Fri, Aug 25 2017, 9:58 AM
I've waited until the day itself to abbreviate the Fed's Jackson Hole symposium with the beloved "J-Hole." Pretty impressive considering how much fun...
Thu, Aug 24 2017, 4:50 PM
Bond markets have been generally rallying since early July. The apparent inspiration for that rally was the sell-off that preceded it. That weakne...
Thu, Aug 24 2017, 4:21 PM
The quarterly report from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) based on its National Delinquency Survey seems like old times. MBA reports that most,...
Thu, Aug 24 2017, 2:35 PM
Mortgage rates haven't moved much at all recently. While that leaves us little to talk about if we're examining rate changes on a daily basis, it's a ...
Thu, Aug 24 2017, 11:06 AM
Sales of existing homes, like those for newly constructed ones, performed poorly in July. The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said today that ...
Thu, Aug 24 2017, 9:59 AM
It is hard to believe that it has taken more than a decade , but Black Knight Financial Services says the foreclosure inventory, after a 12,000-proper...
Thu, Aug 24 2017, 9:47 AM
Take your pick. A second home can mean endless headaches, unexpected costs, and shattered plans. On the other hand, a vacation home might mean a great...
Thu, Aug 24 2017, 9:22 AM
Most of my analysis in July and August focused on the positive technical boundary (aka "floor") at 2.21-2.22. As of yesterday, that floor is increasi...
Wed, Aug 23 2017, 5:26 PM
If there were a magical ratio comparing the overall movement in bond markets to the relevance of the factors motivating the movement, it would be off...
Wed, Aug 23 2017, 4:54 PM
Mortgage rates reversed yesterday's move today, falling back in line with recent lows--also the lowest levels since November 2016. At this time of yea...
Wed, Aug 23 2017, 4:38 PM
With mortgage volumes expected to decline, more lenders are telling Fannie Mae that they intend to loosen their credit standards. The company's second...
Wed, Aug 23 2017, 10:50 AM
New home sales in July were expected to remain steady after scoring a slight gain in June, instead they plunged to a rate even lower than those a year...
Wed, Aug 23 2017, 9:25 AM
Coincidentally, yesterday's Day Ahead talked about "pivot points." Now today, we see a prime example of a pivot point in action. Although I labele...
Wed, Aug 23 2017, 9:12 AM
Trends? A few weeks ago, Ally offered to beat any other lender’s price. And last week 360 Mortgage Group announced a new platform that will allow cust...
Wed, Aug 23 2017, 8:42 AM
The volume of refinancing applications, shored up by interest rates that remained at seven- and eight- month lows, rose for the fifth time in the last...
Tue, Aug 22 2017, 4:23 PM
I'm not shy about dismissing the conventional wisdom of bond yields and stock prices following each other. We're talking about some iteration of th...
Tue, Aug 22 2017, 2:56 PM
Mortgage rates rose today, but by a small enough amount that it shouldn't crush too many hopes and dreams. For all intents and purposes, rates remain ...
Tue, Aug 22 2017, 10:32 AM
We have a dedicated primer on pivot points here . But let's look at a timely example with the pivot points we've been tracking in recent weeks. Act...
Tue, Aug 22 2017, 9:56 AM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported on Tuesday that home prices were up in 48 states and the District of Columbia during the second qua...
Tue, Aug 22 2017, 9:22 AM
From LOs to investors, no matter the real estate market, the story is the same: “Loosen up the credit guidelines all you want, but if there’s no inven...
Mon, Aug 21 2017, 4:47 PM
It's a good thing financial media outlets aren't too shy about covering topics outside the financial sphere because without the eclipse, there would h...
Mon, Aug 21 2017, 4:10 PM
Mortgage rates held steady to start the new week. This keeps them in line with the best levels since November 2016. There were no interesting developm...
Mon, Aug 21 2017, 10:58 AM
Real residential investment subtracted from GDP in the second quarter of the year to the greatest extent since the third quarter of 2010. Fannie Mae's...
Mon, Aug 21 2017, 9:56 AM
Welcome! Here is a safe haven from all of the eclipse talk. It won't be mentioned at all in this article. Never mind that it's in the title and the...
Mon, Aug 21 2017, 9:21 AM
What does $980k buy in the SF suburb of Vallejo, CA? A property designed by Julia Morgan (think Hearst Castle) with floating stairways, over-sized eve...
