Thu, Oct 23 2014, 10:45 AM
"I've decided to sell my Hoover ... well, it was just collecting dust". While we're talking about dust, if you think the drought in California
is ...
Thu, Oct 23 2014, 7:32 AM
Yesterday morning's notes presented a mostly bullish case for bond markets with today as the first potential break from the corrective/consolidative...
Thu, Oct 23 2014, 5:38 PM
Mortgage rates did as expected and departed their recently more stable range today. Unfortunately, we got the less enjoyable of the two potential ...
Thu, Oct 23 2014, 5:33 PM
Today was decidedly negative for bond markets. 10yr yields found no solace in "the gap" from 2.26 to 2.28 and instead moved right through to 2.30. ...
Thu, Oct 23 2014, 2:09 PM
Builders who engage in home remodeling continue to
display confidence in their market the National Association of Home Builders
(NAHB) said today. ...
Thu, Oct 23 2014, 2:06 PM
The percentage
of American homeowners a mortgage that was seriously underwater fell to 15
percent in the third quarter of 2014 RealtyTrac said on ...
Thu, Oct 23 2014, 1:20 PM
Treasury yields moved steadily into the important gap between 2.26 and 2.28 this morning and had been holding their ground just under 2.28 for nearly ...
Wed, Oct 22 2014, 10:49 AM
If I was going to build a house, I'd want to make sure it was on the right lot. For some folks that doesn't work out so well
- thanks to Ali F. fo...
Wed, Oct 22 2014, 8:52 AM
Falling interest rate precipitated a
major refinancing rally during the week ended October 17 even though Columbus
Day shortened the business weeks ...
Wed, Oct 22 2014, 7:36 AM
It's been a pretty boring and consolidative week for bond markets so far, so let's have some fun. What follows is essentially a bullish case for bond...
Wed, Oct 22 2014, 4:47 PM
When you see the word " consolidation " in market analysis--especially with respect to movement in securities prices/yields--it might as well read "co...
Wed, Oct 22 2014, 4:15 PM
Mortgage rates had their single flattest
day since October 2nd today. This is the polar opposite of last week's
exceptional volatility. The...
Wed, Oct 22 2014, 3:26 PM
Frank
E. Nothaft and Leonard Kiefer, Freddie Mac's chief and deputy chief economists
have come up with a formula for lifting the economy from its ...
Wed, Oct 22 2014, 1:32 PM
Here's a two-part chart that does a nice job of framing today's activity in both a longer and shorter term perspective.
As you can see, we ...
Tue, Oct 21 2014, 12:10 PM
This morning's day ahead commentary asked "will bonds continue to defy stocks?"
The answer appears to be an emphatic " yes !"
The S&P is up...
Tue, Oct 21 2014, 11:44 AM
Existing home sales, which ended four
straight months of gains with a 1.8 percent decline in August, bounced back in
September the National Associat...
Tue, Oct 21 2014, 10:57 AM
I
was dealt a serious setback yesterday here at the MBA conference, being
held in the immense Four Seasons, Mandalay, Delano, conference center
...
Tue, Oct 21 2014, 7:34 AM
Will bond markets be able to hold their ground if equities make more meaningful gains today? I don't know but they did yesterday, and it was the b...
Tue, Oct 21 2014, 5:14 PM
It turned out to be an exceedingly uncomplicated day for Treasuries by the time US trading hours rolled around. Before that, yields moved sharply hig...
Tue, Oct 21 2014, 4:18 PM
Mortgage rates continue to bide their time , holding just under 4 percent on average. Some borrowers might see their quote move up .125% from yeste...
Tue, Oct 21 2014, 3:03 PM
Financial regulators on Tuesday finally released
the final rule defining Qualified Residential Mortgages (QRM). The definition is intended to determ...
Mon, Oct 20 2014, 12:47 PM
Treasuries were moderately stronger overnight resulting in positive opening levels for MBS. Both continued to improve until the 9:30am stock market o...
Mon, Oct 20 2014, 9:57 AM
I
brought a set of workout clothes to the MBA conference, which turned
out to be a waste because we're all burning lots of calories dashing to
m...
Mon, Oct 20 2014, 7:29 AM
With a few more days between us and last Wednesday's epic bond market snowball, bigger media outlets have begun pondering said epicness. That's not n...
Mon, Oct 20 2014, 5:02 PM
David Stevens, President
of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), told an audience attending the association's
s annual convention in Las Vegas th...
