Fri, Jun 5 2020, 4:04 PM
That Escalated Quickly, But MBS Recovered Fairly Nicely
After weeks and weeks (6, to be specific) of extraor...
Fri, Jun 5 2020, 2:47 PM
A joint release from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors cautions mortgage servicers about th...
Fri, Jun 5 2020, 12:25 PM
Things are quickly getting interesting for mortgage rates , and by 'interesting,' I mean potentially alarming. Everything's relative though, so it sho...
Fri, Jun 5 2020, 11:28 AM
The number of mortgages in forbearance plans declined this past week for the first time since the CARES Act to address the COVID-19 pandemic was enact...
Fri, Jun 5 2020, 9:01 AM
Change is certainly constant. “And just like that, every reporter has gone from infectious disease expert to civil rights attorney.” In our biz, if yo...
Fri, Jun 5 2020, 8:18 AM
After weeks and weeks (6, to be specific) of extraordinarily calm and narrow trading ranges in ultra-low-yield territory, the bond market has suddenly...
Thu, Jun 4 2020, 4:17 PM
Mortgage rates are directly tied to the bond market. This isn't too much of a surprise considering pretty much anything with an interest rate can be t...
Thu, Jun 4 2020, 4:15 PM
Big Risks Ahead For Rates and Some Solid Opporunities Right Now
Treasury yields broke one important ceiling ...
Thu, Jun 4 2020, 2:24 PM
The Urban Institute says that homes categorized as low priced, that is in the bottom 20 percent of the distribution, appreciated 126 percent between t...
Thu, Jun 4 2020, 9:03 AM
Yesterday afternoon my cat Myrtle was watching me mop the kitchen floor. (Hey, it’s not going to mop itself, right? And it is mildly amusing to use ce...
Thu, Jun 4 2020, 8:50 AM
Yesterday's econ data caused a stir in the bond market, forcing yields to break above a key ceiling at .74%. Can they make it back below that ceiling...
Wed, Jun 3 2020, 3:54 PM
Econ Data Causing Bonds to Reconsider Commitment to Super Low Yields
Bonds haven't been interested in econ d...
Wed, Jun 3 2020, 3:52 PM
Mortgage rates were decisively higher today as the bond market lost ground due to surprisingly strong economic data. Mortgage rate movement is mainly ...
Wed, Jun 3 2020, 10:03 AM
Refinancing volume continued to slide but purchase mortgage activity partially compensated during the holiday shortened week that ended May 29. The Mo...
Wed, Jun 3 2020, 9:23 AM
It's the first Wednesday of the month and thus time for ADP Employment data. The stated intention of this report is to predict the final revision of ...
Wed, Jun 3 2020, 9:10 AM
From the Bay Area Marcus L. writes, “I miss the days when Tiger King was the most controversial thing going on.” Everything is a controversy these day...
Tue, Jun 2 2020, 3:50 PM
Mortgage rates were mixed today with some lenders improving and others moving higher. This isn't so much a factor of anything that happened today as m...
Tue, Jun 2 2020, 3:11 PM
Here's The Only Reason Mortgage Rates Have Moved Lower Recently
"Because they were so much higher than they...
Tue, Jun 2 2020, 11:12 AM
CoreLogic's report on April home prices, the first for that month, says that despite fears that home prices would "bottom out like they did in the Gre...
Tue, Jun 2 2020, 9:20 AM
Today is the lightest of the week in terms of scheduled market movers on the econ calendar (there really aren't any to speak of unless you count the N...
Tue, Jun 2 2020, 8:34 AM
Curfews and civil unrest have replaced COVID in the news. Meanwhile, investors are watching record low debt issuance yields from companies like Amazon...
Tue, Jun 2 2020, 8:21 AM
Overall spending on construction fell in April, down 2.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.346 trillion from 1.387 trillion. This sti...
Mon, Jun 1 2020, 4:43 PM
Mortgage rates pulled off a repeat performance of last Friday's intraday drama. The average lender began the day in higher territory as bond markets w...
Mon, Jun 1 2020, 2:57 PM
There's no way to predict the future for rates and markets, but there are occasionally tactical opportunities.
Mon, Jun 1 2020, 12:15 PM
As was reported last week, new home sales in April were much, much better than expected. There may or may not be a cause and effect going on here, but...