Fri, Aug 18 2017, 8:20 PM
In the Day Ahead, we discussed bond traders' probable goals regarding keeping things as calm as possible. This depended on unexpected headlines and m...
Fri, Aug 18 2017, 7:54 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower again. Drama surrounding the Trump administration was also present. But this time around, the political theater wasn't resp...
Fri, Aug 18 2017, 10:33 AM
Freddie Mac announced today that, going forward, not every application for a purchase mortgage will necessarily trigger an appraisal . A new automated...
Fri, Aug 18 2017, 10:24 AM
As investors flooded into the housing market after it collapses, they brought cash with them. At one point, 35 percent of home sale transactions were ...
Fri, Aug 18 2017, 8:50 AM
Brad Pitt - a wannabe architect? In 2007, Pitt founded the Make It Right Foundation to build homes for families whose original residences had been was...
Fri, Aug 18 2017, 7:34 AM
A maritime analogy for bond trading in the Summertime...
In the summer months especially, there's a boat-friendly baseline weather pattern offshore...
Thu, Aug 17 2017, 6:01 PM
What do you get when bond markets embark on a snowball rally due to headlines concerning Trump's Economic Advisor Gary Cohn? A delicious "Snow Cohn,"...
Thu, Aug 17 2017, 5:17 PM
Mortgage rates fell yesterday in response to a tweet about Trump disbanding his councils of CEOs. Twitter was in play again today . This time around i...
Thu, Aug 17 2017, 4:25 PM
As a mortgage loan officer, I typically work with home buyers who are moving up, buying their first house, or buying a vacation or investment house. M...
Thu, Aug 17 2017, 3:33 PM
Although home affordability is high, relative to pre-crisis levels, the rate at which their prices are increasing is cause for concern. Andrew LePage,...
Thu, Aug 17 2017, 10:22 AM
With this morning's econ data already out and having no effect on bond markets, the only other report for the week is tomorrow morning's Consumer Sent...
Thu, Aug 17 2017, 10:04 AM
There is still life left in refinancing. While at nowhere near the levels of a few years ago, Ellie Mae's Origination Insight Report for July reported...
Thu, Aug 17 2017, 9:38 AM
What will buildable land in Las Vegas set you back? The math is pretty easy: Toll Brothers has acquired 10 acres of vacant land at a once-bankrupt Sum...
Wed, Aug 16 2017, 5:28 PM
Today looked like it would be all about waiting for the Fed Minutes to see if there were any surprises. That plan began in fairly good shape, with on...
Wed, Aug 16 2017, 5:05 PM
Mortgage rates dropped today after news broke (first rumors, then confirmation via Twitter) that President Trump was disbanding his councils of CEOs. ...
Wed, Aug 16 2017, 10:57 AM
Headstrong is a rather interesting word, but the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) chose it to describe the continuing imbalance between supply ...
Wed, Aug 16 2017, 9:54 AM
After posting unexpectedly high numbers in June, all three residential construction indicators lost ground in July , and one, housing starts, is now r...
Wed, Aug 16 2017, 9:32 AM
Today's biggest calendar item is the release of the FOMC Minutes at 2pm. The Minutes provide synopsis of the meeting that took place in the 2 days le...
Wed, Aug 16 2017, 8:33 AM
I’ve only been in this business since the mid-80s, and as a capital markets person always find it amusing when an owner says, “If it wasn’t for TBA pa...
Wed, Aug 16 2017, 8:17 AM
A decline in applications for home purchases nearly overwhelmed the gain made by refinancing activity during the week ended August 11. The Mortgage Ba...
Tue, Aug 15 2017, 4:15 PM
Today was mostly about North Korean de-escalation, and somewhat about stronger economic data. If you haven't heard 43 times already, North Korea grac...
Tue, Aug 15 2017, 3:21 PM
Mortgage rates continued higher today as markets reacted to news that North Korea would tactically abstain from launching nuclear weapons at Guam beca...
Tue, Aug 15 2017, 1:04 PM
One of the many shifts endured by the housing industry during the Great Recession was the entry of institutional investors into the single-family hous...
Tue, Aug 15 2017, 10:31 AM
Builder confidence made a strong comeback this month , surprising analysts and belying some of the gloom expressed by the National Association of Home...
Tue, Aug 15 2017, 9:17 AM
The science of persuasion? Any good salesperson, or LO, can talk someone into buying just about anything using scarcity, reciprocity, commitment, soci...
