Mon, Nov 7 2016, 11:45 AM
How much does the roof over your head, today help ensure you will still have one in retirement? That is the question the Urban Institute (UI) is tryin...
Mon, Nov 7 2016, 10:46 AM
A loan officer walked up to me at a recent sales event and complained, “I’m spending more time promoting myself than I am being myself.” I replied, “I...
Mon, Nov 7 2016, 10:02 AM
In terms of scheduled economic data and events, this week is almost completely barren. In addition, Friday is Veteran's Day , and no matter what any...
Mon, Nov 7 2016, 5:28 PM
Today was perhaps the simplest trading session for bond markets in recent memory. There was one relevant piece of information and one meaningful mo...
Mon, Nov 7 2016, 4:55 PM
Mortgage Rates were unchanged today despite a fair amount of weakness in the bond market. Rates typically rise when bonds weaken. The absence of volat...
Mon, Nov 7 2016, 1:23 PM
Fannie Mae's Home Purchase Sentiment Index® (HPSI) suffered its third decline in as many months in October. The Index, based on responses to six key q...
Fri, Nov 4 2016, 10:40 AM
A trusted real estate agent could be a loan officer's best friend. A survey, commissioned by Freddie Mac in advance of the National Association of Rea...
Fri, Nov 4 2016, 10:22 AM
Are there any updates to tax information and/or documentation requirements? Yes, a handful. Stearns requires that all loans where tax returns are bein...
Fri, Nov 4 2016, 9:52 AM
Europe.
Above all else, the evolution of the European recovery-- especially as it relates to the various fiscal and monetary policy responses in t...
Fri, Nov 4 2016, 5:00 PM
I've seen today's jobs report referred to as both stronger and weaker in several ways. At worst, it was "mixed," and generally erred on the stronge...
Fri, Nov 4 2016, 4:28 PM
Mortgage Rates were slightly lower today--a counterintuitive move considering the big jobs report was slightly stronger that expected. To be clear, th...
Thu, Nov 3 2016, 12:38 PM
The two government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) reported improved financial results in the third quarter of 2016. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both said...
Thu, Nov 3 2016, 12:13 PM
Several positive factors contributed to a rise in the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA's) Mortgage Credit Availability Index in October. MBA's Vice...
Thu, Nov 3 2016, 10:03 AM
With residential applications at a 5-month industry low, it’s time for a pun. "How much does it cost to buy sixty female pigs and forty male deer? One...
Thu, Nov 3 2016, 9:53 AM
There can be no doubt that bond markets are responding to recent political headlines. But there's even less of a doubt that stock markets are far mor...
Thu, Nov 3 2016, 4:57 PM
Thank the overnight trading session for an anticlimactic day. It set a healthy range of highs and lows that daytime trading never managed to break....
Thu, Nov 3 2016, 4:03 PM
Mortgage Rates were slightly higher today, keeping them in line with the weakest levels in just over 5 months. "Weakness" is relative, however. Apart ...
Wed, Nov 2 2016, 10:14 AM
It's a global mortgage market, and this news tidbit caught my eye - reminding us that "a rising tide floats all boats." Virgin Money's Q3 IMS shows co...
Wed, Nov 2 2016, 9:26 AM
Let's not get too excited, but bonds have begun an attempt to bounce at the higher side of their multi-month trend channel (the "uptrend" leading to...
Wed, Nov 2 2016, 8:22 AM
Mortgage applications dropped to their lowest levels since last spring during the week ended October 28. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said i...
Wed, Nov 2 2016, 5:25 PM
Taken in and of itself, today's Fed statement was "net-hawkish." That means, relative to the last announcement, the verbiage took small but noticea...
Wed, Nov 2 2016, 4:37 PM
Mortgage Rates eased just a bit more today, marking the 4th day of relative stability after a sharp rise last Thursday. Although there was a Fed annou...
Wed, Nov 2 2016, 4:36 PM
Construction spending continued to be lukewarm in September, lagging behind both September 2015 and August 2016. Multi-family construction was among t...
Wed, Nov 2 2016, 2:01 PM
(additions underlined, deletions struck-through)
For immediate release
Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in July...
Tue, Nov 1 2016, 10:16 AM
The first of the September home price indices came out on Tuesday, and the CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI) showed price gains, while not slowing, are...
