Fri, Feb 14 2014, 12:13 PM
With and without this morning's economic data, bond markets have erred on the side of weakness so far today. The only report significantly out of lin...
Fri, Feb 14 2014, 10:34 AM
"Melissa
Burch, a real estate closing agent at a Fort Lauderdale title company,
pocketed more than $1 million from her employer's escrow account...
Fri, Feb 14 2014, 7:00 AM
After today's heavy snowfall in New York turned to rain this afternoon, it's now turning back into snow in the wee hours, scheduled to deposit another...
Fri, Feb 14 2014, 6:46 PM
Bond markets limped across the finish line near the lowest levels of the week. As expected, there was no major drama and the only real unpleasantne...
Fri, Feb 14 2014, 4:09 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher today,
erasing yesterday's improvements and carrying them to their highest
levels since late January on average. Fo...
Fri, Feb 14 2014, 1:23 PM
Here's a special Valentine's Day installment of Do's and Don'ts for prospective buyers or refinancing homeowners embarking on, or already engaged in...
Thu, Feb 13 2014, 11:56 AM
Bond markets were reasonably stronger overnight, mostly by way of consolidating the past three days of weakness. Weaker economic data (Retail Sales a...
Thu, Feb 13 2014, 10:56 AM
Foreclosure activity increased in
January with filings up 8 percent from December on a nationwide basis. RealtyTrac reported today there was a tot...
Thu, Feb 13 2014, 10:26 AM
The January spurt in applications for
new home purchases does not surprise Mike Fratantoni, chief economists for the
Mortgage Bankers Association....
Thu, Feb 13 2014, 10:23 AM
"Rob,
my cousin asked me if there were any consumer groups that focused on
homeowners. Do you know of any?" The one that jumps to mind is the Amer...
Thu, Feb 13 2014, 7:00 AM
Today's combination of events is seen from time to time on the Thursday of slower weeks. One component is the first major appearance of economic data...
Thu, Feb 13 2014, 4:20 PM
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the best case scenario for bond markets, today was 6 . It probably stood very little chance to be much more than a...
Thu, Feb 13 2014, 3:37 PM
Mortgage rates fell moderately following
this morning's weaker-than-expected report on Retail Sales. There were
several other considerations th...
Thu, Feb 13 2014, 1:48 PM
Starting tomorrow Fannie Mae will offer some homebuyers
a special incentive to purchase through its HomePath program which the company
uses to mar...
Wed, Feb 12 2014, 12:21 PM
This morning's first update on MBS Live noted that despite overnight press crediting China for prompting bond market weakness, it was in fact European...
Wed, Feb 12 2014, 10:20 AM
Atlanta
has too much snow and slush, and is staying home. California, however,
is in the midst of a terrible drought - and it is only February. Th...
Wed, Feb 12 2014, 9:10 AM
Mortgage
application volume continued to drift during the week ended February 7. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said
that its Market Compos...
Wed, Feb 12 2014, 7:00 AM
Wednesday could be somewhat interesting for bond markets. At the moment, we'll have to focus exclusively on Treasuries as MBS rolled last night, th...
Wed, Feb 12 2014, 4:23 PM
Today's calendar of economic events was empty . There wasn't even much by way of potential market movers to evaluate. Instead, bond markets were le...
Wed, Feb 12 2014, 3:35 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher at
their fastest pace in more than a month today, confirming yesterday's
shift in momentum. While this isn't an out...
Wed, Feb 12 2014, 3:18 PM
For the first time in six years the mortgage
delinquency rate has dropped below 4 percent TransUnion said on Wednesday. Nationally, 3.85 percent of...
Wed, Feb 12 2014, 2:40 PM
What passes as a measure of home affordability in
California may stagger some who live in other parts of the country and only about
a third of the...
Tue, Feb 11 2014, 12:21 PM
If there was any doubt as to the market-moving potential of today's Congressional testimony from Janet Yellen, it was quickly cleared up this morning....
Tue, Feb 11 2014, 10:52 AM
Home
price movement was mixed across metropolitan areas (MSAs) in the fourth quarter
of 2013 the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said today....
Tue, Feb 11 2014, 10:46 AM
Hey,
who wouldn't want to have some steel-cut oatmeal with FHA Commissioner
Carol Galante? Ride a ski lift with HUD Secretary Donovan? Argue over ...
