Mon, Feb 6 2017, 8:28 AM
There is almost no significant economic data on tap for this week. Friday is really the only contender with Import/Export Prices and Consumer Senti...
Mon, Feb 6 2017, 5:36 PM
Today was the sort of day you could ask 10 market pundits about and get 10 different answers as to the source of inspiration. From a prevalence sta...
Mon, Feb 6 2017, 4:36 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower today as investors sought safe haven from global political risk in the bond market. When investor demand for bonds increase...
Fri, Feb 3 2017, 9:01 AM
Residential lenders are paying raptly following the news that President Donald Trump intends to roll back much of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial regula...
Fri, Feb 3 2017, 8:27 AM
Given that this week's ADP employment numbers and the employment component of the ISM Manufacturing numbers both came in much stronger than expected, ...
Fri, Feb 3 2017, 6:17 PM
Nonfarm payrolls came in at 227k vs a median forecast of 175k. This fact, in and of itself, would almost always be grounds for bond market weakness, ...
Fri, Feb 3 2017, 5:28 PM
Mortgage rates were noticeably lower this morning as bond markets responded favorably to the important jobs report. While the headline job growth was ...
Fri, Feb 3 2017, 4:45 PM
Blackstone Group has disclosed that it has secured Fannie Mae's backing for a mortgage backed by some of the single-family homes it purchased, princip...
Thu, Feb 2 2017, 9:38 AM
Supply and demand (“the invisible hand”) are the driver of many things in life, as are perceived shortages. So it was with great concern that Chris C....
Thu, Feb 2 2017, 8:28 AM
Occasionally, these Thursday's before NFP have very little by way of relevant economic data. Today is arguably such a Thursday. With us as always is...
Thu, Feb 2 2017, 4:42 PM
Today ended up being exceptionally quiet for bond markets in the bigger picture, although that wasn't clearly going to be the case earlier this morn...
Thu, Feb 2 2017, 3:32 PM
Mortgage rates fell modestly today, but not enough to make it back to the lows seen earlier this week. 4.25% is still the most prevalent 30yr fixed ra...
Wed, Feb 1 2017, 10:38 AM
Freddie Mae's Outlook for January looks at the uncertainties facing the housing market heading into the second month of 2017. While acknowledging that...
Wed, Feb 1 2017, 10:30 AM
Prospect Mortgage, a Sherman Oaks, California based lender has been cited by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for paying illegal kickba...
Wed, Feb 1 2017, 10:28 AM
Calling it the final piece of unfinished business from the financial crisis, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) has published a paper with its rec...
Wed, Feb 1 2017, 10:21 AM
Although I am now in Phoenix for several days, where house flipping is ramping up again, I was fortunate earlier this week to be able to attend the Te...
Wed, Feb 1 2017, 8:28 AM
Mortgage application volume was generally lower during the week ended January 27. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its Market Composite Index, a ...
Wed, Feb 1 2017, 8:20 AM
The significance of the economic data ramps up today with ADP employment at 8:15am. This just came out at 246k vs a median forecast called for a slig...
Wed, Feb 1 2017, 5:25 PM
Between this morning's economic reports and opening tradeflows, there was quite a bit more volume early in the day. This was almost exclusively in ...
Wed, Feb 1 2017, 5:05 PM
Mortgage rates were higher to end the day, but not as high as they might have been without the Fed Statement. The day began with a series of strong ec...
Wed, Feb 1 2017, 2:07 PM
(Additions underlined, deletions struck through)
Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in December suggests indicates ...
Wed, Feb 1 2017, 1:15 PM
Publicly funded expenditures continued to drag on overall construction spending numbers in December, offsetting a small uptick in private spending. Da...
Tue, Jan 31 2017, 10:18 AM
The headline of the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices press release for the last three months has been exactly the same: NATIONAL INDEX HITS NEW PEAK...
Tue, Jan 31 2017, 9:42 AM
As the old adage goes, “Women spend more time wondering what men are thinking than men spend thinking.” But certainly women spend a good deal of time ...
Tue, Jan 31 2017, 8:39 AM
Yesterday was a bit of a puzzler for bond markets. Volumes were decent, but movement was contained in a very narrow range (seen in the chart below). ...
