Thu, Sep 7 2017, 3:06 PM
Mortgage rates didn't move much today, despite plenty of strength in underlying bond markets. This would normally coincide with lower rates, so what's...
Thu, Sep 7 2017, 1:18 PM
As hurricane Irma roars toward Florida, and the Houston area tries to dry out from hurricane Harvey, Fannie Mae is reminding those homeowners might be...
Thu, Sep 7 2017, 12:12 PM
Consumer sentiment regarding whether it is a good time to buy or to sell a home continues to diverge as rising home prices impact both. Fannie Mae sai...
Thu, Sep 7 2017, 9:33 AM
As fires, floods, and storms dominate the headlines, our attention now turns to Irma. With wind speeds of 185mph, it is expected to pass near or just ...
Thu, Sep 7 2017, 8:17 AM
Ask me two months (or even a month ago) and I would have placed today above almost any other in terms of importance to the overall outlook. The rea...
Wed, Sep 6 2017, 4:56 PM
Bond markets began the day holding impressively sideways. Why impressive? Because there was a small laundry list of potential reasons for weakness...
Wed, Sep 6 2017, 4:55 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower this morning, more by way of catching up with yesterday's market movement than anything. Specifically, bond markets (which ...
Wed, Sep 6 2017, 10:45 AM
Mortgage originations by nonbanks have not only surged past those coming from regulated banks, but according to the Urban Institute (UI), they are hel...
Wed, Sep 6 2017, 9:20 AM
I receive my share of emails, and a portion of them ask me “in the weeds” questions about lenders, programs, and states (“Rob, hook me up with a whole...
Wed, Sep 6 2017, 9:16 AM
Until the onset of brinksmanship with North Korea and the appearance of big, back-to-back Hurricanes, financial markets were more focused on long-term...
Wed, Sep 6 2017, 8:14 AM
A resurgence in refinancing drove the volume of mortgage applications higher during the week ended September 1. The Mortgage Bankers Association said ...
Tue, Sep 5 2017, 5:01 PM
Bonds rallied significantly today on a confluence of news. Disparate events and headlines hit markets at just the right time and in just the right ...
Tue, Sep 5 2017, 4:04 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower today on a combination of factors. Chief among these were headlines over the weekend concerning more North Korean weapons t...
Tue, Sep 5 2017, 9:56 AM
Black Knight Financial Services put a coda on home price reports for June while CoreLogic opened the next round for July. Both report another round of...
Tue, Sep 5 2017, 9:29 AM
Welcome to the Monday-est Tuesday of the year. Hey, the cost to produce a home loan has fallen! Per the Mortgage Bankers Association, total loan produ...
Tue, Sep 5 2017, 9:05 AM
Global financial markets moved away from risk to start the holiday-shortened week as more North Korean missile drama made the news over the weekend....
Fri, Sep 1 2017, 6:06 PM
We talk a lot about participation among traders dropping off at mid-day when European markets close, but today's version turned bond markets into a ve...
Fri, Sep 1 2017, 2:24 PM
Mortgage rates were sideways to slightly higher today despite a weak reading of the Employment Situation (aka "the jobs report"). This is traditionall...
Fri, Sep 1 2017, 12:03 PM
Total spending on construction slipped nationwide in July, down 0.6 percent from June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.21 trillion, but it r...
Fri, Sep 1 2017, 9:55 AM
CoreLogic, which provides data and analytics to the insurance as well as the mortgage industry, has issued some preliminary estimates for the resident...
Fri, Sep 1 2017, 9:25 AM
You think you have it rough? Try being a Wells Fargo MLO trying to hold onto your business when every newspaper is carrying stories about the cross-se...
Fri, Sep 1 2017, 8:30 AM
I wish Who Wants to be a Millionaire was still a popular show. Its catchphrases and terminology work really well with bond market psychology. Often ...
Thu, Aug 31 2017, 5:32 PM
Without month-end trading needs and in the absence of one of the most relevant inflation reports, today may well have been a typically slow summerti...
Thu, Aug 31 2017, 4:35 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower today--something they've been more likely to do in general since early July. The gradual downtrend brought them to their be...
Thu, Aug 31 2017, 10:21 AM
Last month's resurgence in pending home sales didn't last long . Sales ended a three-month fad in June with a 1.5 percent increase in the Pending Home...
