Tue, May 29 2018, 9:01 AM
Let's use US politics and Congress to help us understand Italian politics. Imagine that Libertarians and Independents actually won enough seats to co...
Tue, May 29 2018, 8:19 AM
Homeownership has barely budged off the historic lows reached during the Great Recession and its aftermath. The housing industry has been struggling t...
Fri, May 25 2018, 5:22 PM
When you pay the sort of price we paid last week (in terms of rates surging to 7-year highs), you expect to get something reasonably nice in return....
Fri, May 25 2018, 5:02 PM
Mortgage rates moved much lower this week with another strong move today. As we discussed yesterday, this is certainly at odds with the prevailing new...
Fri, May 25 2018, 10:18 AM
The May edition of Freddie Mac's monthly Outlook , produced by its Economic & Housing Research Group, is focused on the resiliency of the American hom...
Fri, May 25 2018, 9:33 AM
If you'd just had your worst week in 7 years, it's always nice if the next could be markedly different. That's the case for bond markets this week, a...
Fri, May 25 2018, 9:07 AM
Did you know that the number of female chief executives of Fortune 500 companies this year declined by 25 percent (from 32 to 24)? Not good. One of th...
Fri, May 25 2018, 8:10 AM
CoreLogic says flipping is back. The term applies to the act of buying, renovating and/or repairing a house, then reselling it, all within a short tim...
Thu, May 24 2018, 4:29 PM
Yesterday was an important one for anyone hoping NOT to see the bond market completely give up hope in the fight against higher rates. To be fair, ...
Thu, May 24 2018, 3:14 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower again today, bringing them to the best levels in at least 2 weeks. This assertion is very much at odds with the prevailing ...
Thu, May 24 2018, 11:00 AM
Existing home sales put an end to two straight months of gains , retreating in April on both a monthly and annual basis. The National Association of R...
Thu, May 24 2018, 10:29 AM
Home prices in the first quarter of 2018 were 1.7 percent higher than at the end of the fourth quarter of last year. The Federal Housing Finance Agenc...
Thu, May 24 2018, 9:35 AM
One short week after hitting the worst levels in nearly 7 years there's suddenly a semblance of hope again for bonds. It was one thing to see last ...
Thu, May 24 2018, 9:18 AM
The conference this week? I attended various presentations dealing with housing finance and the economy in general. Even in the face of rising rates, ...
Thu, May 24 2018, 9:08 AM
Fannie Mae is backing down slightly on its economic forecast for the remainder of 2018. The first quarter GDP growth of 2.3 percent was the slowest in...
Thu, May 24 2018, 8:41 AM
Loan performance continued to improve in April, even though Black Knight says mortgage delinquencies have a historic pattern of increasing during that...
Wed, May 23 2018, 4:41 PM
Bonds surged to significantly stronger levels in the presence of the Fed Minutes today. Any time we see strong gains on a day with a Fed release, c...
Wed, May 23 2018, 3:36 PM
This week hadn't been too traumatic for mortgage rates through yesterday afternoon, but neither had it been positive in any noticeable way. That chang...
Wed, May 23 2018, 11:21 AM
The House of Representatives passed a sweeping overhaul of regulations included in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act ...
Wed, May 23 2018, 10:44 AM
New home sales dipped in April, a reversal that was expected by many analysts . The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Develop...
Wed, May 23 2018, 9:15 AM
Reams of data have been gathered about what appear to be significant changes in the profile of younger homebuyers and consequently mortgage borrowers....
Wed, May 23 2018, 9:11 AM
Every vendor here at the MBA conference suggests they can help clients close more loans faster, more efficiently and compliantly. If only all these le...
Wed, May 23 2018, 9:05 AM
I woke up this morning to an automated alert from MBS Live letting me know I'd need to hustle to the desk and explain whatever it was that caused the ...
Wed, May 23 2018, 8:17 AM
Mortgage rates surged significantly during the week ended May 18, sending mortgage activity skidding for the fifth straight week . The Mortgage Banker...
Tue, May 22 2018, 4:52 PM
For the 2nd straight day , trading levels in bond markets held inside a narrow range--far narrower than that seen on any given day last week, let alo...
