Wed, Aug 9 2023, 8:11 AM
The downturn in mortgage application volume extended to a third straight week over the period ending August 4. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) ...
Tue, Aug 8 2023, 4:54 PM
Flash back to last Friday. The big jobs report came out and although it wasn't too far from forecasts, it was enough for the bond market to rally at ...
Tue, Aug 8 2023, 4:52 PM
MBS Underperform as Treasuries Benefit From Flight to Safety
When the market is sensitive to potential chang...
Tue, Aug 8 2023, 2:42 PM
A measure of the availability of mortgage credit dropped to its lowest level in a decade last month as lenders sought to reduce operating costs and ...
Tue, Aug 8 2023, 11:29 AM
Remember "global growth concerns?" That's the phrase that underpinned the rate reversal from long term highs in late 2018. It's definitely not reliv...
Tue, Aug 8 2023, 10:41 AM
Lending continues to be intertwined with legal and compliance issues. Here’s a story from overnight that is catching a lot of attention: “Equifax stoc...
Mon, Aug 7 2023, 4:08 PM
Uneventful Monday as Traders Keep Options Open
Bonds traders are keeping options open, both literally and fi...
Mon, Aug 7 2023, 3:21 PM
Mortgage rates are starting out the new week at modestly higher levels compared to last Friday afternoon. The average change is very small. Many bor...
Mon, Aug 7 2023, 10:42 AM
Bonds gave back a bit less than half of Friday's gains in the overnight session with most of the losses seen after the start of European trading. Tha...
Mon, Aug 7 2023, 10:39 AM
Jordan Peele met his famous comedy partner Keegan-Michael Key around 2002 at Second City in Chicago, and eventually performed this classic routine tha...
Fri, Aug 4 2023, 5:23 PM
In discussing mortgage rates near 23-year highs yesterday, we asked if there was any hope for relief and concluded that the only question was one of t...
Fri, Aug 4 2023, 5:15 PM
Tame Jobs Data Opens Door For Bonds to Stabilize
Rates were arguably oversold heading into today's jobs repo...
Fri, Aug 4 2023, 11:40 AM
Planet Home’s Michael B. reminds me, “I miss every shot I don’t take.” The topics here in Orlando at the FAMP convention include not only prospecting,...
Fri, Aug 4 2023, 10:07 AM
With rates pushing up to super long term highs by yesterday afternoon, it may not have taken too much of a miss in today's jobs data for bonds to rall...
Thu, Aug 3 2023, 4:19 PM
Interest rates of all types have been under immense pressure since the beginning of 2022. This resulted in the the highest mortgage rates in more tha...
Thu, Aug 3 2023, 4:02 PM
Snowball Sell-Off Ahead of Jobs Report
The bond market isn't necessarily expecting the jobs report to come i...
Thu, Aug 3 2023, 11:16 AM
There's something rotten in the state of the bond market. After the early July CPI-driven rally seemed to put a ceiling on the range, there have been...
Thu, Aug 3 2023, 10:50 AM
Mark Weber sends, “Can I take my 2.5 percent loan to another property? Remember the portable loan idea? When will we see real estate agents advertisin...
Wed, Aug 2 2023, 4:27 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher again today as the underlying bond market digested stronger economic data and details of the U.S. Treasury's increased bor...
Wed, Aug 2 2023, 3:47 PM
Yields Briefly Hit 8 Month Highs
Bond yields spiked to their highest levels in more than 8 months this morni...
Wed, Aug 2 2023, 12:36 PM
Moments after bonds closed yesterday, Fitch downgraded the credit rating for the U.S. government. Few would disagree that the political criticism (by...
Wed, Aug 2 2023, 9:19 AM
The weekly applications report from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) wasn’t positive, but it was certainly consistent. MBA said its Market Compo...
Wed, Aug 2 2023, 8:26 AM
“If you have no interest in banking, you are not a loan.” (Best said out loud to a 6th grader.) Cutting edge humor aside, this morning I head to Orlan...
Tue, Aug 1 2023, 5:52 PM
For all intents and purposes, the average 30yr fixed rate at the average lender is as high as it's been since November 2022. The number itself as far...
Tue, Aug 1 2023, 5:27 PM
Explaining Today's Inexplicable Weakness
If the bond market is well understood to be heavily "data dependent...