Thu, Aug 31 2017, 9:07 AM
Calling out attorneys with the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for its "blatant disregard" for judicial instructions, the CFPB was dealt a l...
Thu, Aug 31 2017, 8:34 AM
This week has admittedly been the same sort of summertime trading week that we've seen for most of July and August--perhaps even more so . By that I...
Wed, Aug 30 2017, 5:50 PM
Bond markets had a reasonably good day, all things considered. The caveat is that we shouldn't read much of anything into today's trading because i...
Wed, Aug 30 2017, 4:32 PM
Mortgage rates were technically higher today vs yesterday, but unless you've been following day-to-day movements under a microscope, you probably won'...
Wed, Aug 30 2017, 2:29 PM
To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the demise of the ARM may have been greatly exaggerated . The market share of ARMs (adjustable rate mortgages) dr...
Wed, Aug 30 2017, 12:51 PM
Houstonians in the flood stricken areas are focused on surviving and looking for a place to stay, not finding a way to pay their monthly bills or mort...
Wed, Aug 30 2017, 10:09 AM
We've seen it before and we'll likely see it again. Bond markets (and most other markets, for that matter) respond quickly to some unexpected headlin...
Wed, Aug 30 2017, 9:26 AM
I love it when a roomful of 50, 60, or 70-year old residential lenders is complaining to me about a lack of “new blood” in the business, and I ask the...
Wed, Aug 30 2017, 9:13 AM
Applications for both home purchase mortgages and refinancing declined last week, pulling overall volume lower for the second week in a row. The Mortg...
Tue, Aug 29 2017, 6:28 PM
It's all well and good to highlight North Korea's missile launch as the dominant market mover for the day. It absolutely was. But it takes a little ...
Tue, Aug 29 2017, 6:00 PM
It's one thing for the highly competitive environment of "rate table" advertising (where lenders compete and you get confused) to be reporting mortgag...
Tue, Aug 29 2017, 3:16 PM
The bottom line for many mortgage banks recovered significantly in the second quarter of 2017, after two quarters of severely declining profits. The M...
Tue, Aug 29 2017, 1:29 PM
Another day, another Wells Fargo consumer lawsuit. This time the bank is confronting a class action suit accusing it of improperly charging mortgage c...
Tue, Aug 29 2017, 12:11 PM
Freddie Mac reported today that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 1.8 percent in July. The portfolio balance at the end ...
Tue, Aug 29 2017, 10:32 AM
Although home prices were generally expected to begin cooling off by the middle of 2017, the most recent Case-Shiller Home Price Index suggests the st...
Tue, Aug 29 2017, 9:48 AM
Amid the recent slow summertime trading, there are only a few things that stand a chance of catching the market's collective eye. Somewhere near the ...
Tue, Aug 29 2017, 9:27 AM
Different words have different meanings for different people. For example, instead of using the word “marriage,” Kim Kardashian prefers the phrases “l...
Mon, Aug 28 2017, 7:25 PM
It's not normal for a 5yr Treasury auction to cause the biggest move in any given day for bond markets. That's an honor typically reserved for 10yr...
Mon, Aug 28 2017, 5:32 PM
Mortgage rates held steady today, as the news cycle was dominated by Hurricane Harvey. That's not to say that natural disasters prevent movement in mo...
Mon, Aug 28 2017, 9:35 AM
Sometimes, events are such that the typical summertime trading patterns aren't easily seen in terms of trading ranges and volatility. For instance, i...
Mon, Aug 28 2017, 9:13 AM
Tropical Storm Harvey is very slowly creeping back toward the Gulf of Mexico but it was moving at only three miles per hour as of early Monday, so Sou...
Fri, Aug 25 2017, 5:54 PM
Today's Jackson Hole symposium couldn't have been any more anticlimactic even if this year's topic were "How to Deliver Anticlimactic Speeches on Mone...
Fri, Aug 25 2017, 3:25 PM
Mortgage rates were unchanged today, on average. Some lenders were slightly better, others were slightly worse, but none were very far from yesterday'...
Fri, Aug 25 2017, 10:54 AM
In July, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said it was rethinking implementation of its rules changing reporting requirements for the Ho...
Fri, Aug 25 2017, 10:51 AM
My boss arrived at work in a brand-new Lamborghini. I said, "Wow, that's an amazing car!” He replied, "If you work hard, put all your hours in, and st...