Tue, Jan 31 2017, 5:01 PM
Bonds have rallied moderately since last Thursday. Incidentally, that's also when stocks topped out after their run to all-time highs (for most indic...
Tue, Jan 31 2017, 3:52 PM
Mortgage rates moved just a bit lower today, bringing them to their best levels in exactly 1 week. Most borrowers will see little-to-no difference bet...
Tue, Jan 31 2017, 3:51 PM
The Urban Institute releases a regular report, Housing Finance at a Glance , a "chartbook" loaded with charts and commentary on mortgage activity. The...
Mon, Jan 30 2017, 10:54 AM
Home price increases reported by Black Knight Financial Services based on November home sales were little changed from those reported for October. The...
Mon, Jan 30 2017, 10:08 AM
Pending home sales recovered from the reported 2.5 percent downturn they took in November, posting an increase of 1.6 percent in December. The Nationa...
Mon, Jan 30 2017, 10:04 AM
I certainly am hearing some dire numbers from appraisers out there – like their business, which kind of gets the ball rolling for a loan so could be c...
Mon, Jan 30 2017, 9:04 AM
Another week in early 2017, another chance for bond markets to defend the rate ceiling set in late 2016(around 2.64% in 10yr yields) or strive for the...
Mon, Jan 30 2017, 5:26 PM
It was an uneventful day for bond markets from most points of view. After opening slightly stronger in Asia, Treasuries sold-off modestly during th...
Mon, Jan 30 2017, 4:40 PM
Mortgage rates fell modestly today , keeping rates near the lower end of the range seen since January 18th. The catch is that rates moved sharply high...
Fri, Jan 27 2017, 1:26 PM
If you're out house hunting this weekend, expect to pay more for the same house that was on the market last weekend. New policy from the administratio...
Fri, Jan 27 2017, 9:48 AM
One would like to think that, as an industry, we’re emerging from the public relations nightmare. And yet the popular press continues the ordeal , the...
Fri, Jan 27 2017, 8:25 AM
So far this week, economic data has played a subdued, almost meaningless role in motivating bond market movement. Instead, we've seen big picture t...
Fri, Jan 27 2017, 4:37 PM
It was a fairly one-dimensional day for bond markets, and indeed, markets in general. Despite moderate strength in European bond markets overnight, U...
Fri, Jan 27 2017, 3:34 PM
Mortgage rates fell today, undoing enough of this week's damage to return precisely to levels seen last Friday. In simpler terms, rates ended the week...
Thu, Jan 26 2017, 10:56 AM
Sales of distressed properties continue to represent a diminishing share of the housing market as does the use of all-cash for housing purchase. Still...
Thu, Jan 26 2017, 10:52 AM
New home sales contracted sharply in December, more than reversing their November gain and ending the year at a slightly lower rate than that of the p...
Thu, Jan 26 2017, 10:27 AM
The average used car depreciated about 23% last year, faster than the historical average annual rate of 18%, per the National Automobile Dealers Assoc...
Thu, Jan 26 2017, 8:36 AM
The winter holiday season can be defined a few different ways. Most broadly, it refers to Thanksgiving through President's day. That's a bit too br...
Thu, Jan 26 2017, 4:28 PM
It may not be the last time we can say this, but bonds hit their weakest levels of 2017 today--first in the overnight session as European bond markets...
Thu, Jan 26 2017, 3:17 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher for the 6th time in the past 7 business days, even after several lenders offered mid-day improvements in the afternoon. Th...
Wed, Jan 25 2017, 10:29 AM
Home prices continued their nearly unabated upward trend in November according to data released on Wednesday by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FH...
Wed, Jan 25 2017, 9:02 AM
"If you want to be successful on the highest level, be willing to serve on the lowest." That is a great statement for companies who take charity work ...
Wed, Jan 25 2017, 8:46 AM
Applications for purchase mortgages increased during the week ended January 20, pushing the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA's) Market Composite In...
Wed, Jan 25 2017, 8:40 AM
The first few weeks of the new year were good for bond markets, but that dream is increasingly being shattered by the past 2 weeks. We were already r...
Wed, Jan 25 2017, 5:38 PM
There were no major headlines this morning and no big economic reports behind bonds' big selling spree. Some news stories suggested overnight bond we...
