Thu, Oct 24 2019, 10:58 AM
New home sales came in at a respectable seasonally adjusted annual rate of 701,000 in September, down only 0.7 percent from the revised rate of 706,00...
Thu, Oct 24 2019, 8:31 AM
Yesterday was fairly uneventful as global markets generally cooled off after 2 big days of Brexit-related volatility at the beginning of the week. Fo...
Wed, Oct 23 2019, 5:04 PM
Mortgage rates moved a bit lower yesterday after hitting the highest levels in more than a month the day before. They kept the positive trend going to...
Wed, Oct 23 2019, 11:19 AM
Fannie Mae asked lenders, as part of its third quarter Mortgage Lender Sentiment Survey about their digital transformation efforts. The company says t...
Wed, Oct 23 2019, 11:08 AM
Home price increases slowed appreciably in August. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) said its House Price Index (HPI) was up 4.6 percent on an...
Wed, Oct 23 2019, 9:38 AM
Yesterday saw bonds respond almost exclusively to Brexit-related headlines (read THIS RECAP for a synopsis of the day's events and Brexit's impact on ...
Wed, Oct 23 2019, 9:08 AM
Last week the Mortgage Bankers Association’s survey showed that retail applications dropped almost 12% last week from the week before. Refis were down...
Wed, Oct 23 2019, 8:18 AM
Mortgage rates increased last week. Mortgage application activity, however, did not. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite ...
Tue, Oct 22 2019, 5:42 PM
First things first: all of the volatility we're about to discuss has been occurring inside a fairly narrow range in the slightly bigger picture. More...
Tue, Oct 22 2019, 4:38 PM
Mortgage rates recovered just a bit today after hitting the highest levels in more than a month yesterday. The inspiration for much of the recent upwa...
Tue, Oct 22 2019, 4:37 PM
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case challenging the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The case "Seila Law ...
Tue, Oct 22 2019, 11:00 AM
Sales of existing homes, which had posted advances in both July and August, fell back in September. The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said s...
Tue, Oct 22 2019, 9:32 AM
Yesterday saw an extension of the recent selling trend in bonds with yields hitting the highest levels in more than a month. One might argue that yes...
Tue, Oct 22 2019, 8:27 AM
I am often asked about a primer for capital markets. Much of the training is “on the job,” but for anyone serious about learning the topic, here’s a g...
Mon, Oct 21 2019, 7:28 PM
Mortgage rates may have managed to remain mostly flat last week, but they did so near their highest levels in several weeks. After moving up at a mode...
Mon, Oct 21 2019, 11:53 AM
In an early article, we summarized the first part of a new report on America's aging population, especially as related to homeownership, published by ...
Mon, Oct 21 2019, 9:09 AM
Last week saw the US bond market fight off an intermittent barrage of weakness as global markets geared up for the weekend's big Brexit vote. By Fri...
Mon, Oct 21 2019, 8:19 AM
Great MLOs keep up on events not only impacting their loans but on events impacting the everyone else’s loans as well. For example, the Supreme Court ...
Fri, Oct 18 2019, 6:04 PM
Today was a throw-away day for the bond market. Yields matched their narrowest trading range of the week and ended the day at their most 'unchanged' ...
Fri, Oct 18 2019, 6:03 PM
Mortgage rates were flat today. In fact, they were very close to being flat on the week for that matter! This is a reflection of the bond markets curr...
Fri, Oct 18 2019, 1:46 PM
More than a quarter of new home purchases in 2018 were financed through non-conventional sources. Data from the Census Bureau's Survey of Construction...
Fri, Oct 18 2019, 11:11 AM
Even though the pace of home building remains below where the industry would like it to be, Fannie Mae says it helped drive residential fixed investme...
Fri, Oct 18 2019, 9:03 AM
Yesterday brought the highest yields in a month as Brexit-related optimism swelled early in the overnight session. At issue: British PM Johnson and E...
Fri, Oct 18 2019, 8:22 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) says it expects that new home sales declined in September relative to August based on a drop in mortgage applic...
Fri, Oct 18 2019, 8:15 AM
Here’s a little trivia for you. What does San Francisco have six of that Manhattan has none of? Dirt roads ! I don’t know if the cost of maintaining a...
