Fri, Mar 1 2019, 10:06 AM
Freddie Mac's economists see low interest rates continuing, at least through the end of next year . The company's Economic and Strategic Research Grou...
Thu, Feb 28 2019, 6:24 PM
The Census Bureau reported on Thursday that the national homeownership rate rose slightly in the fourth quarter of 2018 to 64.8 percent , up from 64.4...
Thu, Feb 28 2019, 11:37 AM
The share of cash-out refinances spiked in 2017 and 2018 in a manner similar to what happened just before the Great Recession. The share jumped to 50 ...
Wed, Feb 27 2019, 10:27 AM
Expectations were high for a strong pending home sales report to christen the New Year. Those expectations were more than satisfied. The National Asso...
Wed, Feb 27 2019, 9:56 AM
More than a year has elapsed since the Census Bureau collected data for its most recent (2017) American Community Survey (ACS), but unless things have...
Wed, Feb 27 2019, 8:14 AM
Mortgage applications increased for the second week as interest rates again ticked lower at well under 5 percent. The Mortgage Bankers Association sai...
Tue, Feb 26 2019, 12:05 PM
Both the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller housing indices acknowledged further slowing in home price appreciat...
Tue, Feb 26 2019, 11:14 AM
Sometime things are just not worth the wait. The long-delayed December report on residential construction from the Census Bureau and the Department of...
Tue, Feb 26 2019, 8:34 AM
Freddie Mac reported this week that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 1.2 percent in January, down from 6.6 percent the ...
Mon, Feb 25 2019, 3:20 PM
Independent mortgage banks (IMBs) have been around for more than a century. but have taken on increased significance and power in the marketplace sinc...
Fri, Feb 22 2019, 8:20 AM
Fannie Mae is predicting a notable slowdown in the growth of the U.S. economy in the first quarter of 2019. They have downgraded their earlier forecas...
Thu, Feb 21 2019, 11:29 AM
Existing home sales fell again in January although the decline was a minor one compared to the 6.4 percent drop in December. The National Association ...
Thu, Feb 21 2019, 10:05 AM
A 16-basis point drop to 5.01 percent in the average rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages was given only partial credit for a sizable uptick in the r...
Wed, Feb 20 2019, 11:45 AM
The gap in homeownership rates between white Americans and racial and ethnic minorities has persisted for years with the largest gap among black famil...
Wed, Feb 20 2019, 8:14 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said mortgage application volume rose for the first time in five weeks during the week ended February 7. MBA's ...
Tue, Feb 19 2019, 10:33 AM
The Housing Market Index (HMI) continues to recover from the plunge it took in November and December when it dropped an aggregate of 12 points. The Na...
Fri, Feb 15 2019, 3:13 PM
Mortgage loan delinquencies were down from the third quarter of 2018 in the fourth quarter. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said the improvemen...
Fri, Feb 15 2019, 9:42 AM
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (the GSEs) reported solid financial results for both the fourth quarter and the entirety of the 2018 fiscal year on Thursda...
Fri, Feb 15 2019, 8:19 AM
The perceptions, expectations, and plans of prospective homebuyers appear to be undergoing a transition according to results from the most recent Hous...
Thu, Feb 14 2019, 5:22 PM
While we have not yet seen figures from the Census Bureau for December let alone January, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is reporting a surge ...
Wed, Feb 13 2019, 11:40 AM
A total of 8.8 million households bought homes in the two years preceding the most recent American Housing Survey (AHS). The survey, sponsored by the ...
Wed, Feb 13 2019, 8:14 AM
Mortgage applications have now fallen in six of the last eight weeks. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its seasonally adjusted Market Compo...
Tue, Feb 12 2019, 11:41 AM
An asset bubble can burst, or it can develop a slow leak, and float more or less gradually back to normal levels. The National Association of Realtors...
Tue, Feb 12 2019, 10:12 AM
According to CoreLogic, loan performance continues to improve on a national basis, with delinquencies dropping more than 1 percentage point over the 1...
Fri, Feb 8 2019, 11:08 AM
The second proposal for reform of the housing finance system in a week was just introduced by the National Association of Realtors® (NAR). Their "visi...
