Tue, Sep 20 2016, 4:09 PM
For the 5th day in a row, the total trading range in Treasuries and MBS fell inside the single day range set last Tuesday. Market-watchers consider...
Tue, Sep 20 2016, 2:54 PM
Mortgage Rates were slightly higher in most cases today, although there were a few lenders in better shape. This runs counter to movement seen in unde...
Mon, Sep 19 2016, 10:50 AM
After half a year of barely budging the Housing Market Index (HMI ) surged by six points in September. The index, jointly sponsored by the National As...
Mon, Sep 19 2016, 10:19 AM
You’ve made it to “Talk like a Pirate” day. Many lenders are saying, “Arrggghh” when it comes to appraisals. Mike Simmons with Axis AMC put some thing...
Mon, Sep 19 2016, 10:06 AM
The past several years have marked a historically low level of a volatility in interest rates. People define volatility in different ways, so let's j...
Mon, Sep 19 2016, 5:32 PM
It was a pretty simple day as far as bond markets are concerned. The collective unconscious of the bond-trading population was perfectly content to...
Mon, Sep 19 2016, 5:09 PM
Mortgage Rates were unchanged for a third straight day, although several lenders did raise rates at the end of the day. That can happen when underlyin...
Fri, Sep 16 2016, 9:52 AM
In last month's Housing Finance Chartbook the Urban Institute showed how a recent surge in issuance of private mortgage insurance (PMI) had come at th...
Fri, Sep 16 2016, 9:47 AM
Free data is available on nearly 95% of mortgage originations nationwide thanks to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). While the raw data is avai...
Fri, Sep 16 2016, 9:26 AM
With the most recent spike in rates, 10yr yields have returned to 2016's dominant trend-lines for an interesting bounce (or "stall," depending on ho...
Fri, Sep 16 2016, 5:08 PM
I'll save a majority of risk-mongering for next week's opener, but some of it is warranted for today. The timing of calendar events has resulted in ...
Fri, Sep 16 2016, 3:51 PM
Mortgage Rates were unchanged again today, on average. Some lenders were modestly better than yesterday. Others were modestly worse. But all were fair...
Thu, Sep 15 2016, 12:25 PM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) estimates that sales of newly constructed homes increased by 5.0 percent in August compared to July. The estima...
Thu, Sep 15 2016, 10:23 AM
More than a half-million fewer homeowners were underwater at the end of the second quarter of 2016 than at the beginning CoreLogic said today. At quar...
Thu, Sep 15 2016, 10:14 AM
Being a compliance officer isn’t a barrel of laughs. How many compliance officers it takes to screw in a lightbulb? 3. It takes 1 to change the bulb, ...
Thu, Sep 15 2016, 8:29 AM
After several days with essentially no relevant economic data, bond markets will get an entire week's worth this morning. The headliner is undoubtedl...
Thu, Sep 15 2016, 4:24 PM
Bond markets had an opportunity to jump back on the selling wagon today after yesterday's positive bounce. As we discussed, yesterday's gains were dr...
Thu, Sep 15 2016, 3:24 PM
Mortgage Rates were unchanged in most cases today, keeping them near their highest levels in more than 2 months. Rates are driven primarily by movemen...
Thu, Sep 15 2016, 1:09 PM
Mortgage lenders are feeling more positive about profits this quarter than they did in the second quarter with 28 percent of those surveyed by Fannie ...
Wed, Sep 14 2016, 10:28 AM
The return of Americans to urban living, while well documented, may be a "head-fake" as far as the mortgage industry is concerned. Sam Khater, CoreLog...
Wed, Sep 14 2016, 9:42 AM
With my current travel taking me through Florida, Milwaukee, and now Savannah, geography is on my mind and yesterday I noted that Maine is the only st...
Wed, Sep 14 2016, 9:37 AM
Welcome back to the first potentially significant long-term bounce in interest rates since the first half of 2015. Rates haven't covered as much grou...
Wed, Sep 14 2016, 8:38 AM
Mortgage applications, as measured by the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, increased on a seasonally adjusted...
Wed, Sep 14 2016, 5:22 PM
Mortgage Rates fell modestly today, but only enough to bring upfront costs slightly lower for the same rates quoted yesterday. Still, it's a most welc...
Wed, Sep 14 2016, 5:22 PM
Bond markets made modest gains today, but yields nonetheless closed at their highest recent levels apart from the previous day. It was the same dyn...