Thu, Oct 17 2019, 4:24 PM
The bond market has a lot on its mind right now. 2019 is proving to be very different from other episodes of big, protracted rate trends. In most pa...
Thu, Oct 17 2019, 3:40 PM
Mortgage rates didn't do much today, but risks are increasing that movement will be more brisk in the coming business days. Blame European politics--s...
Thu, Oct 17 2019, 10:20 AM
After posting some of the best results in a year the previous month, all three construction indicators fell back in September . The U.S. Census Bureau...
Thu, Oct 17 2019, 9:34 AM
Yesterday saw a swath of Brexit headlines spark unavoidable bond market weakness just as a weaker reading in the important Retail Sales report suggest...
Thu, Oct 17 2019, 8:57 AM
52% of Agency biz (e.g., Freddie and Fannie) is first-time home buyers. Over at HUD, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), first-time h...
Thu, Oct 17 2019, 8:03 AM
The 30-year note rate on closed mortgages fell to 3.93 percent in September, down from 4.07 percent in August, and along with the decline, the ninth i...
Wed, Oct 16 2019, 6:31 PM
There was a bit of a giveaway in this morning's commentary, titled "Brexit Headlines vs Retail Sales." Indeed, it's "Brexit headlines" that answer th...
Wed, Oct 16 2019, 6:01 PM
Mortgage rates improved modestly today, depending on the lender. Some lenders moved rates higher yesterday due to deterioration in the bond market. Ot...
Wed, Oct 16 2019, 10:30 AM
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), which has held in the mid-to-upper 60 range since May, finall...
Wed, Oct 16 2019, 10:01 AM
While a lot of attention is now focused on Millennials, the country is still aging. A new report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies loo...
Wed, Oct 16 2019, 8:54 AM
Sen. Patrick Moynihan once said, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts.” In a question guaranteed to generate opinions,...
Wed, Oct 16 2019, 8:45 AM
Yesterday saw bonds undo a decent amount of overnight progress to end at the highest yields in nearly a month. 10yr Treasuries broke above the 1.75% ...
Wed, Oct 16 2019, 8:10 AM
Mortgage application volume eked out a slight gain during the week ended October 11 as interest rates became mixed . Purchasing weakened while the vol...
Tue, Oct 15 2019, 4:59 PM
There were two key parts to today's market movement. The first was the general push back against Friday's bond market weakness courtesy of less upbea...
Tue, Oct 15 2019, 4:32 PM
Mortgage rates ended higher for the 4th straight business day on Tuesday, but that wasn't necessarily destined to be the case this morning. After last...
Tue, Oct 15 2019, 10:05 AM
Last week brought a bit of a bumpy ride for bond markets with trade-related news accounting for most of the drama. Things were more uneventful on the...
Tue, Oct 15 2019, 8:52 AM
Scholars disagree on how much sleep we need, what time is the best time to wake up, and what time to go to work. But then again, scholars disagree on ...
Tue, Oct 15 2019, 8:06 AM
The typical first-time homebuyer may not be who you think he or she is. A new report from Zillow says that rather than the young shopper eager to beco...
Mon, Oct 14 2019, 2:51 PM
While declining interest rates are generally viewed as good news for consumers, they aren't without their negatives. Realtor.com's September housing t...
Fri, Oct 11 2019, 6:11 PM
With the exception of the wee hours yesterday morning, the past 2 days have been all about the trade deal. Markets knew Trump and the Chinese vice pr...
Fri, Oct 11 2019, 5:27 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher from Wednesday through the end of the week. Thursday and Friday were especially abrupt as financial markets hurried to get...
Fri, Oct 11 2019, 9:00 AM
Yesterday brought an abrupt confirmation of a bounce in bonds. For 10yr Treasury yields, the scene of the bounce was 1.51% earlier in the week. Mult...
Fri, Oct 11 2019, 8:31 AM
While home prices have surged back from their housing crisis lows, a report from the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) says homes purchased as v...
Fri, Oct 11 2019, 8:22 AM
Fun with HMDA! Compliance folks everywhere know that yesterday the CFPB (“educate through education rather than enforcement”) issued a final rule amen...
Thu, Oct 10 2019, 6:09 PM
Mortgage rates were sharply higher today as the underlying bond market faced heavy selling pressure for a variety of reasons. When investors are more ...
