Wed, Aug 10 2022, 10:40 AM
Big and small, they aren’t the first and won’t be the last. Residential lenders everywhere are ruminating on Notarize laying off 75 percent of its leg...
Wed, Aug 10 2022, 9:01 AM
Mortgage applications rose slightly for the second week, driven by an increase in refinancing. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market ...
Tue, Aug 9 2022, 5:03 PM
Mortgage rates had a bad day last Friday, rising at a very fast pace and ultimately making it almost all the way back to the previous week's highs. T...
Tue, Aug 9 2022, 4:24 PM
Tuesday Was Tame, But Wednesday Probably Won't Be
Tuesday's trading session was boring, with rates hitting d...
Tue, Aug 9 2022, 11:16 AM
Last week offered up decent bookends for a narrow, short-term range. A series of downbeat economic reports set the low yields last Monday. Then Fed ...
Tue, Aug 9 2022, 10:46 AM
Singer/actress Olivia Newton John AND author David McCullough, both dying to start the week? (I just finished “Mornings on Horseback.”) After I die, I...
Mon, Aug 8 2022, 4:13 PM
Bonds Remain Resilient Despite Supply-Related Headwinds
Supply and Demand 101 tells us that higher supply me...
Mon, Aug 8 2022, 3:45 PM
It will be a few weeks before we get the next installment of the bellwether home price indices (Case Shiller and FHFA), but today's Mortgage Monitor f...
Mon, Aug 8 2022, 10:21 AM
How much would you pay for a company responsible for a funny video? How ‘bout $1.7 billion bones? Amazon, catching the eye of the FTC, has made an off...
Mon, Aug 8 2022, 9:41 AM
Although Friday's post-payrolls sell-off was unpleasant for the bond market in the context of a single trading day, it was arguably a resilient showin...
Fri, Aug 5 2022, 6:55 PM
The big monthly jobs report from the Labor Department (officially "The Employment Situation) is one of the most reliable sources of volatility for int...
Fri, Aug 5 2022, 3:57 PM
Strong Data Redefining The Rate Outlook
Between Wednesday's ISM Services data and Friday's jobs report, the ...
Fri, Aug 5 2022, 1:29 PM
This morning's jobs report showed payroll creation at 528k for July compared to a median forecast of 250k and a previous reading of 398k. Perhaps equ...
Fri, Aug 5 2022, 10:48 AM
Please answer the short questionnaire at the end of the Commentary. Okay, just kidding. I have grown to really dislike a survey request after I stay a...
Thu, Aug 4 2022, 4:31 PM
Refreshingly Resilient Ahead of Jobs Report
Bonds began the day with a slight boost from Europe's reaction t...
Thu, Aug 4 2022, 12:26 PM
This morning's announcement from the Bank of England (BOE) led to a bond rally that helped 10yr yields hit 2.656% and MBS gain more than an eighth of ...
Thu, Aug 4 2022, 11:01 AM
Regular readers are all too familiar with my fairly regular habit of explaining discrepancies between reality and the typical mortgage rate headlines ...
Thu, Aug 4 2022, 10:43 AM
“Senility has been a smooth transition for me.” So quipped an attendee here at the Michigan Mortgage Lenders Association conference in Grand Rapids. T...
Wed, Aug 3 2022, 3:16 PM
Surprisingly Resilient After Stronger ISM Data
Wednesday's key data point was the ISM Non-Manufacturing inde...
Wed, Aug 3 2022, 2:10 PM
We've devoted lots of time and space recently to discussing the uncommon mortgage rate environment recently. The abbreviated thesis can be reduced to...
Wed, Aug 3 2022, 11:11 AM
As rumors of correspondent, wholesale, and retail company cutbacks or closings continue to bounce around our biz, how about this non-mortgage tidbit. ...
Wed, Aug 3 2022, 10:49 AM
Written before today's ISM data: As of Monday afternoon, 10yr yields had spent 3 days breaking below a floor that had been intact for more than 3 mon...
Wed, Aug 3 2022, 9:02 AM
Mortgage application activity rose last week, reversing a series of declines that started in late June. The increase was modest; the Mortgage Bankers ...
Tue, Aug 2 2022, 4:53 PM
Mortgage rates leapt higher at a record pace today--a statement that sounds a bit scarier than it really is by the time we consider the context. The ...
