Thu, Aug 16 2012, 10:55 AM
Who doesn't like to have a little exercise when they travel? But this
might make some nervous .
This morning we had the weekly Initial Jobless ...
Thu, Aug 16 2012, 10:39 AM
Overall, residential construction
continued to improve in July, although the component numbers on permits,
starts, and completions continue to more ...
Mon, Aug 13 2012, 10:25 AM
I love it when regulators and politicians become upset about the
environment which they've helped create - unintended consequences. One
suggestion l...
Tue, Jul 31 2012, 10:45 AM
The home price picture showed further improvement
with the release this morning of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices
(HPI) for May. Both th...
Mon, Jul 30 2012, 10:17 AM
"Rob, with the Wells news earlier this month, and FAMC's comp change
last week, I am hearing rumors of all kinds of price and investor changes .
On...
Thu, Jul 26 2012, 10:14 AM
Pending homes sales declined in June,
slipping 1.4 percent on the Pending Home Sales Index released this morning by
the National Association of Rea...
Mon, Jul 23 2012, 10:19 AM
"Rob, do you think that there is any chance that investors will
start lowering their minimum net worth requirements?" In my opinion, no .
In this e...
Wed, Jul 18 2012, 12:16 PM
Housing starts and housing completions
were both up in June according to new residential construction data released
this morning by the U.S. Census...
Wed, Jul 18 2012, 9:56 AM
With the withdrawal of Wells Fargo from the wholesale channel,
correspondent reps from the aggregators are receiving renewed interest from
mortgage...
Mon, Jul 16 2012, 11:17 AM
em·i·nent
do·main : Noun - "The right of a government or its agent to expropriate private
property for public use, with payment of compensation."
...
Thu, Jun 28 2012, 9:19 AM
Remember that scene in Apollo 13 when it dawns on the astronauts that
NASA doesn't know how to get them back? Regarding our economy, one can imagine
...
Wed, Jun 27 2012, 11:11 AM
Pending home sales in May bounced
back to match March numbers which were the highest seen in two years. The
improvement was broad-based, affecting ...
Wed, Jun 27 2012, 10:14 AM
I have been subtly warning groups during speeches, and writing in this commentary, about the implications of Basel III. Most of the focus is on servic...
Wed, Jun 20 2012, 11:38 AM
Here we are on the day that teenagers everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere
despise: the solstice. The sunrise in Nome is around 4:19AM. Even here in...
Tue, Jun 19 2012, 10:29 AM
Do we really need Congress writing or approving the industry's disclosure
forms? Can't it pick on the rental car agreement forms that no one reads,...
Tue, Jun 19 2012, 9:49 AM
The U.S. Census Bureau and the
Department of Housing and Urban Development reported this morning that permits
for the construction of new privately-...
Tue, Jun 19 2012, 1:13 PM
Thanks to
problems in Europe and the slowing of both the US and Chinese economies,
consumer attitudes have plateaued after several months of improve...
Mon, Jun 18 2012, 10:03 AM
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. Another ex-exec (the CFO) at
Taylor Bean Whittaker is now going to prison for five years.
Rates ar...
Thu, Jun 7 2012, 3:11 PM
Representatives of both the Mortgage
Bankers Association ( MBA ) and the National Association of Home Builders ( NAHB )
testified before the House C...
Fri, Jun 1 2012, 1:01 PM
Despite a slowdown in the public sector, construction spending managed to eke out an increase of 0.3 percent in April. According to data released t...
Tue, May 29 2012, 11:50 AM
Three measures of home prices issued monthly by S&P/Cash-Shiller declined yet again in March. The data released today showed that the national co...
Tue, May 29 2012, 10:01 AM
Fannie and
Freddie aren't the only companies involved in residential mortgage lending to
be seized by the government. Here's a taste of the situati...
Wed, May 23 2012, 12:01 PM
Sales of new single-family houses in April 2012 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 343,000 , according to estimates released jointly toda...
Wed, May 16 2012, 12:10 PM
Obama
played golf with Joe Biden last weekend. They were kicked off the course
because every time Obama yelled "Fore", Biden screamed - "More
Years...
Wed, May 16 2012, 11:01 AM
Permits for construction of multi-family housing plummeted in
April, offsetting a small increase in single family permits and
dropping the tota...