Mon, Jun 1 2020, 11:26 AM
The Urban Institute (UI) releases a regular report, Housing Finance at a Glance , a "chartbook" loaded with charts and commentary on mortgage activity...
Mon, Jun 1 2020, 8:56 AM
I was speaking to a successful long-time real estate agent this weekend who is as busy as she’s ever been. Couples are weary of working from home in a...
Mon, Jun 1 2020, 8:47 AM
A resilient performance at the end of last week means that bonds have easily staked a claim to a sideways range that's been intact for more than 2 mon...
Fri, May 29 2020, 5:50 PM
Mortgage rates staged a nice little comeback today, moving back toward the all-time lows seen late last week. Mortgage rates are determined primarily ...
Fri, May 29 2020, 9:14 AM
Black Knight says its research is showing that the numbers of new forbearance plans for homeowners financially affected by the COVID-19 pandemic have ...
Fri, May 29 2020, 9:12 AM
Here’s something you can do for your friends, relatives, and borrowers, especially older ones: Remind them that the current batch of coronavirus relie...
Fri, May 29 2020, 8:52 AM
The next Fed announcement is 1.5 weeks away and so it's time to start ramping up expectations for the details of the Fed's official QE announcement. ...
Thu, May 28 2020, 4:38 PM
It's Thursday, and thus time once again for Freddie Mac's weekly mortgage rate survey. This is the longest-running and most widely-cited snapshot of m...
Thu, May 28 2020, 10:46 AM
Pending home sales cratered again in April, marking two straight months of declines that exceeded 20 percent. The National Association of Realtors® (N...
Thu, May 28 2020, 9:14 AM
The market reaction to coronavirus made a mess of the relationship between Treasuries and MBS (and between MBS and mortgage rates for that matter). T...
Thu, May 28 2020, 8:51 AM
With two business days left in May, one can feel the anticipation of the start of the “National Standing Desk League” opener coming up soon. I’m excit...
Wed, May 27 2020, 4:56 PM
Mortgage rates managed to stay sideways today after beginning the week with a move higher yesterday. This is a victory all things considered. Rates ta...
Wed, May 27 2020, 10:58 AM
Freddie Mac reported this week that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 14.3 percent in April, up from a 9.2 percent gain ...
Wed, May 27 2020, 10:46 AM
As California prepares to open some retail stores , the racoon has been named the official mascot of 2020: washes hands insanely, always wears a mask,...
Wed, May 27 2020, 9:50 AM
Purchase mortgage applications rose for the 6 th straight week, driving the Mortgage Bankers Association's Market Composite Index back into positive t...
Wed, May 27 2020, 9:17 AM
Today's first chart shows the trend we've been following in 10yr Treasury yields. It is pointed in an unfriendly direction (i.e. "up"), but at a fair...
Wed, May 27 2020, 9:05 AM
Making the rounds is, “The spread of Covid-19 is based on two factors. #1: How dense the population is. #2: How dense the population is.” As a nation,...
Tue, May 26 2020, 4:09 PM
Mortgage rates hit new all-time lows last week. In fact, for many lenders, records were broken on more than one day. That raised the risk of a bounce ...
Tue, May 26 2020, 11:37 AM
New home sales, rather than dropping like a rock, rose 0.6 percent in April according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urba...
Tue, May 26 2020, 11:11 AM
Even as the COVID-19 pandemic began to hobble home sales in many locations, home prices continued to increase. the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (F...
Tue, May 26 2020, 9:07 AM
No need to overcomplicate the current narrative: the overall financial market is attempting to balance the reopening of the economy with the risk of C...
Tue, May 26 2020, 8:43 AM
I doubt if I have ever pressed “7” or “8” on my microwave oven keypad. Speaking of 7 & 8 (I know, a weak segue), originators are keenly aware of what ...
Fri, May 22 2020, 3:31 PM
There's no shortage of bad news when it comes to the economy and the housing market. But that's no surprise considering the circumstances. The sheer s...
Fri, May 22 2020, 12:34 PM
The years-long downward trend of mortgage delinquencies appears to have come to an abrupt end in April. Black Knight, in its "first look" at the month...
Fri, May 22 2020, 9:54 AM
The number of homeowners in mortgage forbearance plans continues to increase, reaching 4.75 million by May 19. This is 9.0 percent of all active borro...
