hard to avoid bad news about rising mortgage rates in 2022, but you can't believe everything you read. It is true that mortgage rates have been ...
Fri, Apr 22 2022, 3:26 PM
Abnormally Uneventful Friday For Bonds
Whether we're talking about actual Fridays or Thursdays that fall bef...
Fri, Apr 22 2022, 12:29 PM
As home sales surged and prices soared, real estate investors were no small part of the mix. CoreLogic says the share of home sales going to investor...
Thu, Apr 21 2022, 4:07 PM
Thursday marks the weekly release of the industry's most widely cited mortgage rate survey. All manner of news outlets rely on the survey to generate...
Thu, Apr 21 2022, 3:38 PM
Daly Upstages Powell in Today's Fed Drama
With both Fed Chair Powell and ECB President Lagarde scheduled to ...
Thu, Apr 21 2022, 11:36 AM
When you’re working from home, how interesting can next Thursday’s, April 28th, “Take Your Children to Work Day” be? WFH, or hybrid arrangements, is a...
Thu, Apr 21 2022, 11:35 AM
The centerpiece of today's event calendar is a panel discussion on the global economy hosted by the IMF. Both Powell and ECB President Lagarde are on...
Wed, Apr 20 2022, 4:01 PM
Strong Auction Lost in Shuffle as Bonds Enjoy an Easy Win
Sometimes during massive selling sprees, the tradi...
Wed, Apr 20 2022, 3:56 PM
Mortgage rates hit their highest levels since 2009 yesterday amid one of the most abrupt spikes seen during the adult lifetime of the average prospe...
Wed, Apr 20 2022, 3:07 PM
The brutal interest rate spike of 2022 has been all over the news for more than a month, but the strong pace of home sales (or purchase mortgage appli...
Wed, Apr 20 2022, 12:57 PM
The Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) latest weekly mortgage application data shows an ongoing and unsurprising decline in refinance applications. ...
Wed, Apr 20 2022, 11:35 AM
Happy 420 Day. (Tomorrow, by the way, is Happy Surprise Drug Test Day.) Another day, another layoff story from Better.com. The human tragedy in Ukrain...
Wed, Apr 20 2022, 11:27 AM
We could certainly discuss the fact that bonds are improving so far today amid a strong curve flattening trade, but recent experience suggests we wait...
Wed, Apr 20 2022, 9:58 AM
Despite the oft-cited hurdles, housing production continued to strengthen in March. Permits for residential construction were issued at seasonally adj...
Tue, Apr 19 2022, 6:03 PM
Where do we even begin the conversation about mortgage rates on any given day in the spring of 2022? The news has frequently fallen into the category...
Tue, Apr 19 2022, 5:25 PM
Fed Speakers and Corporate Bonds Keep Negative Momentum Intact
Bonds came into the domestic session moderate...
Tue, Apr 19 2022, 11:20 AM
Another day, another brutal sell-off with little by way of compelling justification. This one may actually be more simple than it seems at first glan...
Tue, Apr 19 2022, 10:18 AM
As the nation ruminates on the court ruling on the mandatory mask mandate, remember, “You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachut...
Mon, Apr 18 2022, 4:50 PM
The average mortgage lender was quoting conventional 30yr fixed rates of 5.25% last Monday for top tier scenarios--the highest since late 2018. Rat...
Mon, Apr 18 2022, 4:36 PM
Flat Day For MBS as Markets Wait For More Activity
With most of Europe out of the office, volume got off to ...
Mon, Apr 18 2022, 2:44 PM
Mortgage rates may be at the highest levels in more than 3 years, but the housing market has yet to show visible signs of distress. April's release o...
Mon, Apr 18 2022, 12:14 PM
With it being the Monday after a 3.5 day weekend, with London closed, and no significant data on the econ calendar, today's marching orders are to act...
Mon, Apr 18 2022, 10:58 AM
Notes to start off the week?! First off, there are some darned clever people around, and this ditty (thank you to John H. for sending) sung to “Americ...
Thu, Apr 14 2022, 2:49 PM
Here's a happy but unhappy coincidence: weekly rate surveys (which often lag reality) and actual daily mortgage rates are actually on the same page to...
Thu, Apr 14 2022, 2:35 PM
Another False Alarm Turns Into Bond Market Beat-Down
If today's bond market behavior wasn't making us cry, w...
Thu, Apr 14 2022, 10:34 AM
It’s Thursday. What should we talk about today? Elon Musk’s bid for Twitter? How about the jump in adjustable-rate locks as evidenced by the MBA’s fig...
Wed, Apr 13 2022, 4:47 PM
When it comes to financial markets and mortgage rates, things rarely happen in straight lines. Each time rates spiked to new multi-year highs in rece...
Wed, Apr 13 2022, 4:01 PM
How About Now (For A Ceiling in Rates) ?
Producer prices surged much higher than expected in this morning's ...
Wed, Apr 13 2022, 12:09 PM
The bond market is running out of potential market movers on this holiday-shortened week with this afternoon's 30yr bond auction and tomorrow's ECB an...
Wed, Apr 13 2022, 11:33 AM
I happen to be visiting Manhattan this week. Besides the news about the subway shooting, the overall “hum” of this place being unmistakable and I ment...
Wed, Apr 13 2022, 11:27 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported double digit increases in the interest rates of most mortgage products again last week, and refinancin...
Tue, Apr 12 2022, 5:03 PM
There's no question that today was one of the few recent examples of a "good day" for most of the bond market and, consequently, mortgage rates. The ...
Tue, Apr 12 2022, 4:30 PM
Nice Data-Driven Rally, But Keep Recent False Starts in Mind
Incessant trends toward higher rates bring the ...
Tue, Apr 12 2022, 3:05 PM
Two full years after the COVID-19 virus upended life the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA’s) Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) remains some...
Tue, Apr 12 2022, 2:37 PM
While still healthy, mortgage lenders’ 2021 profits took a deep dive from the record returns recorded in 2020. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA...
Tue, Apr 12 2022, 12:11 PM
CPI (the Consumer Price Index) is arguably the most important data point for interest rates in a world where inflation is at the highest levels since ...
