Fri, Jan 14 2022, 11:15 AM
It’s Friday, things have slowed down a little bit, and I appreciate you taking a break from Wordle to check out today’s Commentary. Here’s a riddle: W...
Thu, Jan 13 2022, 4:16 PM
Just Enough of a Rally to Keep Things Interesting
Coming into the day, we were pondering the fate of this we...
Thu, Jan 13 2022, 4:06 PM
In almost every case, a day of bond market improvement results in rates moving lower. That makes sense considering mortgage rates are based primarily...
Thu, Jan 13 2022, 11:20 AM
2022 is already off to an “interesting” start. Going directly to the borrower , normally the role of brokers, lenders, MI companies, and other mortga...
Thu, Jan 13 2022, 11:12 AM
Whether we refer to it as a correction or consolidation, bonds have enjoyed a few days of moderate gains after selling off abruptly last week. Today'...
Wed, Jan 12 2022, 4:45 PM
Mixed Signals in Data, Events, and The Market Reaction.
The hotly anticipated CPI data came in roughly in li...
Wed, Jan 12 2022, 4:25 PM
Interest rates are typically determined by bond market. Mortgage rates, for instance, are directly tied to mortgage-specific bonds know as mortgage-b...
Wed, Jan 12 2022, 12:08 PM
Most people are paid wages… will raises keep up with an annualized inflation rate of 7 percent? Others may receive a large payout from the sale of the...
Wed, Jan 12 2022, 11:36 AM
Yesterday's resilient trading day strengthened the case for a corrective (or consolidative ?) bounce after last week's big yield spike. Traders (a...
Wed, Jan 12 2022, 9:39 AM
There was a small uptick in purchase mortgage activity during the first week of 2022. Refinancing held its own despite significant increases in in...
Tue, Jan 11 2022, 4:39 PM
2022 has gotten off to a bad start for the bond market and consequently, mortgage rates. The pace has been on the aggressive side with the average ...
Tue, Jan 11 2022, 4:12 PM
Is it Time To Get Excited About a Bounce?
As per the recent norm, bonds were fairly flat overnight and began...
Tue, Jan 11 2022, 2:58 PM
Mortgage credit loosened a bit last month but the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA’s) Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) which measures cr...
Tue, Jan 11 2022, 2:51 PM
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) says that, after a few months of moderating lumber prices following the rapid runup in early spring...
Tue, Jan 11 2022, 11:05 AM
As freezing temperatures continue on in the Midwest and Northeast, keeping people inside, I doubt if there is a single person in the United States who...
Tue, Jan 11 2022, 10:44 AM
The national delinquency rate declined for the 7th consecutive month in October. CoreLogic’s Loan Performance Insights Report for the month says tha...
Tue, Jan 11 2022, 10:31 AM
Bonds were unchanged to slightly stronger for most of the overnight session, but are now losing ground modestly. In the context of the previous 2 tra...
Mon, Jan 10 2022, 3:47 PM
A Glimmer of Resilience and a Primer on Which MBS Coupon to Watch
Bonds began the day by resuming the sellin...
Mon, Jan 10 2022, 3:24 PM
Last week wasn't a great one for mortgage rates. Most lenders were roughly a quarter of a point higher on a conventional 30yr fixed scenario by Fri...
Mon, Jan 10 2022, 2:43 PM
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government sponsored enterprises (GSE’s) that guarantee most US mortgages, announced substantial increases in the fees...
Mon, Jan 10 2022, 2:41 PM
Mortgage origination activity as measured by rate locks declined again in December. Black Knight’s Mortgage Originations Monitor said it marked the ...
Mon, Jan 10 2022, 12:16 PM
Last week saw bonds sell off at their fastest pace in at least 9 months on a combination of a hawkish pivot from the Fed and paradoxical omicron optim...
Mon, Jan 10 2022, 11:57 AM
The gap in positive answers from consumers as to whether it is a good time or buy a home or to sell one widened in December, as attitudes toward buyin...
Mon, Jan 10 2022, 11:53 AM
While Omicron continues to grab headlines, and economists, investors, and Congress grow increasingly wary of the immense U.S. fiscal expansion as evid...
Fri, Jan 7 2022, 5:00 PM
Seemingly overnight, the mortgage rate narrative has changed rather drastically, at least in relative terms. While rates had risen gradually from near...