Thu, Feb 7 2019, 1:35 PM
Respondents to Fannie Mae's January National Housing Survey adopted a new outlook to go along with the new year, primarily in responses about their pe...
Thu, Feb 7 2019, 10:37 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA's) Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI), a measure of access to mortgage credit, partially rebounded from...
Wed, Feb 6 2019, 12:03 PM
In their December Insight report Freddie Mac's economists estimated the country will fall short of its housing needs this year by about 2.5 million un...
Wed, Feb 6 2019, 8:28 AM
We usually hear about Fannie Mae's National Housing Survey (NHS) in terms of whether respondents think it is a good time to buy or if they see the eco...
Wed, Feb 6 2019, 8:14 AM
Mortgage applications suffered their third consecutive decline during the week ended February 1. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Marke...
Tue, Feb 5 2019, 11:57 AM
The CoreLogic Home Price Index puts the annual rate of appreciation nationally at 4.7 percent in December and the gain from November 2018 to December ...
Mon, Feb 4 2019, 3:23 PM
Although they covered the topic in last month's Mortgage Monitor , further declines in interest rates have prompted Black Knight to take another look ...
Mon, Feb 4 2019, 8:52 AM
It's widely known that homeownership rates are historically low and that they peaked at 69 percent in 2005. They began dropping a year or two later an...
Fri, Feb 1 2019, 3:12 PM
There was a flurry of rumors and a bit of a bull market around the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae stock a few weeks ago after Federal Housing Finance Agen...
Fri, Feb 1 2019, 11:02 AM
Construction spending rose 0.8 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted rate of $1.30 trillion compared to $1.29 trillion in October. The Census B...
Fri, Feb 1 2019, 9:51 AM
While the median price of a home sold nationally increased more than 5 percent over the 12 months ended in October, the monthly payment on that home w...
Thu, Jan 31 2019, 11:51 AM
The chant throughout 2018 from housing industry sources was inventory, inventory, inventory - or lack of same. It was blamed first for rising home pri...
Thu, Jan 31 2019, 10:49 AM
New home sales exploded in November, rising 16.9 percent from October's dismal performance to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 657,000 units. The ...
Wed, Jan 30 2019, 11:31 AM
Pending home sales were down again in December , falling below the Pending Home Sale Index's (PHSI's) benchmark 100 level to 99.0. The index was at 10...
Wed, Jan 30 2019, 8:45 AM
Freddie Mac's Economic Research Group says in its January forecast that much of the volatility in the mortgage market since the end of the year has ar...
Wed, Jan 30 2019, 8:21 AM
Freddie Mac reported this week that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 6.6 percent in December , down from 6.8 percent th...
Wed, Jan 30 2019, 8:17 AM
It was yet another holiday shortened week, this time occasioned by Martin Luther King's birthday, and mortgage application activity was down. The Mort...
Tue, Jan 29 2019, 12:14 PM
The days when published a monthly tally of the number of loan modifications made by servicers under several public and private sector programs are lon...
Tue, Jan 29 2019, 10:38 AM
The pace of home price increases slowed a little more in November. The non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Pri...
Fri, Jan 25 2019, 8:17 AM
The library of articles citing the alarming lack of new construction continues to grow. Freddie Mac, the Urban Institute (UI), and John McManus of Bui...
Thu, Jan 24 2019, 10:24 AM
The share of December originations that were adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) was the highest since Ellie Mae began tracking them in 2011 the company ...
Thu, Jan 24 2019, 8:08 AM
The US ended 2018 with the lowest delinquency rate since at least the beginning of this century. Black Knight says the December rate of 3.88 percent i...
Wed, Jan 23 2019, 10:56 AM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) said its November Housing Price Index recorded an 0.4 percent gain compared to October. The October increase...
Wed, Jan 23 2019, 8:27 AM
Fannie Mae does not expect a lasting impact from the current partial government shutdown, at least if it is over soon. In its January Economic Develop...
Wed, Jan 23 2019, 8:15 AM
Mortgage applications returned to more normal levels during the week ended January 18 after two rather post-holiday periods. Both purchasing and refin...