Mon, May 14 2012, 12:30 PM
What did
the Dali Lama say to the hot dog vendor? "Make me one with
everything." Some LO's out there wish the Lama could fix the pricing on
some of...
Wed, May 9 2012, 11:36 AM
I saw a classified ad recently where a person had a vintage French military rifle for sale. The description said "Mint condition, never fired; only d...
Mon, Apr 30 2012, 10:43 AM
Friday was
not a good day for five very weak banks as, through various methods, the FDIC
closed them. (Twenty two have closed in 2012.) In all but o...
Mon, Apr 23 2012, 10:15 AM
In this business,
you can never have too much Dodd Frank, can you? The House Financial Services
Committee has unveiled the Dodd-Frank
Burden Trac...
Wed, Apr 18 2012, 10:01 AM
The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) a forward looking index of construction activity, finished March in positive territory for the fifth consecuti...
Tue, Apr 17 2012, 11:02 AM
Remember
QRM? Not only is it not on the front
burner, but it may have been put back in the Tupperware container. QM , however, is very much alive...
Tue, Apr 17 2012, 10:44 AM
The U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reported this morning that permits for privately owned housing construct...
Mon, Apr 16 2012, 10:16 AM
As has been indicated in reports from the Joint Center on Housing and the National Association of Home Builders, home remodeling is emerging as a br...
Mon, Apr 2 2012, 12:30 PM
Besides wind surfers, sailors, wind farmers, and odd people who chase tornadoes, there aren't many people who like the wind. But this map of wind in t...
Mon, Apr 2 2012, 1:34 PM
Construction spending during February was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $808.9 billion, 1.1 percent below the revised January estimate of $...
Wed, Mar 21 2012, 10:39 AM
Yesterday
the commentary discussed rotary phones and mobile phone banking . And last week
the Federal Reserve Board launched its Twitter channel, @...
Tue, Mar 20 2012, 10:09 AM
In the old
days, when rotary dial telephones roamed the earth, and it took more time to
dial a 8 or 9 or 0 than it did a 1 or 2 or 3, area codes wer...
Tue, Mar 20 2012, 9:59 AM
There was some good news in the New
Residential Construction Report Housing released by the Census Bureau and the
Department of Housing and Urban De...
Tue, Mar 20 2012, 8:10 AM
Bond markets are slightly stronger after one of the least traumatic overnight sessions in recent memory, both in terms of volume and volatility. Chin...
Mon, Mar 19 2012, 10:27 AM
In this
environment, not only are many mortgage lenders making good returns, but the
Treasury is as well. The Treasury Department may announce today...
Mon, Mar 19 2012, 1:30 PM
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market
Index (HMI) held steady in March, consolidating five straight months of...
Thu, Mar 1 2012, 12:11 PM
The Census Bureau said this morning that
construction spending in the U.S. dipped slightly in January but was well above
outlays a year earlier. ...
Wed, Feb 29 2012, 4:33 PM
The original formulators of the S&P/Case-Shiller
Housing Price Indices held a press conference on Tuesday to discuss the state
of the housing marke...
Mon, Feb 27 2012, 9:07 AM
When
asked, most people would not want to know the exact date of their death. But an
idea of how an insurance company gauges and calculates your lif...
Wed, Feb 22 2012, 3:40 PM
In the February Economic Outlook from
Freddie Mac's Office of the Chief Economist is projecting a slow, steady path
to recovery as the economy, it...
Fri, Feb 17 2012, 10:57 AM
Yes, Wells
Fargo's CEO's was on CNBC this morning talking about the mortgage markets. Investor
news is rarely "headline grabbing," but also this mor...
Thu, Feb 16 2012, 10:03 AM
Citizens
of the U.S. have well-documented accents, but do you ever wonder what
linguistics majors do when they graduate?
At certain
phases ...
Thu, Feb 16 2012, 1:01 PM
Statistics on building permits and
housing starts increased slightly in January according to the U.S. Census
Bureau and the U.S. Department of H...
Wed, Feb 15 2012, 12:40 PM
The results from the monthly National
Association of Home Builders NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) rose
in February for the fifth conse...
Mon, Feb 13 2012, 9:47 AM
Sometimes,
at 4AM PST, my cat disdainfully watches CNBC while I work on the finishing
touches in the daily commentary. Cats spend an inordinate amou...
