Tue, Feb 23 2016, 10:39 AM
One of the sea changes that swept in with the housing crisis was the growth of single family houses as a share of rental properties . Frank Nothaft,...
Tue, Feb 23 2016, 10:31 AM
Mortgage delinquencies rose in January, topping the 5 percent mark for the first time in 11 months Black Knight Financial Services said on Monday. Th...
Tue, Feb 23 2016, 10:30 AM
Home price gains were somewhat mixed in December with some of the S&P Case-Shiller posting larger increases than in November and others negative or un...
Tue, Feb 23 2016, 10:26 AM
Actuaries, statisticians, the press, and the mortgage industry love acronyms and abbreviations, any list of which would take up this entire commentary...
Tue, Feb 23 2016, 8:52 AM
Bond markets have been slightly weaker over the past few days, but overall, still arguably trading sideways inside a narrow range. Looked at in the m...
Tue, Feb 23 2016, 5:12 PM
Sad start, but happy ending for bond markets
"Tradeflows" (the trading cues that remain after we take away any overt cues like economic data, headl...
Tue, Feb 23 2016, 4:22 PM
Mortgage rates experienced some volatility today, but ended up in slightly stronger territory on average. At first, rates were higher, as underlyin...
Mon, Feb 22 2016, 10:14 AM
Foreclosure activity declined on a month-over-month basis nationwide in January although completed foreclosures were up significantly on an annual b...
Mon, Feb 22 2016, 10:12 AM
In the last 50+ years Detroit has lost nearly two thirds of its population. (Yes, 2/3.) And now the City of Detroit is offering up a mortgage pair...
Mon, Feb 22 2016, 9:04 AM
If you're just tuning in to 2016's bond market trends, it's been a good year so far. 10yr yields began around 2.30 and fell as low as 1.53 for a f...
Mon, Feb 22 2016, 5:27 PM
Mortgage rates maintained recent sideways momentum today, holding inside a narrow range established last week. This range is particularly interesti...
Mon, Feb 22 2016, 5:09 PM
Modest losses for Treasuries and MBS by the close
Should have been worse judging by stock/oil gains
Corporate bond supply was big--also typical...
Mon, Feb 22 2016, 1:19 PM
Despite three years of solid recovery in home prices, a surprising number of homeowners don't realize what they've gained.
Most underestimate w...
Fri, Feb 19 2016, 10:36 AM
"A man goes to his nearest zoo. He walks around the entire place and the only animal there is a dog. It was a shih tzu." In a similar vein, I guess, b...
Fri, Feb 19 2016, 7:33 AM
I was hyperactively remarking to a mentor back in the day about how things were happening in markets almost exactly as I thought they would. I was ex...
Fri, Feb 19 2016, 7:13 PM
Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) released fourth quarter and year-end results for their 2015 fiscal years this week. While both GSEs post...
Fri, Feb 19 2016, 7:05 PM
Both lower home prices and decreasing interest rates contributed to an increase in home affordability during the fourth quarter of 2015 according to...
Fri, Feb 19 2016, 5:25 PM
Today was a fine day for bond markets. There were no significant gains or losses by the closing bell, and indeed no real drama in between. Treasur...
Fri, Feb 19 2016, 4:17 PM
Mortgage rates improved slightly today, on average, despite modest weakness in underlying bond markets. We discussed this possibility yesterday in ...
Fri, Feb 19 2016, 3:35 PM
Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) released fourth quarter and year-end results for their 2015 fiscal years this week. While both GSEs post...
Fri, Feb 19 2016, 3:31 PM
Both lower home prices and decreasing interest rates contributed to an increase in home affordability during the fourth quarter of 2015 according to...
Thu, Feb 18 2016, 10:43 AM
Freddie Mac is announcing changes to its Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide which the company says will provide expanded homeownership opportuniti...
Thu, Feb 18 2016, 8:39 AM
Rates fight to hold under important long-term ceiling (marked by 1.84% in 10yr yields)
Assessing possibility that last week was a long-term bounce ...
Thu, Feb 18 2016, 8:09 PM
Mortgage rates finally held their ground today, earning back some of the ground lost over the past 3 days. While a substantial gap remains between ...
Thu, Feb 18 2016, 8:03 PM
Bonds unchanged overnight, then follow German Bunds toward lower yields mid-morning
Oil Inventory data hit oil prices and stocks, thus lubricating ...