Mon, Oct 20 2014, 4:59 PM
Treasuries and MBS didn't end up making much progress today. Fannie 3.5s are only 2 ticks higher than they were at the close on Friday and 10yr yield...
Mon, Oct 20 2014, 4:31 PM
Federal
Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Melvin L. Watt focused his remarks to
attendees at the Mortgage Bankers Association annual conference...
Mon, Oct 20 2014, 3:32 PM
Mortgage rates returned to levels best characterized as "under 4 percent" today after drifting higher on Friday. Last Wednesday was the first fo...
Mon, Oct 20 2014, 2:13 PM
Earlier this year the Mortgage Bankers
Association (MBA) began releasing its Mortgage Credit Availability Index , a
measure of how "loose" or "tigh...
Fri, Oct 17 2014, 11:31 AM
Zillow most recently published research indicating that a
recession negatively affects the housing industry due to a decrease in
employment oppo...
Fri, Oct 17 2014, 7:36 AM
It's tempting to draw conclusions based on what seem like clear signals in markets.
Clearly stocks and bonds have been in tune with each other ...
Fri, Oct 17 2014, 5:34 PM
Most days with modest gains in MBS would see similarly modest improvements in rate sheets. While there were a handful of positive reprices in the a...
Fri, Oct 17 2014, 3:58 PM
Mortgage rates moved slightly higher today, continuing a pull back from the best levels in 16 months on Wednesday. That said, apart from the first...
Fri, Oct 17 2014, 2:06 PM
One has to hope that foreclosure data
reported on Thursday by RealtyTrac is a sign that states are wrapping up the
foreclosure crisis that has been ...
Fri, Oct 17 2014, 2:03 PM
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has released the first wave
of data from the 2013 American Housing Survey (AHS) . It is a massive t...
Fri, Oct 17 2014, 2:03 PM
Over the last year or so mortgage
servicers have transferred a number of large mortgage portfolios to other
servicers. Beyond the selling of
mor...
Fri, Oct 17 2014, 1:36 PM
Increases in construction permits, starts, and
completions for multifamily housing stand out from an otherwise lackluster
batch of construction data...
Fri, Oct 17 2014, 1:21 PM
Today has been the calmest day of the week so far, which isn't saying too much considering the previous 3 days were the most volatile of the year. 10...
Thu, Oct 16 2014, 12:57 PM
Federal regulators may finally produce the long anticipated market standards
for Qualified Residential Mortgages (QRM), perhaps even as early as n...
Thu, Oct 16 2014, 12:50 PM
The National Association of Home
Builders (NAHB) said on Thursday that sentiment among its new home builder
members reversed course in October, with...
Thu, Oct 16 2014, 12:14 PM
MBS and Treasuries are essentially at their weakest levels of the past two days, fighting to hold that ground against a rebounding stock market and ...
Thu, Oct 16 2014, 10:24 AM
Outside
of California's Santa Clara Valley, the words "Affluent" and
"Millennial" aren't used too often together. But it turns out that when
aff...
Thu, Oct 16 2014, 7:32 AM
One blessing and curse associated with being human is our innate desire to make sense of the world around us. Yesterday's bond market rally was--in m...
Thu, Oct 16 2014, 5:31 PM
After the sorts of big movements seen yesterday, it's not uncommon to get an equally big movement back in the other direction. That may well have bee...
Thu, Oct 16 2014, 3:31 PM
Mortgage rates were forced to give back some of the tremendous improvements seen yesterday as financial markets corrected after the wild swing. Ap...
Thu, Oct 16 2014, 1:28 PM
The share of home purchased with all-cash is continuing
to drop, but even with a -3.0 percentage point change between July 2013 and July
2014 they s...
Wed, Oct 15 2014, 10:22 AM
A significant drop in mortgage rates triggered
a surge in refinancing activity during the week ended October 10. The Mortgage Bankers Association ...
Wed, Oct 15 2014, 8:40 PM
Today was intense. We'll probably be talking about it for years to come. While there have been bigger days of outright movement in bond markets, you...
Wed, Oct 15 2014, 7:36 AM
If you've ever watched a survival show where campers set up pots and pans tied on a string to sound an alarm for approaching bears, etc., then the u...
Wed, Oct 15 2014, 5:03 PM
Mortgage rates went on a truly epic ride today. From the opening bell to the closing bell, the mortgage-backed-securities (MBS) that underlie mort...