Tue, Nov 1 2016, 10:03 AM
Who is 29-year old Pete Kostelnick? No, he’s not the cute new AE covering your region. Pete just set a world record for fastest run across America: 3,...
Tue, Nov 1 2016, 9:54 AM
The Summer months sure were great for bond markets, weren't they? Massive rally in June, all-time low yields in July, and reasonable stability just o...
Tue, Nov 1 2016, 5:40 PM
The political theater is ramping up quickly, with unexpected afternoon twitter headlines stealing the show from longstanding market movers like ISM ...
Tue, Nov 1 2016, 4:44 PM
Mortgage Rates continue to operate near 5-month highs , after putting in a mixed performance today. The morning was especially bad as stronger global ...
Mon, Oct 31 2016, 10:29 AM
The fourth and last of the August home price estimates is in and none of them show any slowing of appreciation. Among peers, Black Knight Financial Se...
Mon, Oct 31 2016, 10:25 AM
Here we are at Halloween already. Who will win the inter-department costume contest, shipping or accounting? And what could be more horrifying for a b...
Mon, Oct 31 2016, 10:15 AM
It's no mystery that the prevailing trend in bond markets has been negative for several months. At first , this was no big deal, as Treasury yields ...
Mon, Oct 31 2016, 5:09 PM
The last trading day of any given month is more volatile and more actively traded than the average trading day. That wasn't the case today, which i...
Mon, Oct 31 2016, 3:58 PM
Mortgage Rates moved sideways to slightly lower for the 2nd day in a row, after hitting the highest levels in 5 months on Thursday. While the positive...
Fri, Oct 28 2016, 12:49 PM
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) chief Richard Cordray announced on Thursday that his agency had issued warning letters regarding reporting...
Fri, Oct 28 2016, 11:38 AM
Here’s a letter that, as a lender, you probably don’t want to receive from the CFPB. Remember that the CFPB runs HMDA now, and fired this shot across ...
Fri, Oct 28 2016, 10:26 AM
It's going to be a while until we can truly sort out whether the current bout of bond market weakness is the same sort of correction seen in early 201...
Fri, Oct 28 2016, 4:48 PM
After 2 days of heavy selling in global bond markets, today was a relative paradise of inactivity. Volume remained rather high by historical standard...
Fri, Oct 28 2016, 3:40 PM
Mortgage Rates recovered slightly today, after hitting the highest levels in nearly 5 months yesterday. Unfortunately, that leaves today's rates with ...
Thu, Oct 27 2016, 11:48 AM
Large burdens of student debt have been blamed by many for the delay in homebuying that has characterized the Millennial generation. In a recent post ...
Thu, Oct 27 2016, 10:47 AM
Pending home sales bounced back in September after falling by 2.5 percent in August the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said on Thursday. NAR'...
Thu, Oct 27 2016, 10:42 AM
Want to lend money? A common evaluation framework is the Five C's of Credit : capacity, capital, collateral, conditions and character. Let's see what'...
Thu, Oct 27 2016, 9:52 AM
Paul McCartney will only be signing about "bonds on the run" if he's in the market for a mortgage, because bonds are running in the wrong direction. ...
Thu, Oct 27 2016, 6:50 PM
Traders who reported seeing buying signals as 10yr yields approached 1.80 earlier this week would surely like to borrow a time machine . In retrospe...
Thu, Oct 27 2016, 2:23 PM
Mortgage Rates are much higher today, regardless of anything else you may have seen. Why am I alluding to other things you may have seen? Because it's...
Wed, Oct 26 2016, 10:49 AM
New home sales resumed their upward march in September, rising above August sales which had retreated significantly from a near decade-long high of 62...
Wed, Oct 26 2016, 9:42 AM
It is well documented that “women spend more time wondering what men are thinking than men spend thinking.” Lemon Drops move over! (For those of you w...
Wed, Oct 26 2016, 9:37 AM
Last week provided some hope for bond markets due to a relatively strong move off the recent highs. 10yr yields recovered from the previous week's 1....
Wed, Oct 26 2016, 8:12 AM
Mortgage applications declined on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ended October 21 compared to the week ended October 14. The results for ...
Wed, Oct 26 2016, 5:41 PM
Bonds were stronger during Asian market hours this morning, but things changed quickly as European trading got underway. Relative to Treasuries, Euro...
