Thu, Mar 7 2019, 4:53 PM
Mortgage rates dropped noticeably today, as the underlying bond market benefited from overseas developments. The European Central Bank (ECB) is Europe...
Thu, Mar 7 2019, 4:47 PM
Today was all about the European Central Bank's surprisingly bond-friendly announcement and press conference. Considering markets already expected ...
Thu, Mar 7 2019, 12:50 PM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) rose slightly in February. The Index, which measures any tig...
Thu, Mar 7 2019, 11:37 AM
While homeowner equity increased overall during the fourth quarter of 2018, the number of homeowners with negative equity rose for the first time in 1...
Thu, Mar 7 2019, 10:16 AM
Earlier this week CoreLogic reported that the annual rate of appreciation in January, 4.2 percent, was exactly two-thirds the rate in January 2018. Th...
Thu, Mar 7 2019, 10:04 AM
Fannie Mae's Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI), a measure derived from the company's monthly National Housing Survey (NHS), was essentially unchang...
Thu, Mar 7 2019, 9:37 AM
“Rob, one of my LOs was heard about a program that offers 97% 1st with no MI and up to a 105% CLTV with a community 2nd, when approved for the 1st, th...
Thu, Mar 7 2019, 9:25 AM
Bonds have had a good thing going so far in 2019. Various geopolitical uncertainties combined with the prospect of downbeat economic growth in Q1 and...
Wed, Mar 6 2019, 5:01 PM
At first glance, this morning's ADP Employment data may have been cause for bond market concern. It wasn't that the headline was much higher than exp...
Wed, Mar 6 2019, 4:42 PM
Mortgage rates improved again today, bringing them back to the lowest levels seen since last Thursday morning. Starting last Wednesday, we saw a fairl...
Wed, Mar 6 2019, 10:31 AM
If you're a frequent reader, you're likely tired of hearing about "the range." Such is life when bonds are range-bound, but that doesn't mean we can'...
Wed, Mar 6 2019, 9:39 AM
As most of us gird our loins for “springing ahead” this weekend, it is important to remember that U.S. citizens are, in general, a giving people. Than...
Wed, Mar 6 2019, 8:14 AM
An uptick in mortgage rates was blamed by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) for the first decline in mortgage applications in three weeks. MBA's ...
Tue, Mar 5 2019, 7:27 PM
The bond market was already in the process of holding ground in the overnight session and domestic trading hours only added to the resilience. It may...
Tue, Mar 5 2019, 4:55 PM
After a pretty rough conclusion last week, yesterday's stability was a welcome change for mortgage rates at the start of the new week. Today made thin...
Tue, Mar 5 2019, 11:51 AM
It is our first glance at home prices in the new year and CoreLogic estimates the rate of appreciation has fallen by more than 2 percentage points sin...
Tue, Mar 5 2019, 10:45 AM
Analysts were not expecting new home sales in December to outpace the strong and surprising gains they made in November, when they jumped 16.9 percent...
Tue, Mar 5 2019, 9:10 AM
It may seem a bit counter-intuitive to be talking up economic data in light of last week's bond sell-off. Friday saw weaker-than-expected consumer sp...
Tue, Mar 5 2019, 8:44 AM
Equal pay rates and equality for men and women in the U.S.? Nope – our world ranking isn’t so hot. Turns out, however, that the construction industry ...
Mon, Mar 4 2019, 4:14 PM
As we watched bond markets sell-off abruptly last week, the best case scenario would have been that the selling was overdone and that we would soon be...
Mon, Mar 4 2019, 3:40 PM
Mortgage rates finally caught their breath today after rising quickly in the second half of last week. Specifically, the average lender managed to avo...
Mon, Mar 4 2019, 11:43 AM
The Census Bureau, still playing catch-up from the partial government shutdown , has released its monthly construction spending report for December 20...
Mon, Mar 4 2019, 9:38 AM
As the nation watches the terrible tornado-related events and casualties in Alabama, and sympathizes with those impacted, the rebuilding has already c...
Mon, Mar 4 2019, 9:22 AM
2019 had been (and perhaps continues to be) dominated by an increasingly narrow range. To appreciate just how narrow things have been, consider the m...
Fri, Mar 1 2019, 5:04 PM
Heading into today, if you were hoping to see rates move lower, it would have made sense to hope for economic data to come in weaker than expected. T...