Tue, Sep 13 2016, 9:53 AM
There were 34,000 completed foreclosures in July, as banks continue to clean up foreclosure inventories eight years after the housing crisis began. Co...
Tue, Sep 13 2016, 9:47 AM
There is only one state that has 1 syllable, but there are 30 days in September. And this month is full of wacky “days” such as international Talk Lik...
Tue, Sep 13 2016, 9:25 AM
The past three days have been interesting for financial markets--Friday and Monday particularly. Friday saw the biggest break outside the established...
Tue, Sep 13 2016, 4:37 PM
If you're just getting caught up with today's bond market movements, they weren't pretty . On the scale where the worst days of mid-2013 were "10/10...
Tue, Sep 13 2016, 3:57 PM
Mortgage Rates were only slightly higher today, and in some cases were right in line with yesterday's. In fact, if you caught a lenders' rate sheet ea...
Mon, Sep 12 2016, 9:12 AM
Anyone claiming that stocks and bonds always move in opposite directions were again proved wrong Friday when both bonds and stocks sold off. Treasury ...
Mon, Sep 12 2016, 8:56 AM
Last week ended with heavy selling in both stocks and bonds. It was exceptionally bad for stocks (a fact that should have been a clue to all the repo...
Mon, Sep 12 2016, 4:24 PM
Heading into today, there was a lot of hype about a speech from a member of the Federal Reserve, Lael Brainard. She's not an outspoken Fed governor,...
Mon, Sep 12 2016, 3:54 PM
Mortgage Rates continued higher today. Even though the spike wasn't as severe as Friday's, we nonetheless find ourselves well into the highest levels ...
Mon, Sep 12 2016, 1:00 PM
Is there still a gender gap when it comes to mortgages? While single women have come a long way from the days when a man had to guarantee their mortga...
Fri, Sep 9 2016, 3:00 PM
The U.S. housing market continues to move ahead, but a generation of homebuyers is being left behind . That's the conclusion of an analysis of homeown...
Fri, Sep 9 2016, 10:14 AM
I own a shovel. Actually I own a couple of them. So do my neighbors. Do we use them all the time? No. Plenty of time elapses between shovel use. The s...
Fri, Sep 9 2016, 9:09 AM
Bond markets have recently set records when it comes to being flat and directionless. Technical studies that measure the presence and strength of a...
Fri, Sep 9 2016, 5:39 PM
Here's why financial news sucks so bad... Sorry, I said "sucks." I realize that might offend three of you, but I'm willing to alienate that half of ...
Fri, Sep 9 2016, 5:02 PM
Mortgage Rates continued sharply higher today, as financial markets quickly adjust their outlook for global monetary policy (the rate-setting and asse...
Thu, Sep 8 2016, 10:04 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA's) Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) ticked down in August, indicating a slight and largely operationa...
Thu, Sep 8 2016, 9:58 AM
50 years since Star Trek debuted on TV? Holy smokes. Salaries were lower back then. How much do NFL referees earn in a year? The average NFL referee s...
Thu, Sep 8 2016, 8:40 AM
Mario Draghi is the President of the European Central Bank (ECB). He's Europe's version of Janet Yellen, for lack of a more eloquent description. Th...
Thu, Sep 8 2016, 4:40 PM
Let's be real. Asset purchases by major central banks are effectively an allow a nce for financial markets--free money that they know will be coming ...
Thu, Sep 8 2016, 4:01 PM
Mortgage Rates bounced highe r today, bringing them back in line with the pervasive range of the past several weeks. As of yesterday, rates were techn...
Wed, Sep 7 2016, 9:38 AM
While the industry waits for the ruling on the CFPB versus PHH case to give more clarity on the MSA question for lenders , the Colorado Division of In...
Wed, Sep 7 2016, 8:51 AM
Mortgage application activity was listless as summer unofficially ended and the nation prepared for the Labor Day weekend. Changes during the week end...
Wed, Sep 7 2016, 8:49 AM
What a difference a day makes. With the recent trading range being so narrow, it didn't take much for the overall tone in bond markets to move from...
Wed, Sep 7 2016, 3:34 PM
Treasuries and MBS held steady today, consolidating yesterday's gains and playing it safe ahead of tomorrow's ECB Announcement.
There really isn't ...
Wed, Sep 7 2016, 2:30 PM
Mortgage Rates moved lower today at a slightly better pace than the recent norm. That's not saying much in the bigger picture, because "the norm" has ...
