Wed, Nov 20 2019, 9:58 AM
Applications for mortgages to purchase newly constructed homes surged in October and the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is expecting that sales wi...
Wed, Nov 20 2019, 9:35 AM
Bonds are on a roll at the moment with 5 of the last 6 trading days resulting in lower yields. Rather than stand as some evidence of new strength in ...
Wed, Nov 20 2019, 8:49 AM
A new analysis from the real estate brokerage firm Redfin shows the typical homeowner in the United States now stays in their house for 13 years, five...
Wed, Nov 20 2019, 8:09 AM
Despite the Veterans' Day holiday which shortened the work week of November 15, purchase mortgage applications gained momentum. The Mortgage Bankers A...
Tue, Nov 19 2019, 5:13 PM
There's something special (and especially frustrating) about certain summertime Mondays. This is true not only because you might have been doing some...
Tue, Nov 19 2019, 3:29 PM
Mortgage rates had a great week last week and haven't done anything to jeopardize that so far this week. Today was the first time during these 2 weeks...
Tue, Nov 19 2019, 1:50 PM
A pass rate of 51% on July’s California bar exam may not seem like cause for celebration, but it’s the first time in six years that a majority of peop...
Tue, Nov 19 2019, 1:31 PM
Fannie Mae's economists are predicting that economic growth will slow significantly in the fourth quarter to 1.6 percent. This downward revision howev...
Tue, Nov 19 2019, 10:04 AM
All three of the residential construction measures tracked by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development roared back i...
Tue, Nov 19 2019, 9:40 AM
Daily and overnight trading volumes have been declining, and intraday trading ranges have been getting more narrow. The starting point for that trend...
Mon, Nov 18 2019, 4:51 PM
As 2019 winds down, investors have never been so broadly certain about the overall market thesis. Unfortunately, that thesis calls for unavoidable un...
Mon, Nov 18 2019, 4:27 PM
Mortgage rates added to last week's improvement with another modest drop today. That brings the average lender to the best levels in exactly 2 weeks--...
Mon, Nov 18 2019, 2:03 PM
Home builder confidence fell back slightly this month, declining by 1 point to 70 in the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Hous...
Mon, Nov 18 2019, 11:54 AM
FHA loans posted a substantial decline in delinquencies during the third quarter, leading an overall improvement in loan performance. The Mortgage Ban...
Mon, Nov 18 2019, 10:38 AM
Last week provided a much-needed recovery that counteracted some of the fast-paced selling seen in the first week of November. Despite the friendly d...
Mon, Nov 18 2019, 10:12 AM
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has issued an Interpretive Rule for one type of loan originator licensing. The Secure and Fair Enforce...
Mon, Nov 18 2019, 8:53 AM
Do you dread “Smonday?” (That’s when Sunday stops feeling like a Sunday, and the anxiety of Monday kicks in.) Here is something to dread. All this tal...
Fri, Nov 15 2019, 7:06 PM
Yields broke up and out of their prevailing range last week and took the present week to focus on reentry. While those efforts went a long way toward...
Fri, Nov 15 2019, 6:06 PM
Mortgage rates finished the week in much better territory compared to last Friday. Today only added modestly to that move, but the simple act of movin...
Fri, Nov 15 2019, 8:59 AM
This week I’ve been running football quotes in the joke section at the bottom. Thanks to Gary B. who sent Chuck Noll’s, “Pressure is something you fee...
Fri, Nov 15 2019, 8:31 AM
It's Friday and that means it's time to be on the lookout for unexpected trade-related headlines, especially in the afternoon. Those sorts of newswir...
Thu, Nov 14 2019, 4:59 PM
Look closely and you will see that a lack of new home construction is behind almost every problem facing housing today. Residential construction has s...
Thu, Nov 14 2019, 4:58 PM
By the end of last week, although there was potentially a sliver of hope afforded by Friday's highs being slightly lower than Thursday's, it looked li...
Thu, Nov 14 2019, 4:24 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower again today. Whereas it was a bit easier to be dismissive about recent improvements, they're starting to add up at this poi...
Thu, Nov 14 2019, 9:32 AM
Bonds gave us quite a scare last week as key technical ceilings gave way. High volume and concrete fundamental justification added validity to the mo...
