Wed, Nov 16 2016, 3:11 PM
Builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes was unchanged in November, based on data gathered before the election. The Nation...
Tue, Oct 18 2016, 10:48 AM
The Housing Market Index (HMI), a measure of home builder confidence in the new home market, gave back a bit of its September surge this month. The Na...
Mon, Sep 19 2016, 10:50 AM
After half a year of barely budging the Housing Market Index (HMI ) surged by six points in September. The index, jointly sponsored by the National As...
Mon, Sep 19 2016, 10:19 AM
You’ve made it to “Talk like a Pirate” day. Many lenders are saying, “Arrggghh” when it comes to appraisals. Mike Simmons with Axis AMC put some thing...
Wed, Sep 7 2016, 1:36 PM
So what is going on with residential construction? We hear constantly that inventories are too tight , especially at the lower price levels, new home ...
Mon, Aug 15 2016, 10:32 AM
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) improved slightly in August, but remained within the narrow ra...
Mon, Jul 18 2016, 10:45 AM
Rates have crept back up to pre-Brexit levels. Will the rates borrowers locked in during the last week of June be the stuff of cocktail party bragging...
Mon, Jul 18 2016, 10:26 AM
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said its Housing Market Index (HMI), which it produces in cooperation with Wells Fargo, barely budge...
Thu, Jun 16 2016, 10:31 AM
There was a flicker of life this month in the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). After spending fo...
Thu, Jun 16 2016, 10:00 AM
If you’re a loan officer and need some data for a presentation to some real estate agents, here’s a decent source. Using data collected by the U.S. Ce...
Tue, May 17 2016, 8:59 AM
Here’s something the funders can try in the lunch room today: bet a shipper that they can't catch a dropped dollar bill with their fingers.
Last ...
Mon, May 16 2016, 10:38 AM
The index that measures builder confidence in the new home market was unchanged in May for the fourth straight month the National Association of H...
Mon, May 16 2016, 9:22 AM
The European Central Bank has been collecting data on cyber-instances at 18 major banks as part of a pilot program that will be expanded to other le...
Mon, Apr 18 2016, 10:44 AM
For the third consecutive month the Housing Market Index (HMI) was unchanged. After rising to a decade high of 65 in October, the HMI, jointly spo...
Mon, Apr 18 2016, 10:42 AM
“Control the rules, control the outcome.” This old saying will be of particular interest in upcoming political events… or mortgage company lawsuits & ...
Fri, Apr 1 2016, 4:59 PM
Freddie Mac predicted in its monthly Outlook on Thursday that 2016 might be the best year for housing in a decade with most sectors, sales, constr...
Mon, Mar 28 2016, 12:18 PM
Banks and non-bank mortgage companies aren’t enemies, but plenty of non-bank lenders are envious of the ability of banks to offer HELOCs and other p...
Tue, Mar 22 2016, 10:29 AM
Fannie Mae's Economic Summary for March reports an improvement in financial market conditions and reduced concerns about an imminent risk of reces...
Tue, Mar 15 2016, 11:52 AM
After dropping three points in February to 58, the Housing Market Index, a measure of builder confidence in the single-family home market, remained u...
Mon, Mar 14 2016, 9:43 AM
Americans have regained most of the wealth lost when the real estate bubble burst. Homeowners' equity has more or less doubled since the lows of 20...
Wed, Feb 17 2016, 11:02 AM
To put some perspective on things, a trillion seconds is roughly 31,710 years. The Fed indicates that household housing debt is about $8.8 trillion ...
Tue, Feb 16 2016, 10:54 AM
Confidence among new home builders cooled considerably this month. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said its Housing Market Index (HM...
Tue, Feb 16 2016, 10:52 AM
The mortgage industry has certainly taken its lumps in the last eight years. Things are turning around, and Jason Frazier from California's Mason McDu...
Tue, Jan 19 2016, 12:16 PM
Tom
Finnegan contacted me yesterday saying, "Rob, yesterday you published a
list of reasons why loans are not currently being purchased. One of th...
Tue, Jan 19 2016, 10:59 AM
Builder confidence in the new home market, while on the surface unchanged
from December, has now dropped 5 points since establishing a decade-long ...
Tue, Dec 15 2015, 10:26 AM
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said on
Tuesday that its NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) dropped one point
in December ...