Tue, Feb 11 2014, 10:29 AM
Fannie Mae said today that an
improvement in American's attitudes about the ease of getting a mortgage may
offset a declining perception about home ...
Tue, Feb 11 2014, 9:50 AM
There are competing forces at work in
the mortgage market the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA said today. First, lenders are still adjusting to th...
Tue, Feb 11 2014, 7:00 AM
Bond markets are on the verge of disavowing their allegiance to higher prices and lower yields that has, thus far, characterized most of the new year....
Tue, Feb 11 2014, 4:59 PM
Mortgage rates were higher today following
new Fed Chair Yellen's first scheduled testimony before the House
Financial Services Committee. Most...
Tue, Feb 11 2014, 4:53 PM
After Friday's initial NFP-inspired volatility, bond markets had settled into a very narrow sideways range in anticipation of the next big piece of gu...
Mon, Feb 10 2014, 12:03 PM
The Obama Administration's January Housing
Scorecard, issued jointly by the Departments of Treasury and Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) notes th...
Mon, Feb 10 2014, 11:59 AM
After an uneventful overnight session, MBS and Treasuries both began the day in moderately stronger territory, but only when compared to Friday's late...
Mon, Feb 10 2014, 10:36 AM
Things can be
misleading out there, and occasionally non-depository mortgage bankers
wonder about becoming licensed in other states. The best sour...
Mon, Feb 10 2014, 7:00 AM
Friday's Employment Situation was weaker than expected, but failed to provide a clear confirmation for last month's numbers (which were weaker still)....
Mon, Feb 10 2014, 4:58 PM
Today is good one to speak about MBS and Treasuries separately, as they made fairly dissimilar moves. On the Treasury front (which speaks more to t...
Mon, Feb 10 2014, 3:48 PM
Mortgage rates improved just slightly today, building moderately on Friday's strength following the weaker jobs report.
That having been said, th...
Mon, Feb 10 2014, 1:34 PM
The Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP)
has scored a significant milestone according to the Federal Housing Finance
Agency, hitting the 3 milli...
Fri, Feb 7 2014, 12:21 PM
Two
Federal Reserve System economists have looked at the recent quantitative easing
programs of the Federal Reserve to determine whether a central...
Fri, Feb 7 2014, 11:54 AM
Nearly half of the homeowners who could refinance
their homes have not done so despite the prolonged availability of record low
mortgage interest ra...
Fri, Feb 7 2014, 11:44 AM
This morning's Employment Situation data was much weaker than expected. Even if we give the weather some credit for throwing the numbers off--which i...
Fri, Feb 7 2014, 10:54 AM
"If
you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."
This African proverb could apply to bicycle racing, but more importantly
...
Fri, Feb 7 2014, 7:00 AM
Another first Friday of the month, and another NFP has the chance to send bond markets in either direction. It seems like NFP (so named for the repor...
Fri, Feb 7 2014, 3:10 PM
Mortgage rates were finally lower
today, but the drop was modest given that it was the product of a weak
jobs report--typically a bigger marke...
Fri, Feb 7 2014, 1:18 PM
The
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has announced it will take the
initial step to improve data collected under the Home Mortgage Disc...
Thu, Feb 6 2014, 11:52 AM
If bond markets were left to their own devices today, we may well be seeing a bit of resilience --a modest tempering of the past two days of weakness...
Thu, Feb 6 2014, 11:38 AM
FHFA's Office of Inspector General recently
completed an evaluation of how well FHFA is overseeing the GSEs' use of
appraisal data before they buy...
Thu, Feb 6 2014, 10:55 AM
In the legal arena, the industry took note this week that JPMorgan Chase & Co. reached a settlement
with the United States Attorney's Office for the...
Thu, Feb 6 2014, 7:00 AM
Momentum has been great for rates/bond markets almost exclusively in 2014 until the past two sessions. If today's session errs on the weak side again...
Thu, Feb 6 2014, 5:19 PM
On a negative note, bond markets began the day in slightly weaker territory and lost a bit more ground out of the gate. This wasn't so much a factor ...
Thu, Feb 6 2014, 3:39 PM
Mortgage rates were higher for a third straight day ,
substantially weakening a recent run to the lowest levels in nearly 3
months that ended...
