Tue, Apr 20 2021, 10:13 AM
Whenever I ask my cat Myrtle about her opinion of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, she remains mum. But the CFPB has been in the press lately. ...
Tue, Apr 20 2021, 9:39 AM
How can you avoid reading this prose when the headline is so gripping? Slow trading! Sideways grind! Lack of obvious near-term inspiration! If we'...
Mon, Apr 19 2021, 3:19 PM
Slow Start to a Potentially Slow Week.
Bonds did a good enough job of holding their ground today thus leavin...
Mon, Apr 19 2021, 12:30 PM
Incoming data for March has caused Fannie Mae to again revise its forecast for the year's growth in gross domestic product (GDP). The company's Econom...
Mon, Apr 19 2021, 11:32 AM
The House Committee on Financial Services (FSC) held a virtual hearing last week on ways to provide equitable and affordable housing infrastructure. T...
Mon, Apr 19 2021, 10:19 AM
As lenders are wondering who will be the next merger or acquisition announcement (news of the Sterling Bancorp and Webster Financial came out this mor...
Mon, Apr 19 2021, 10:02 AM
When the most recent leg of US bond market weakness began in February, US 10yr yields were around 1.1% and German Bund yields (effectively the "EU 10y...
Fri, Apr 16 2021, 5:21 PM
Still a Decent Week Despite Friday Slide
Thursday morning was exceptionally strong for bonds--perhaps too st...
Fri, Apr 16 2021, 11:34 AM
Residential construction recovered in March after a serious decline the prior month. The U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Develo...
Fri, Apr 16 2021, 11:16 AM
True to tradition, new home sales appear to have moved higher in March as the calendar closed in on the start of the spring market. The Mortgage Banke...
Fri, Apr 16 2021, 10:48 AM
Suddenly everyone’s ruminating on upcoming mergers and acquisitions (and there will definitely be some), but in the lower management ranks, lenders ar...
Fri, Apr 16 2021, 10:06 AM
For virtually all of 2021 (and much of Q4 2020), we've been tracking an uptrend in Treasury yields. As the overall move grew to a size rarely seen in...
Thu, Apr 15 2021, 4:50 PM
It's no secret that mortgage rates had a rough month in March and a rough year in general. The average lender raised 30yr fixed rates by roughly half ...
Thu, Apr 15 2021, 3:56 PM
Snowball Rally For Bonds! Why? And What Next?
Heading into today, we expected the bond market to ignore po...
Thu, Apr 15 2021, 11:22 AM
New home builders seem to be slowly getting their mojo back. After recovering from the hit they took in the first days of the pandemic, they encounter...
Thu, Apr 15 2021, 11:12 AM
There are some clever people out there, especially when it comes to satisfying demand . Lenders know that mortgage pricing is a function of supply and...
Thu, Apr 15 2021, 10:19 AM
Heading into today, we expected the bond market to ignore potentially stronger Retail Sales data. Not only did bonds overlook the big beat (9.8 vs 5....
Wed, Apr 14 2021, 4:44 PM
Super Sideways Ahead of Retail Sales
Retail Sales used to be a big ticket report, but like so many others, h...
Wed, Apr 14 2021, 1:39 PM
Freddie Mac's Economic and Housing Research Group finds a lot to like in the present economic environment. . The company's quarterly forecast credits ...
Wed, Apr 14 2021, 1:05 PM
Black Knight has launched a new monthly report covering mortgage origination activity as gathered through its Optimal Blue loan product and pricing en...
Wed, Apr 14 2021, 11:53 AM
"I wear a stethoscope so that in a medical emergency I can teach people a valuable lesson about assumptions.” People shouldn’t assume that all offices...
Wed, Apr 14 2021, 10:09 AM
Yesterday was good for bonds with 10yr yields covering more ground toward lower yields during domestic trading hours than any other day since February...
Tue, Apr 13 2021, 4:04 PM
Slow and steady wins the race, and mortgage rates have been making slow, steady progress back down from recent long-term highs seen at the end of Marc...
Tue, Apr 13 2021, 4:03 PM
Strong Showing With Help From Vaccine Drama and a Solid Bond Auction
The day began with bonds falling back t...
Tue, Apr 13 2021, 2:56 PM
While most of us couldn't wait for 2020 to be over, it turns out to have been a superlative year for mortgage originators. The Mortgage Bankers Associ...