Tue, Aug 2 2022, 4:13 PM
What's Up With Today's Big Nasty Sell-Off?
After a stretch of 3 days where bonds could seemingly do no wrong...
Tue, Aug 2 2022, 1:46 PM
While annual price increases are still wildly aggressive, monthly gains indicate that the brakes may be on. CoreLogic says nationwide, home prices wer...
Tue, Aug 2 2022, 11:16 AM
No one wants to be Chicken Little when bonds are in the midst of a nice rally, but there's been no change to the recent thesis: Rates likely peaked in...
Tue, Aug 2 2022, 11:14 AM
“How many millionaires do you know who have become wealthy by investing in savings accounts?” Lenders, and their underwriters, work with income, value...
Mon, Aug 1 2022, 4:10 PM
August Starts Strong Thanks to Weaker Econ Data
During the Fed's press conference last week, Powell reiterat...
Mon, Aug 1 2022, 11:02 AM
After several attempts to break through the low 2.7s in the past 4 months, 10yr yields finally made it into the 2.6s last Thursday and managed to hold...
Mon, Aug 1 2022, 10:16 AM
Both basketball player Bill Russell and Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura on Star Trek,” passing away!? Meanwhile, today I head to Chicago, the #1 city for ...
Fri, Jul 29 2022, 6:09 PM
Fri, Jul 29 2022, 6:03 PM
Modest Gains, But Huge Moves in Rate Sheets
By the end of the week, the power of MBS coupon stack compressio...
Fri, Jul 29 2022, 10:37 AM
Both the June PCE inflation data and the Employment Cost Index came in hotter than expected this morning. Bonds certainly thought about selling in re...
Fri, Jul 29 2022, 10:16 AM
It’s a zany world we live in, and forecasts and predictions mean little (as seen by interest rates this week). Where should we start? Rumors of mortga...
Thu, Jul 28 2022, 5:23 PM
Mortgage rates have been all over the map recently, both in terms of their movement and in their variation between lenders. It's not altogether uncom...
Thu, Jul 28 2022, 3:54 PM
Big Rally After Big GDP Miss
We don't often think much of GDP as a major consideration for the bond market, ...
Thu, Jul 28 2022, 12:23 PM
Feel free to debate recession vs no recession amongst yourselves. The economy is more complex than a single word, but today's GDP number says the eco...
Thu, Jul 28 2022, 11:10 AM
My cat Myrtle has some publicity once in a while, although she doesn’t want people knowing she can only hear out of one ear. Freddie Mac had some publ...
Wed, Jul 27 2022, 5:59 PM
The Federal Reserve concluded one of its 8 regularly scheduled meetings in 2022 today. As expected, they announced a rate hike of 0.75%. But if you s...
Wed, Jul 27 2022, 4:56 PM
MBS Outperform After Powell Discusses The Fed's Outlook
The Fed stuck closely to the script in today's annou...
Wed, Jul 27 2022, 2:01 PM
Overall economic activity appears to Recent indicators of spending and production have picked up after edging down in the first quarter. Job softe...
Wed, Jul 27 2022, 1:47 PM
Pending home sales broke out of a seven-month slump in May, gaining 0.7 percent. If this were baseball, we might now call it a “balk.” The National As...
Wed, Jul 27 2022, 12:36 PM
A few weeks ago, expectations ramped up for the Fed to hike rates by 100bps at the conclusion of today's meeting. That sentiment lasted only a few da...
Wed, Jul 27 2022, 12:01 PM
“Common sense is not a gift. It's a punishment because you have to deal with everyone who doesn't have it.” Common sense tells us that what goes up, m...
Wed, Jul 27 2022, 8:55 AM
The number of applications for residential mortgages retreated for the fourth consecutive period during the week ended July 22 according to the Weekly...
Tue, Jul 26 2022, 4:23 PM
Some quick housekeeping before we dig into the headline: mortgage rates are slightly higher so far this week. The increases were in place on Monday. ...
Tue, Jul 26 2022, 3:56 PM
Leading-Off And Pulling-Back Ahead of Fed
Bonds began the day in stronger territory thanks to another overni...
Tue, Jul 26 2022, 12:42 PM
The pace of home price increases slowed slightly from April to May, but the change in each of the three S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller indices and the Fed...
Tue, Jul 26 2022, 11:33 AM
New home sales fell again in June, more than wiping out the increase posted for May. The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban De...