Tue, Dec 15 2015, 10:04 AM
What
is this? Fear of a bubble in commercial real estate? Apparently the Fed
is increasingly concerned about asset pricing and lending practices i...
Wed, Nov 18 2015, 10:58 AM
Where
the heck did 40 years go? Call any person who underwrites loans or
draws docs and ask if they'd like to do that for 40 straight years. The
...
Tue, Nov 17 2015, 10:52 AM
Well that didn't last long.
After jumping to the highest level in a decade in October the Housing
Market Index (HMI) a measure of builder confidenc...
Tue, Nov 17 2015, 10:10 AM
I
do a little traveling (this week, hopefully, is California, Colorado,
and Kansas) so it was interesting to see that Pro Teck Valuation
Service...
Mon, Nov 16 2015, 10:52 AM
Many
nations are a hodge-podge of ethnic diversity, and the U.S. Census
Bureau tells us that there are at least 350 languages spoken across our
...
Tue, Oct 27 2015, 10:34 AM
When
was the last time anyone used the term "elderly"? I think the industry
dropped the term when someone realized baby boomers didn't like thinki...
Mon, Oct 19 2015, 10:44 AM
It is official, the slump in builder
confidence is over. The National
Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said today that ten years after it began
...
Mon, Oct 19 2015, 10:39 AM
From my narrow view, the big talk of the San Diego MBA conference so far? Fannie & Freddie's rep & warrant changes, the FHA's position on the CFP...
Thu, Sep 17 2015, 10:04 AM
I bet for every person a company has dedicated to stopping cybercrime
there are 10 somewhere else trying to perpetrate it. Just yesterday I
rece...
Wed, Sep 16 2015, 11:55 AM
You can now review every federal agency ( even the CFPB ) on Yelp. There is an agreement in place that allows agencies to claim pages and respond to r...
Wed, Sep 16 2015, 11:46 AM
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo
Housing Market Index (HMI) ratcheted up another point this month continuing a
steady ri...
Mon, Sep 14 2015, 10:11 AM
One
of the problems with servicing loans in Hawaii, or even for
"mainlanders" originating loans there, is name pronunciation. How does
someone f...
Thu, Sep 3 2015, 4:00 PM
Freddie Mac's long-time chief economist Frank Nothaft
departed some months ago to take the same role at CoreLogic and that vacancy at
the mortgage c...
Tue, Aug 18 2015, 10:34 AM
Under
the "fun with numbers" category, several readers wrote in yesterday
regarding the CFPB's semi-annual numbers: "The report noted that during ...
Mon, Aug 17 2015, 11:57 AM
Builder confidence remained stable this month. The National Association of Home Builders
(NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) added a point...
Mon, Aug 17 2015, 9:58 AM
Thank you to Mark Baker with Cardinal Financial sent over a story about dear people who live in fancy tiny houses . An appraiser's nightmare or a Mil...
Fri, Jul 17 2015, 10:13 AM
Boy
how things have changed. Life is so expensive now; maybe that's why the
living arrangement stats have changed so dramatically since 1967. In
...
Thu, Jul 16 2015, 9:53 AM
Earnest Hemingway was born in the comfortable Midwestern suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, a place he described as full of, "wide lawns and narrow minds."...
Thu, Jul 16 2015, 1:25 PM
Builder confidence may finally be back
to stay. After yo-yoing in and out of
the "good" range of 50 or more for years, the National Association of ...
Mon, Jul 13 2015, 10:29 AM
Here's
some good news. The National Reverse Mortgage Lenders
Association/RiskSpan Reverse Mortgage Market Index which analyzes trends
in home va...
Mon, Jun 15 2015, 10:55 AM
Builder's demonstrated the highest confidence in the market
for newly built homes in nearly a year this month as the Housing Market Index
(HMI) publ...
Fri, May 22 2015, 1:42 PM
Fannie
Mae's economists used their May economic and strategic summary to downgrade
expectations for 2015 growth but at the same time painted a slig...
Mon, May 18 2015, 12:10 PM
While they were discussing different vintages, home sellers
have a slightly more upbeat outlook on home sales then do the builders of those
homes. ...
Wed, Apr 15 2015, 12:43 PM
The index measuring building confidence in the market for
new single family homes stopped its three month slide in April, jumping four
points from...