Fri, Mar 1 2019, 4:15 PM
Mortgage rates surged again today as the underlying bond market continued to capitulate to selling pressure. Let's talk about what that means in plain...
Fri, Mar 1 2019, 11:51 AM
I like economists and math PhD.’s but there is some truth that “experts” have picked 8 of the last 4 recessions. While the U.S. economy is considered ...
Fri, Mar 1 2019, 10:06 AM
Freddie Mac's economists see low interest rates continuing, at least through the end of next year . The company's Economic and Strategic Research Grou...
Fri, Mar 1 2019, 9:26 AM
The long-standing consolidation range in 10yr Treasury yields finally came under serious attack yesterday, with a big breakout to the upside. Any tim...
Thu, Feb 28 2019, 7:14 PM
GDP doesn't usually move markets as clearly as it did today, but today was a bit of an anomaly. First off, we'd been waiting for this revision longer...
Thu, Feb 28 2019, 6:24 PM
The Census Bureau reported on Thursday that the national homeownership rate rose slightly in the fourth quarter of 2018 to 64.8 percent , up from 64.4...
Thu, Feb 28 2019, 6:00 PM
Mortgage rates moved quickly higher today following stronger-than-expected economic data. Rates are driven by the bond market. Bonds are safe-haven as...
Thu, Feb 28 2019, 11:37 AM
The share of cash-out refinances spiked in 2017 and 2018 in a manner similar to what happened just before the Great Recession. The share jumped to 50 ...
Thu, Feb 28 2019, 9:53 AM
As many of you are likely tired of hearing, bonds have been locked in an increasingly narrow trading range for weeks. The bounces at the boundaries h...
Thu, Feb 28 2019, 9:13 AM
Lenders need to be aware of the myriad of things that indirectly impact our business. The poverty rate declined overall in 2017 but the rate among His...
Wed, Feb 27 2019, 5:54 PM
At one point today, there were three apparently important events dominating the newswires simultaneously. These included the Fed Chair's congressional...
Wed, Feb 27 2019, 5:41 PM
"Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"
That's one of my favorite lines from some old book I read, or maybe it was a play (hint: it was a play!...
Wed, Feb 27 2019, 10:27 AM
Expectations were high for a strong pending home sales report to christen the New Year. Those expectations were more than satisfied. The National Asso...
Wed, Feb 27 2019, 9:56 AM
More than a year has elapsed since the Census Bureau collected data for its most recent (2017) American Community Survey (ACS), but unless things have...
Wed, Feb 27 2019, 9:52 AM
Today brings a 2nd day of congressional testimony with Fed Chair Powell, this time before the House Financial Services Committee. The economic IQ var...
Wed, Feb 27 2019, 9:04 AM
As opposed to HomeBridge Financial, which appears to be buying HomeStreet’s origination biz, it is no secret that JPMorgan Chase isn’t an ardent fan o...
Wed, Feb 27 2019, 8:14 AM
Mortgage applications increased for the second week as interest rates again ticked lower at well under 5 percent. The Mortgage Bankers Association sai...
Tue, Feb 26 2019, 5:23 PM
Despite a fair amount of anticipation, today's Powell testimony proved to be a non-event for the bond market. Instead, things like the weak Housing...
Tue, Feb 26 2019, 4:41 PM
Whereas mortgage rates were almost undetectably higher yesterday, they were lower by roughly the same insignificant amount today. In either case, and ...
Tue, Feb 26 2019, 12:05 PM
Both the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller housing indices acknowledged further slowing in home price appreciat...
Tue, Feb 26 2019, 11:14 AM
Sometime things are just not worth the wait. The long-delayed December report on residential construction from the Census Bureau and the Department of...
Tue, Feb 26 2019, 9:59 AM
The Fed is undoubtedly a major factor in market movement--especially when it comes to rates. At first glance, the key consideration is their collec...
Tue, Feb 26 2019, 9:01 AM
We all learn something every day. For example, did you know that the grocery chain Trader Joe’s is owned by a huge German supermarket chain? Yup. How ...
Tue, Feb 26 2019, 8:34 AM
Freddie Mac reported this week that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 1.2 percent in January, down from 6.6 percent the ...
Mon, Feb 25 2019, 4:40 PM
If bonds happened to move higher in yield by more than they did today, we'd be talking about how the announcement of a US/China tariff extension put...