Tue, Apr 13 2021, 11:08 AM
The national delinquency rate posted its fifth consecutive decline in January, retreating to the lowest level since the start of the pandemic. CoreLog...
Tue, Apr 13 2021, 11:07 AM
Why do all underwriters have soft hair? Because they over-condition! (How do your underwriters feel about bitcoin? Brokers up in Canada are now accept...
Tue, Apr 13 2021, 9:01 AM
It's a sign of the times that the bond market responded with a modest rally following a stronger reading on CPI and a looming record-size 30yr bond au...
Mon, Apr 12 2021, 4:04 PM
Bonds Look Past Weaker Treasury Auction
Treasury auction have been more important than normal so far in 2021...
Mon, Apr 12 2021, 10:41 AM
Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) have released information to their lenders confirming that any loans they purchase after July 1, 2021 must ...
Mon, Apr 12 2021, 10:35 AM
I received this over the weekend: “I just want to make enough money to live a life that doesn't include Microsoft Teams in my work life.” Many people ...
Mon, Apr 12 2021, 9:43 AM
Three weeks ago, the bond market made its first attempt to rally toward lower yields after ending the previous week bouncing at a ceiling of 1.75% in ...
Fri, Apr 9 2021, 4:40 PM
Respectable Recovery After Morning Drama
"Drama" may be a bit of an overstatement, but bonds were weak enoug...
Fri, Apr 9 2021, 10:50 AM
Yesterday's closing commentary, entitled "Stronger Case For Stability But Not Complacency" acknowledged the reassuringly sideways vibe offered by the ...
Fri, Apr 9 2021, 10:47 AM
American home owners received bills for $323 billion in property taxes last year, a 5.4 percent increase from $306.4 billion in 2019. ATTOM Data Solut...
Fri, Apr 9 2021, 10:45 AM
Black Knight reports that the number of loans in forbearance programs declined last week for the sixth straight time and it was the largest drop in si...
Fri, Apr 9 2021, 10:41 AM
What’s new out there? Queen Elizabeth’s husband Prince Phillip has passed away this morning at age 99. Wealthy people in New York seem to be fleeing t...
Thu, Apr 8 2021, 4:02 PM
Mortgage Rates had another decent day on Thursday with the average lender offering modestly better terms compared to yesterday. Improvements continue ...
Thu, Apr 8 2021, 4:00 PM
Stronger Case For Stability, But Not Complacency
With today's solid gains, this week becomes the best argume...
Thu, Apr 8 2021, 11:15 AM
Non-government lenders continue to return to mortgage lending after fleeing at the start of the pandemic. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) says ...
Thu, Apr 8 2021, 9:55 AM
"i" before ‘e’ except after ‘c’” has finally been disproved by science. Does “machine learning” equal “Artificial Intelligence (AI)”? Nope . And did y...
Thu, Apr 8 2021, 9:46 AM
2 weeks ago, we talked about 2021's Thursday curse. It was finally broken last week. Today's early gains mean we may be looking at a second consecut...
Wed, Apr 7 2021, 4:33 PM
Mortgage Rates have been doing pretty well so far in April. They bounced at long-term highs on March 31st (matching the highs from 2 weeks prior), but...
Wed, Apr 7 2021, 4:30 PM
No Reaction to Fed Minutes (Or Anything Else For That Matter)
It's been a light week in terms of scheduled d...
Wed, Apr 7 2021, 2:22 PM
Consumer attitudes perked up in March, sending the Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) up 5.2 points compared to February. The company sai...
Wed, Apr 7 2021, 12:08 PM
After years of gains in educational attainment, employment, and wages, women have increased their rates of both homeownership and headship (the number...
Wed, Apr 7 2021, 10:32 AM
The longer-term rising rate trend kicked into higher gear in February. After several false starts, bonds are in the midst of their best attempt yet a...
Wed, Apr 7 2021, 10:01 AM
Does the CFPB have jurisdiction of all mortgage-related agencies, borrowers, and servicers? We’ll see, as yesterday, and this proposal should not come...
Wed, Apr 7 2021, 8:43 AM
Mortgage application volume declined for the fifth straight week during the period ending April 2, and by the largest amount over that period. The Mor...
Tue, Apr 6 2021, 4:25 PM
Things have been bad for mortgage rates in 2021. That assertion has nothing to do with the outright level of mortgage rates--indeed, that's still very...
