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...
Tue, Apr 6 2021, 4:25 PM
Evidence For a Ceiling Continues to Accumulate
All the normal disclaimers are in order:
- This is a rising...
Tue, Apr 6 2021, 11:04 AM
Does staging really work? That was among the home buying and selling topics covered in a new survey from the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) a...
Tue, Apr 6 2021, 11:00 AM
Fannie Mae says results from its fourth quarter 2020 National Housing Survey show that consumers continue to view homeownership as a good investment. ...
Tue, Apr 6 2021, 10:46 AM
CoreLogic's February Home Price Index (HPI) essentially echoed that the price report last week from Black Knight. The company said that its index reco...
Tue, Apr 6 2021, 10:26 AM
Global financial markets are entirely open today for the first time since last Thursday, thus giving us a chance to see if this month's momentum will ...
Tue, Apr 6 2021, 10:13 AM
For some good news, any company that holds or buys servicing has seen their balance sheet improve with the rise in mortgage rates. For more good news,...
Mon, Apr 5 2021, 3:57 PM
Rates Still Trying to Establish a Ceiling
The rising rate trend of 2021 is increasingly being called into qu...
Mon, Apr 5 2021, 1:21 PM
Stories of rising home prices are no longer breaking news, but still, they are pretty remarkable. Black Knight, in its latest Mortgage Monitor , says ...
Mon, Apr 5 2021, 10:06 AM
“Some are born to meet, some achieve meetings, and some have meetings thrust upon them.” There are definitely in-person meeting “green shoots” sprouti...
Mon, Apr 5 2021, 9:59 AM
The rising rate trend of 2021 is increasingly being called into question--even if only temporarily--due to the inability of 10yr yields to quickly bre...
Fri, Apr 2 2021, 2:41 PM
Huge Jobs Numbers and a Logical (But Muted) Bond Reaction
There were "whisper" numbers earlier this week sug...
Fri, Apr 2 2021, 11:25 AM
Construction spending, public and private, was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.517 trillion in February. The U.S. Census Bureau said this w...
Fri, Apr 2 2021, 11:23 AM
Although today is not a Federal holiday, it certainly seems like it should be one. And not to be “Debbie Downer, it is hard to believe that we have tw...
Fri, Apr 2 2021, 9:40 AM
There were "whisper" numbers earlier this week suggesting nonfarm payrolls could come in closer to 1 million as opposed to the median forecast of 647k...
Thu, Apr 1 2021, 4:12 PM
Mortgage rates have been trying to find a ceiling in the past 3 weeks after rising at the quickest pace in years. That search seemed to be going well ...
Thu, Apr 1 2021, 4:09 PM
Thursday Curse Broken. NFP Friday
Thursdays have been almost universally bad in 2021--a point that was drive...
Thu, Apr 1 2021, 10:55 AM
March's month/quarter-end trading got more credit than normal for moving markets in the past week or two. As such, it's fair to hope for April to bri...
Thu, Apr 1 2021, 10:45 AM
Worried about it being April Fool’s Day? Don’t be. We’ll take care of you. Today's podcast includes a discussion on extended locks, as well as an inte...
Wed, Mar 31 2021, 4:39 PM
Mortgage rates moved moderately higher today after failing to capitalize on a hopeful move in bond markets yesterday. Bonds--particularly mortgage-bac...
Wed, Mar 31 2021, 4:21 PM
Month/Quarter-End Trading Refresher; More Stimulus Details
Today is the last day of the month and quarter. ...
Wed, Mar 31 2021, 11:10 AM
Today is the last day of the month and quarter. That means more for financial markets than it does for many other sectors. While there is no hard an...
Wed, Mar 31 2021, 11:03 AM
The newly installed Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released her first quarterly report on the agency to Congress o...
Wed, Mar 31 2021, 10:57 AM
February's pending home sales suffered a double digit month-over-month decline in February and fell below the pace a year earlier for the first time i...
Wed, Mar 31 2021, 10:54 AM
What word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it? Short. (There’s the cutting-edge wit this commentary is known for!) Time can play tricks on ...
Tue, Mar 30 2021, 3:50 PM
There are a few interesting developments for mortgage rates today--especially in light of last week's striking discrepancy between Freddie's weekly su...
Tue, Mar 30 2021, 3:49 PM
'Unchanged' Feels Like a Victory
Bonds began the day at the highest yields in more than a year and slowly wo...
Tue, Mar 30 2021, 12:16 PM
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price indices and the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA's) House Price Index (HPI) all show that the growth o...
Tue, Mar 30 2021, 11:14 AM
The demand for shipping on the Suez Canal never stopped. (Do you think this conversation ever took place on the bridge of the Ever Given? “I bet you c...
Tue, Mar 30 2021, 9:36 AM
Bonds remain in the midst of a very large and sustained sell-off. Generally speaking, the rising rate environment is a logical byproduct of pande...
Mon, Mar 29 2021, 4:27 PM
New Week, New Weakness
The new week wasted very little time in reinforcing the realities of 2021. This is a...
Mon, Mar 29 2021, 2:03 PM
Freddie Mac reported this week that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 17.7 percent in February compared to a 16.1 percen...
Mon, Mar 29 2021, 1:58 PM
The age of the U.S. housing stock is, to a certain extent, a reflection of the decline in new home construction since the onset of the housing crisis....
Mon, Mar 29 2021, 10:22 AM
Today's audio version of the commentary is always available. (This week’s, sponsored by The STRATMOR Group, has a short interview with me today on how...
Mon, Mar 29 2021, 10:21 AM
Last week ended on a sour note with moderately brisk selling on Friday erasing what had been a relatively hopeful trend up until that point. Bonds co...
Fri, Mar 26 2021, 5:14 PM
The biggest story for the mortgage and housing market so far in 2021 has been the big spike in mortgage rates. It has been more abrupt and covered mor...
Fri, Mar 26 2021, 5:13 PM
Valiant Effort But This Week's Bounce-Back Effort Falls Short
Insult, meet injury? Oh, you're already acqua...
Fri, Mar 26 2021, 12:15 PM
For the moment at least, the number of loans in forbearance are heading downhill and picking up speed. Black Knight says the number of active plans de...
Fri, Mar 26 2021, 10:46 AM
1.62% has been one of the most important technical levels for 10yr yields in the past month. After breaking above last week, we had a chance to confi...
