Thu, Oct 10 2019, 6:09 PM
Heading into this week, we looked to today as the biggest potential source of volatility owing to the release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and th...
Thu, Oct 10 2019, 3:01 PM
Fannie Mae's Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) has been relatively volatile in recent months, and September was no exception. The Index set back to...
Thu, Oct 10 2019, 9:15 AM
Yesterday brought moderate weakness for the bond market. Justifying it doesn't have to be any more complicated than technical resistance combined wit...
Thu, Oct 10 2019, 9:12 AM
I am in Chicago with the FHLBank Chicago, and, despite the congestion and energy on the streets, the numbers tell us that the local economy is slowing...
Thu, Oct 10 2019, 8:07 AM
New home prices have been rising since 2012 according to CoreLogic's chief economist Frank Nothaft. Prices in the spring of 2019 were up 2 percent com...
Wed, Oct 9 2019, 5:36 PM
The same old pattern played out today where MBS weren't able to keep solid pace with Treasury movement. This is one of those "for better or worse" ki...
Wed, Oct 9 2019, 4:52 PM
Mortgage rates moved modestly higher today, but remain very close to the lowest levels in nearly a month. The underlying bond market (which dictates r...
Wed, Oct 9 2019, 9:28 AM
In the day just passed, bonds initially tried to erase the weakness seen in Monday's session. They were largely successful in the morning hours, but ...
Wed, Oct 9 2019, 8:41 AM
What’s your price hit for a non-owner-occupied loan? Currently, there are 12 million single-family homes being rented in the United States, 35 percent...
Wed, Oct 9 2019, 8:02 AM
Declining interest rates made for another strong week for mortgage applications . The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Ind...
Tue, Oct 8 2019, 5:26 PM
Bonds were stronger to start the domestic session after European bonds led a rally late in the overnight hours. Trading was flat during the domestic ...
Tue, Oct 8 2019, 4:48 PM
Mortgage rates were slightly lower today despite some volatility in the underlying bond market. Rates have generally been moving lower recently, but t...
Tue, Oct 8 2019, 11:13 AM
Ease of access to jumbo mortgage loans drove the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA's) Mortgage Credit Availability Index higher in September. The In...
Tue, Oct 8 2019, 10:36 AM
Wow, maybe they really mean it this time. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has issued a request for proposals from contractors who would deve...
Tue, Oct 8 2019, 8:59 AM
As Treasury yields head toward the lows of September, and Monday’s bond market holiday, let’s start Tuesday with some “trivia.” Did you know that one ...
Tue, Oct 8 2019, 8:32 AM
In the day just passed, the bond market sold off in rather underwhelming fashion. There was no overt source of pessimism and the pace of movement lac...
Tue, Oct 8 2019, 8:15 AM
One western city has decided to tackle the housing affordability crisis head-on. According to NPR, Reno, Nevada has approved a plan to construct 1,000...
Mon, Oct 7 2019, 5:51 PM
Bonds sold off today, but not excessively, and almost not at all if MBS had anything to say about it. Even Treasuries were fairly close to 'unchanged...
Mon, Oct 7 2019, 5:30 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower every week for the past 3 weeks. They covered a respectable amount of ground during that time and ultimately erased most of...
Mon, Oct 7 2019, 10:08 AM
Even with home prices in most areas now well above their pre-Great Recession highs, affordability is not terribly low by historic measures. Black Knig...
Mon, Oct 7 2019, 9:53 AM
Remember those futuristic movies where humans battle machines? Are we really that far off? Here’s one development: artificial intelligence is transfor...
Mon, Oct 7 2019, 9:24 AM
In the week just passed, the bond market rallied strongly. Weaker economic data--especially the two ISM reports--led the way, ensuring the middle 3 d...
Fri, Oct 4 2019, 4:24 PM
The bureau of labor statistics called and mailed about 60k households a little less than a month ago to ask them about their jobs. Only 3.5% of the w...
Fri, Oct 4 2019, 3:26 PM
Mortgage rates fell nicely this week with modest to moderate gains throughout. As I noted yesterday, this runs counter to the week's average mortgage ...
Fri, Oct 4 2019, 8:29 AM
In the day just passed, the bond market rallied impressively following an exceptionally weak ISM services report. That was the 2nd of the two ISM pur...