Tue, Aug 1 2023, 10:05 AM
Overheard last night at a bar here in Austin, Texas: “It’s hotter than the hinges to the gates of hell.” Not so hot, as residential lenders know, are ...
Tue, Aug 1 2023, 9:22 AM
The 8:20am CME Open is such a relevant event for the bond market sometimes that it has its own entry in our knowledge base. On any given morning, it'...
Mon, Jul 31 2023, 4:27 PM
Uneventful Start to What May be an Eventful Week
When there are multiple examples of important events that c...
Mon, Jul 31 2023, 3:54 PM
As the new week begins, mortgage rates are almost perfectly in line with those seen on Friday afternoon. Putting that in context, last Thursday and F...
Mon, Jul 31 2023, 12:05 PM
After the initial recovery from the Great Financial Crisis, and again after the Fed began to taper asset purchases at the end of 2013, there were two ...
Mon, Jul 31 2023, 9:49 AM
“Yesterday I completed a chore I’ve been putting off for four months. It took me 20 minutes. I will learn nothing from this.” That sums up a lot of my...
Fri, Jul 28 2023, 4:43 PM
What to Make of This Week's Movement
Friday ended up being a slightly stronger session for bonds, but not in...
Fri, Jul 28 2023, 12:18 PM
Core PCE is often referred to as the Fed's preferred measure of inflation. The Employment Cost Index (ECI) has been one of the only few economic repo...
Fri, Jul 28 2023, 10:56 AM
Mortgages are only part of our lives, right? I only know what I read online, although Abraham Lincoln once said, “Don’t believe everything you read on...
Thu, Jul 27 2023, 4:17 PM
The Fed hiked its policy rate yesterday and now today, mortgage rates jumped quite a bit higher. While there are already headlines drawing a connecti...
Thu, Jul 27 2023, 1:26 PM
Pending home sales pulled out of a three-month spiral in June but with only a fractional increase from May. The National Association of Realtors® (NAR...
Thu, Jul 27 2023, 10:54 AM
“I’m trying to organize a hide and seek tournament, but good players are really hard to find.” Good LOs (trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courte...
Thu, Jul 27 2023, 10:54 AM
Yesterday's closing headline and most condensed recap of Powell's press conference was simply: "data dependence continues." Indeed it does! This mor...
Wed, Jul 26 2023, 4:41 PM
As we discussed yesterday, it was entirely possible that today would bring a rate hike from the Fed that coincided with mortgage rates moving LOWER. ...
Wed, Jul 26 2023, 4:38 PM
Needle Threaded. Data Dependence Continues
In today's post-rate-hike press conference, Fed Chair Powell mana...
Wed, Jul 26 2023, 2:00 PM
Recent indicators suggest that economic activity has continued to expand been expanding at a modest moderate pace. Job gains have been robust in...
Wed, Jul 26 2023, 10:50 AM
While there's always a chance that any of the year's 8 scheduled Fed announcements will thread the needle, today's installment is just as likely to pr...
Wed, Jul 26 2023, 10:40 AM
Today's Fed meeting announcement is the last one until September 20. Mortgage rates, of course, are prone to moving around even without the Fed’s dire...
Wed, Jul 26 2023, 8:31 AM
Mortgage application volume during the week ended July 24 was down slightly from the prior week. Static interest rates did little to stir the refinanc...
Tue, Jul 25 2023, 4:37 PM
Mortgage rates moved moderately higher for the average lender at some point over the past 2 days. Some lenders bumped rates yesterday afternoon and t...
Tue, Jul 25 2023, 4:29 PM
Just a Bit More Pre-Fed Positioning
It ended up being a fairly uneventful day for the bond market despite st...
Tue, Jul 25 2023, 2:18 PM
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices posted an annual decline in home prices for the second straight month in May while the Housing Price Index pr...
Tue, Jul 25 2023, 12:32 PM
After the last CPI report sent rates back down to the prevailing summertime range, we figured we'd be waiting until tomorrow's Fed day for the next bi...
Tue, Jul 25 2023, 10:40 AM
“I am part of the 4 percent who want to ban the teaching of math. We are a quarter of the country, and we will not be ignored! And that number is grow...
Mon, Jul 24 2023, 5:05 PM
It was a fairly uneventful day for mortgage rates for the average lender--at least until the very end of the business day. Mortgage lenders prefer to...