Thu, Feb 18 2016, 2:00 PM
The overall delinquency rate on
mortgage loans has now fallen below historic average levels. The Mortgage
Bankers Association (MBA) said on Thursd...
Wed, Feb 17 2016, 11:02 AM
To put some perspective on things, a trillion seconds is roughly 31,710 years. The Fed indicates that household housing debt is about $8.8 trillion ...
Wed, Feb 17 2016, 9:07 AM
Applications for refinancing again drove a significant increase in mortgage applications during the week ended February 12 as mortgage rates continu...
Wed, Feb 17 2016, 8:56 AM
U.S. housing starts unexpectedly fell in January likely as bad weather disrupted building projects in some parts of the country, in what could be a te...
Wed, Feb 17 2016, 8:38 AM
Technical analysis refers to attempts to understand and predict financial market behavior based solely on financial markets themselves. Specifically,...
Wed, Feb 17 2016, 5:47 PM
Bond markets began the overnight session in fine shape, but soon succumbed to a steamroller of equity market positivity in the European session. Ri...
Wed, Feb 17 2016, 4:44 PM
Mortgage rates were just a bit higher in most cases today, although some lenders were effectively unchanged from yesterday. If you happened to stop...
Tue, Feb 16 2016, 10:54 AM
Confidence among new home builders cooled considerably this month. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said its Housing Market Index (HM...
Tue, Feb 16 2016, 10:52 AM
The mortgage industry has certainly taken its lumps in the last eight years. Things are turning around, and Jason Frazier from California's Mason McDu...
Tue, Feb 16 2016, 8:15 AM
The new, holiday-shortened week begins in much the same fashion as the previous week ended: with bond markets considering whether they are under press...
Tue, Feb 16 2016, 5:23 PM
When you have a day as weak as last Friday was, the most informative subsequent trading session is one that is either similarly weak or strongly posit...
Tue, Feb 16 2016, 3:59 PM
Mortgage rates continued slightly higher today, further distancing themselves from last week's 1-yr lows. The average lender continues to quote c...
Fri, Feb 12 2016, 11:44 AM
A proposed new rule from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), if enacted, could significantly impact mortgage workers' paychecks, and affect mortgage c...
Fri, Feb 12 2016, 11:37 AM
In a hearing on Thursday before the House
Financial Services Committee, Edward L. Golding,
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Department of...
Fri, Feb 12 2016, 11:30 AM
(Note: Monday is a federal holiday , and there will be no commentary.) Here's a note I received from the owner of an independent mortgage bank with a...
Fri, Feb 12 2016, 9:43 AM
As we all know, the MBS market is personified by a big green dragon . So far in 2016, the dragon has been breathing plenty of fire. Less publicize...
Fri, Feb 12 2016, 4:10 PM
Day's like today can't hep but give the average market watcher a bit of a sinking feeling . Was that it? Was yesterday's visit to the lowest yields...
Fri, Feb 12 2016, 3:47 PM
Mortgage rates rose rapidly today, relative to their average intraday movement potential. Things have been far from average, of course, and so it ...
Thu, Feb 11 2016, 9:39 AM
What's this? Fifty five thousand residents in one mile-high building? Doesn't Tokyo have earthquakes? Let's hope not everyone wants hot water at the...
Thu, Feb 11 2016, 7:34 AM
Stocks and bond yields ignited a fiery romance in 2016, not letting each other out of sight for almost the entire month of January. That is to say,...
Thu, Feb 11 2016, 6:57 PM
The
Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA's) early estimate of new home sales for
January projects a 14 percent increase compared to December. MBA ...
Thu, Feb 11 2016, 6:56 PM
Bond markets came thundering in to the domestic trading session today, largely following equally thunderous moves in equities and European stock/bon...
Thu, Feb 11 2016, 5:22 PM
Mortgage rates were widely available at 3.5 percent for much of the day today. At any other time from the middle of 2013 through the end of 2015, ...
Wed, Feb 10 2016, 9:57 AM
Average mortgage rates declined during the week ended February 5, in at least one case to the lowest level in nearly three years. In response there w...
Wed, Feb 10 2016, 7:34 AM
Who has the mic? Who's wielding the pen? Whose opinion are you digesting as you build your sense of what "they" think is going to happen? If you're...