Fri, Jan 7 2022, 4:03 PM
Is It The Jobs Report, The Fed, or Something Else?
It's been quite a week of losses for the bond market. Wh...
Fri, Jan 7 2022, 11:24 AM
Nonfarm payrolls came in at 199k versus a median forecast of 400k. On almost any NFP Friday before the pandemic, this would be worth some positivity ...
Fri, Jan 7 2022, 10:52 AM
Anyone born around this time is a Capricorn, and if you believe in horoscopes, they are the most patient and careful, and they are down-to-earth for e...
Fri, Jan 7 2022, 10:06 AM
The Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPB) says the big three credit reporting companies are still not playing well with others . A new report...
Thu, Jan 6 2022, 4:18 PM
Stability, But at a Cost; Does NFP Matter Tomorrow?
In terms of intraday volatility, today was arguably the ...
Thu, Jan 6 2022, 3:53 PM
Regular readers know that we're fond of setting the weekly record straight in cases where day-to-day rate movements paint a drastically different pict...
Thu, Jan 6 2022, 12:22 PM
After watching the same consolidation pattern for the past few months and feeling that yields were safely below the upper boundary, that boundary has ...
Thu, Jan 6 2022, 11:26 AM
Today is about the day when you have to think twice about wishing anyone, “Happy New Year.” Okay, maybe tomorrow. There’s a lot of news out there to s...
Wed, Jan 5 2022, 4:39 PM
Big Sell-Off Following Fed Minutes
Even though the bond market thought it knew all it needed to know about t...
Wed, Jan 5 2022, 3:58 PM
The following represents only a portion of the full list of newswire headlines associated with today's Fed Minutes release, but these are likely the m...
Wed, Jan 5 2022, 2:32 PM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) took steps today to meet one of the goals set forward in its 2022 Scorecard for the GSEs Fannie Mae and Fred...
Wed, Jan 5 2022, 10:33 AM
U.S. travelers to Hong Kong have had better days, with Hong Kong banning travel from the U.S. Chicago schools (with over 300,000 students) have had be...
Wed, Jan 5 2022, 10:26 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) closed, as they usually do, for the two-week holiday period. Its weekly report on mortgage application volume c...
Tue, Jan 4 2022, 4:49 PM
Mortgage rates had been drifting modestly higher in general in the past 2 weeks, but the pace is accelerating in the new year. For some lenders, this...
Tue, Jan 4 2022, 4:30 PM
Bonds Still Selling, But at a Slower Pace
In terms of volume, participation, and holiday closures, today was...
Tue, Jan 4 2022, 10:50 AM
It is increasingly clear that the science, or perhaps it is an art, of home price forecasting could use some work. One year ago, in its report on Nove...
Tue, Jan 4 2022, 10:41 AM
Years on a trading desk and hedging locked pipelines teaches one that different things move bonds at different times. Right now, rates are still being...
Tue, Jan 4 2022, 9:43 AM
Tokyo and London are back in the office today after yesterday's holiday closures. EU yields moved modestly lower from their highest levels in roughly...
Mon, Jan 3 2022, 4:13 PM
The year is not off to a great start for mortgage rates . At the end of last week, we were already looking at the highest levels in months. The s...
Mon, Jan 3 2022, 3:59 PM
Unhappy New Year For Bonds So Far
The first trading day of the new year ended up being one of the worst in m...
Mon, Jan 3 2022, 11:29 AM
Construction spending increased slightly in November compared to October and increased its lead year-over-year from the 7.5 percent improvement repo...
Mon, Jan 3 2022, 10:59 AM
Tabrasa’s Patrick H. wishes everyone a Merry New Year! Yes, 2022 is here, with its thousands of cancelled flights due to weather and omicron. Older lo...
Mon, Jan 3 2022, 9:54 AM
Both Tokyo and London were closed overnight, which didn't do anything to help the light liquidity environment of the winter holidays. Domestic accoun...
Fri, Dec 31 2021, 11:26 AM
A “handsel” is a gift given to wish good luck for the year ahead. The word dates back to the 1300s, and derives from “hand” and “selen,” an Old Englis...
Fri, Dec 31 2021, 10:30 AM
It's a sign of the times that the only conversations on MBS Live's MBS Community pertain to this morning's Encompass outage. Actually, it's a sign of ...