Thu, Nov 14 2019, 8:54 AM
Some people save $2.95 a day by making coffee at home rather than stopping at Dunkin’ or Starbucks. It adds up! Something didn’t add up for WeWork whi...
Wed, Nov 13 2019, 5:44 PM
Mortgage rates have been more willing to move higher than lower recently. While that may continue to be the case in the near-term future, there have b...
Wed, Nov 13 2019, 10:03 AM
The most defining moment of the big 2019 bond rally was undoubtedly the August 1st tariff announcement and the resulting massive reaction in both yiel...
Wed, Nov 13 2019, 8:57 AM
I continue to see headlines as I head to balmy Kansas today. There was, “A Court Ruling Makes Mortgages Vanish Into Thin Air.” This is a headline no l...
Wed, Nov 13 2019, 8:35 AM
Access to government loans continues to decline, but conventional and jumbo loans picked up the slack in October, pushing the Mortgage Credit Availabi...
Wed, Nov 13 2019, 8:26 AM
Once again the "Good Time to Buy" component of Fannie Mae's Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) is on the decline. Net positive answers to that quest...
Wed, Nov 13 2019, 8:07 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said application activity during the week ended November 8 was the strongest since late September , with both p...
Tue, Nov 12 2019, 5:01 PM
There are all kinds of bonds out there. We follow the 10yr Treasury even though this is a mortgage-specific site for reasons outlined here. Beyond T...
Tue, Nov 12 2019, 5:00 PM
Mortgage rates had a bad October . November hasn't exactly been great either, with last Thursday being one of the worst days of the year in terms of d...
Tue, Nov 12 2019, 11:10 AM
A securities expert told an audience at the National Association of Realtors' (NAR's) annual conference that cybercrimes against real estate agents an...
Tue, Nov 12 2019, 9:44 AM
1.90% has been the most important, most dangerous ceiling for 10yr Treasury yields ever since a nasty selling spree stalled out there exactly 2 months...
Tue, Nov 12 2019, 8:38 AM
Everyone has a different opinion about the economy. “Nobody’s right, if everybody’s wrong” or “Everybody’s right (eventually), if nobody’s wrong.” How...
Fri, Nov 8 2019, 4:17 PM
Mortgage rates launched to their highest levels in more than 3 months yesterday for a variety of reasons. Chief among them was a series of comments fr...
Fri, Nov 8 2019, 2:01 PM
One year after hitting a ten-year low, housing affordability has risen to its highest level in three years. Rose Quint, writing in the National Associ...
Fri, Nov 8 2019, 12:12 PM
The share of first-time buyers remains well below historic levels according to the National Association of Realtors' ® (NAR's) 2019 Profile of Home Bu...
Fri, Nov 8 2019, 9:12 AM
If you don't expect anything good to happen for the bond market for the next few months, I guarantee you won't be disappointed. If, however, you expe...
Fri, Nov 8 2019, 8:37 AM
As rumors swirl about Michael Bloomberg entering the race for president, MLOs are winding down for the year (a few have written to me saying that, aft...
Fri, Nov 8 2019, 8:04 AM
The storm is over, the fires are out, but anyone who has survived a natural disaster, and that is more of us every year, knows that the problems are j...
Thu, Nov 7 2019, 6:21 PM
It was a big, bad day for the bond market, although the size of the thing ended up getting pared down just a bit in the afternoon. Chalk that up to a...
Thu, Nov 7 2019, 5:29 PM
Mortgage rates surged higher at a rapid pace for the second time this week. Taken together, the jump is the biggest of its kind since the big rate spi...
Thu, Nov 7 2019, 11:29 AM
Are home price increases cranking up again? The quarterly report from the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) on existing home sales and metropoli...
Thu, Nov 7 2019, 10:37 AM
Yesterday brought a brief reprieve for bonds after the first 2 days of the week threatened to confirm a big picture shift toward higher rates (or at l...
Thu, Nov 7 2019, 9:00 AM
Thanksgiving will be here before you know it, and with it, pumpkin pie. (Yes, I know that this is a mortgage commentary, but even pumpkins have their ...
Wed, Nov 6 2019, 5:31 PM
Today's 10yr Treasury auction brought strong demand . Across the board, the auction stats were much stronger than expected. The only real problem w...
Wed, Nov 6 2019, 5:12 PM
Mortgage rates were sharply higher yesterday , but managed to reverse course and make some gains today. The refreshing part of the improvement was tha...
