Wed, Dec 18 2019, 8:08 AM
The volume of mortgage applications retreated this past week, giving back most of the gains scored during the week ended December 6 following the Than...
Tue, Dec 17 2019, 3:53 PM
Mortgage rates didn't do much today, and that's the sort of thing that could get to be all too familiar as we head into the end of the year. With the ...
Tue, Dec 17 2019, 10:37 AM
The numbers for November residential construction permits and housing starts came in higher than expected , marking the second straight month of incre...
Tue, Dec 17 2019, 9:35 AM
Based on volumes, liquidity, and most importantly, the calendar itself, there's a compelling case to be made for closing the book on 2019 as a trading...
Tue, Dec 17 2019, 8:50 AM
Mark Twain famously said, “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21,...
Mon, Dec 16 2019, 5:40 PM
Friday was a somewhat glorious day for bond markets, but perhaps only because Thursday was so terrible. Both of those sessions were completely driven...
Mon, Dec 16 2019, 4:59 PM
Mortgage rates were nicely lower on Friday, though not quite as nicely as we would hope or expect. Why is that? Simply put, the bond market (which und...
Mon, Dec 16 2019, 10:41 AM
Home builders ended the year with an apparent outbreak of euphoria. Responding to higher trending sales and low interest rates they sent the National ...
Mon, Dec 16 2019, 9:14 AM
Have you ever worried about the negative repercussions of some anticipated event in your life only to find out they weren't so bad? For the bond mark...
Mon, Dec 16 2019, 8:56 AM
No one wants their labors to go to waste, whether you’re an underwriter who is over-ruled by the head of credit, or an MLO who finds out your approved...
Fri, Dec 13 2019, 5:10 PM
Bonds were leading off in a slightly friendly direction during the overnight session, largely because we hadn't really heard from China with respect t...
Fri, Dec 13 2019, 4:34 PM
Mortgage rates were somewhat distressed , to say the least, after yesterday's various news stories pertaining to the US/China trade deal. For a variet...
Fri, Dec 13 2019, 11:57 AM
Lenders responding to Fannie Mae's Q4 2019 Mortgage Lender Sentiment Survey ® didn't have as bright an outlook for their future profit margins as in t...
Fri, Dec 13 2019, 11:05 AM
The litany of updates/alerts listed below effectively serves to frame the launch sequence for today's trading. If you don't care to wade through the ...
Fri, Dec 13 2019, 8:57 AM
While the markets are talking about Boris Johnson’s victory in the U.K. (“get Brexit done”), here’s your trivia of the day: Every month that starts on...
Fri, Dec 13 2019, 8:14 AM
According to Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic, "Ten years ago, during the depths of the Great Recession, more than 11 million homeowne...
Thu, Dec 12 2019, 2:58 PM
Mortgage rates jumped quickly higher today following a series of headlines/tweets regarding the probability of a US/China trade deal ahead of Sunday's...
Thu, Dec 12 2019, 10:06 AM
While the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is predicting newly constructed homes sold at a much higher rate in November than they did a year earlier...
Thu, Dec 12 2019, 9:15 AM
Yesterday brought a nice little rally in response to a surprisingly rate-friendly press conference with Fed Chair Powell. The counterpoint to that co...
Thu, Dec 12 2019, 9:06 AM
We never see the headline, "Psychic Wins Lottery!" No one has a crystal ball, but originators often ask their capital markets staff about the directio...
Wed, Dec 11 2019, 4:55 PM
We moved from NFP not mattering (and then causing a surprisingly big intraday stir) to the Fed undergoing quite a similar routine. Granted, in the bi...
Wed, Dec 11 2019, 4:14 PM
Mortgage rates improved today following the Federal Reserve's policy announcement and Fed Chair Powell's press conference. The Fed doesn't set mortgag...
Wed, Dec 11 2019, 2:02 PM
Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in September October indicates that the labor market remains strong and that econo...
Wed, Dec 11 2019, 1:26 PM
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) used the occasion of a summit headed by Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson to release it...
Wed, Dec 11 2019, 9:41 AM
Aloha! As any servicer with borrowers in Hawai’i knows, if you’re going to ask, “Is Ms. Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele* home?” or “Do you live on...
Wed, Dec 11 2019, 8:41 AM
Mortgage applications activity recovered strongly during the week ended December 6 after the usual Thanksgiving week lull. The Mortgage Bankers Associ...