Thu, Oct 3 2019, 5:25 PM
Today's ISM services data (technically "non-manufacturing") was one of the week's two biggest reports apart from tomorrow's jobs data. Like it's manu...
Thu, Oct 3 2019, 4:46 PM
The time to build a single-family home, from pulling the permit to hauling away the construction debris, increased slightly in 2018 compared to the pr...
Thu, Oct 3 2019, 4:07 PM
Mortgage rates are much lower today compared to last Thursday, or any other day last week. Despite that fact, major news outlets--even those dedicated...
Thu, Oct 3 2019, 10:51 AM
Homeowners often hope that a remodeling project will pay them back in monetary terms - perhaps energy savings or increased home value - but a new repo...
Thu, Oct 3 2019, 9:21 AM
In the day just passed, bonds extended a faster-paced rally that began on Tuesday following the ISM Manufacturing data. It wouldn't be fair to say ...
Thu, Oct 3 2019, 9:01 AM
We’re entering the forecasting season, where thousands of managers have to come up with figures for 2020 regarding volumes, margins, and profits for C...
Wed, Oct 2 2019, 5:23 PM
The bond market had another solid day today, although that wasn't necessarily destined to be the case from the start. Yields were slightly higher in ...
Wed, Oct 2 2019, 4:49 PM
Mortgage rates are historically quite low and they managed to continue lower today . This is in addition to a steady string of improvements that began...
Wed, Oct 2 2019, 9:28 AM
In the day just passed, the bond market improved by an amount that would be considered fairly strong compared to the previous session's closing levels...
Wed, Oct 2 2019, 8:49 AM
Ever heard of Divvy Homes , ZeroDown , or Flyhomes ? You should have, because your potential clients probably have. Startups are aiming to break down ...
Wed, Oct 2 2019, 8:04 AM
The volume of mortgage applications rebounded sharply last week as homeowners rushed to refinance in response to another drop in mortgage rates. The M...
Tue, Oct 1 2019, 5:27 PM
Overall construction spending has been virtually static for much of the year. The Census Bureau reported on Tuesday that it had risen by 0.1 percent f...
Tue, Oct 1 2019, 5:25 PM
Today was fairly straightforward by the time the 10am ISM Manufacturing data came out. It was significantly weaker than expected (worst since 2009) a...
Tue, Oct 1 2019, 4:27 PM
Mortgage rates were already at their lowest levels in a few weeks by yesterday afternoon--a journey that largely consisted of baby steps. There have b...
Tue, Oct 1 2019, 11:59 AM
Home prices remained stable in August, at least as reported by CoreLogic. The company's Home Price Index (HPI) increased 3.6 percent compared to the H...
Tue, Oct 1 2019, 10:56 AM
Despite expecting an economic slowdown as reflected in the gross domestic product (GDP), Freddie Mac published a pretty upbeat September forecast as t...
Tue, Oct 1 2019, 8:43 AM
The beginning of the 4th quarter. Halloween is approaching. If your pipelines aren’t full with rates down here, and haven’t seen decent profits in the...
Tue, Oct 1 2019, 8:27 AM
In the day just passed, the bond market got off to a slow and stable start for the week. There was modest overnight weakness that carried over into t...
Tue, Oct 1 2019, 8:16 AM
The open floor plan continues to be the most popular type of living space among potential recent and potential homebuyers, especially younger ones, ac...
Mon, Sep 30 2019, 5:45 PM
Bonds were slightly weaker in the overnight session. European bonds set the tone early, potentially in response to Draghi comments on the need for ...
Mon, Sep 30 2019, 4:35 PM
Mortgage rate movement was fairly uneventful last week. The bond market (which is most directly responsible for driving day-to-day changes in mortgage...
Mon, Sep 30 2019, 2:56 PM
On Monday the government slightly loosened the leash on which it has held the two government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) for more than 11 years . In ...
Mon, Sep 30 2019, 9:53 AM
In the week just passed, the bond market committed to a perfectly sideways consolidation pattern after having moved down from the highest yields in mo...
Mon, Sep 30 2019, 8:47 AM
The final day of Q3 already… Aside from F1 drivers, did you know that Ferrari employees are not allowed to buy Ferrari cars? The exotic car market cer...
Fri, Sep 27 2019, 8:46 PM
There's never a way to be 100% sure that a consolidation trend will continue to guide the highs and lows in the bond market for any certain amount of ...