Tue, May 22 2018, 3:09 PM
After quite a bit of volatility and a move up to 7-year highs last week, mortgage rates have managed to avoid any semblance of drama so far this week....
Tue, May 22 2018, 12:18 PM
As if the new home inventory wasn't tight enough, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) say a higher proportion of those homes are being bu...
Tue, May 22 2018, 10:19 AM
It only impacts auto lending, but if Mick Mulvaney, acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPB) keeps his word, a Congressional...
Tue, May 22 2018, 9:21 AM
Today begins the 3rd day where US Treasuries aren't imploding after hitting 7 year highs last Thursday. At this point, we might consider the resilien...
Tue, May 22 2018, 9:10 AM
The U.S. mortgage industry likely recorded an operating loss in the first three months of 2018 due to falling loan volumes and growing expenses, the M...
Mon, May 21 2018, 4:56 PM
There were no significant economic reports or events today, and only a few newsworthy developments. The biggest of these also happened the earliest (...
Mon, May 21 2018, 3:38 PM
Mortgage rates held steady today, which is better than what could be said for most of last week when rates shot up to the highest levels in 7 years. F...
Mon, May 21 2018, 3:07 PM
In a prior article we summarized the options the Trump Administration might utilize to reform the residential mortgage financing system should Congres...
Mon, May 21 2018, 11:10 AM
Late last year Fannie Mae included questions in one of its National Housing Surveys about working in the "gig" economy. About a fifth of respondents c...
Mon, May 21 2018, 10:36 AM
Last week the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported that severe shortages of construction tradespeople were slowing homebuilding and i...
Mon, May 21 2018, 9:54 AM
Much like last week, this week's event calendar is limited in terms of top tier data and events, but nonetheless carries the potential for technical m...
Mon, May 21 2018, 9:12 AM
Hello from the MBA Secondary Conference in NY! Lenders are talking about LO comp (“they need to share the margin pain, but no one wants to be the firs...
Fri, May 18 2018, 4:43 PM
Bonds rallied today for the first time all week, and fairly well at that! 10yr yields fell more than 5bps and Fannie 3.5 MBS rose nearly 3/8ths of ...
Fri, May 18 2018, 3:31 PM
Mortgage rates caught some small semblance of a break today. If it's not apparent based on that assessment in conjunction with the headline, the impro...
Fri, May 18 2018, 9:21 AM
The notion of "positions" is extremely important to the bond market (and to any market for that matter). At the most basic level, a LONG position s...
Fri, May 18 2018, 9:18 AM
Folks heading to the MBA’s Secondary conference should know that there are 329 street-level newsstands in New York City. (The peak was 1,500 in the 19...
Fri, May 18 2018, 9:09 AM
In the face of continuing inventory shortages, declining consumer sentiment in favor of buying a home, and concern about the homeownership impacts of ...
Thu, May 17 2018, 5:40 PM
Today was the calmest of the past 3 days of craziness, although the higher-than-average volume suggests things are still happening behind the scenes. ...
Thu, May 17 2018, 4:48 PM
It's Thursday, which is when Freddie Mac's weekly Mortgage rate survey comes out. The survey is the most widely quoted source material for major media...
Thu, May 17 2018, 10:39 AM
It's been pretty doomy and gloomy around here so far this week, what with the spike to the highest 10yr yields in nearly 7 years and what not. So how...
Thu, May 17 2018, 9:45 AM
I don’t go anywhere without my sugar glider, including most of this week spent in Austin, TX with TMS . No, a sugar glider is not a risqué pet name fo...
Thu, May 17 2018, 9:25 AM
Two noted economists seem to be holding little hope that Congress will take up in any way changing the status quo of the government-sponsored enterpri...
Thu, May 17 2018, 9:06 AM
The interest rates on loans that closed in April were the highest since Ellie Mae started tracking data in 2011. According to the company's Originatio...
Wed, May 16 2018, 6:39 PM
If you happened to be out of the office yesterday, 10yr yields finally broke out of their most recent consolidation pattern and moved quickly to the h...
Wed, May 16 2018, 5:26 PM
Mortgage rates spiked to 7-year highs yesterday. While today's move was nowhere near the same size, it was in the same unfriendly direction. That make...