Wed, Dec 11 2019, 8:32 AM
Last week, I stunned the world by claiming that NFP (the nonfarm payrolls component of the big jobs report) "didn't matter." OK, maybe not the whole ...
Tue, Dec 10 2019, 5:15 PM
Last week saw an apparently important jobs report ATTEMPT to have a lasting impact on financial markets only for the move to be completely erased by t...
Tue, Dec 10 2019, 4:14 PM
Mortgage rates moved up modestly today as bond markets weakened in response to trade headlines. This week's key consideration on the trade front is wh...
Tue, Dec 10 2019, 10:55 AM
After a steep dive in October, America's attitude toward buying a home is on the rise again. Positive answers to the question of whether it is a good ...
Tue, Dec 10 2019, 9:26 AM
If you knew the value of the house was going to decline, or that the borrower has bad credit and would default, would you make the loan? There’s alway...
Tue, Dec 10 2019, 8:33 AM
In the grand scheme of things, today will likely be another placeholder of a day unless some unexpected (and fairly significant) trade war update happ...
Mon, Dec 9 2019, 2:58 PM
Mortgage rates reacted somewhat harshly to an incredibly strong jobs report last Friday. At the time, I noted that such a jobs report would typically ...
Mon, Dec 9 2019, 1:11 PM
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) released its annual Report to Congress several weeks ago, reporting significant improvement in its Mutual Mor...
Mon, Dec 9 2019, 9:49 AM
Black Knight continues to review, in its new Mortgage Monitor , how the effects of nearly a year of lower interest rates have ricocheted throughout th...
Mon, Dec 9 2019, 9:24 AM
With the Fed content with rates hovering here for the foreseeable future , lenders can focus on other things. "Rob, are you hearing that real estate a...
Mon, Dec 9 2019, 9:07 AM
It's been almost exactly 3 months since the quick rate spike in early September. That, of course, followed an impressive run to the lowest rates in m...
Fri, Dec 6 2019, 3:30 PM
This morning's commentary was titled "NFP Doesn't Matter (Even If It Looks Like It Does)." Apparently NFP didn't like being called out because it did...
Fri, Dec 6 2019, 1:45 PM
Mortgage rates were pushed higher for the 3rd day in a row following an incredibly strong jobs report. For decades, if you were to ask anyone with a r...
Fri, Dec 6 2019, 11:56 AM
For many years homebuyers looking for homes priced above entry level employed every device they could to keep their loan amount below whatever might b...
Fri, Dec 6 2019, 8:53 AM
I hope that you didn’t lay off your compliance department earlier this year, because there’s a lot going on. For example, from out of California comes...
Fri, Dec 6 2019, 8:31 AM
First Friday of the month, and thus time for the nonfarm payrolls (NFP) data. Also known simply as "the jobs report," no other piece of economic data...
Thu, Dec 5 2019, 5:41 PM
After the little bout of whipsaw volatility of the past 3 trading sessions, it will be a tall order for even the mighty NFP to move markets much tom...
Thu, Dec 5 2019, 3:56 PM
Mortgage rates have seen a fair amount of volatility so far this week, dropping quickly on Tuesday and moving in the opposite direction since then. Be...
Thu, Dec 5 2019, 1:13 PM
After slowing for 17 months, home price gains rose 3.8 percent in July and then held nearly flat in August according to Black Knight's Home Price Inde...
Thu, Dec 5 2019, 10:35 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA's) Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) moved significantly higher in November, gaining 2.1 percent compa...
Thu, Dec 5 2019, 10:33 AM
In the lending world, folks are talking about the change in FHA loan levels . Economists and investors have their eye on debt. Have a balance on your ...
Thu, Dec 5 2019, 9:48 AM
Bonds took Trump at his word in the wee hours of Tuesday morning with respect to waiting until Nov 2020 (or later) to finalize a trade deal with China...
Wed, Dec 4 2019, 4:28 PM
Bonds sold off clearly and somewhat abruptly following a Bloomberg article on the trade negotiations being in better shape than markets might assume b...
Wed, Dec 4 2019, 3:29 PM
Mortgage rates dropped sharply yesterday after having risen to the highest levels in 2 weeks the day before. Yesterday's culprit was trade war related...
