Wed, Dec 18 2013, 11:19 AM
Housing starts and housing completions for
September, October and November were released by the U.S. Census Bureau and the
Department of Housing and...
Wed, Dec 18 2013, 9:36 AM
The FOMC Statement due out at 2pm will continue in the Fed's fine
tradition of keeping most of the text unchanged and merely updating key
sections...
Wed, Dec 18 2013, 8:50 PM
After almost exactly half a year of discussing the mythical
"Tapering" as a possible outcome of an FOMC Announcement (there were
some grumblings a...
Wed, Dec 18 2013, 8:29 AM
It was another down week for mortgage
application activity. The Mortgage
Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Index, a measure of
a...
Wed, Dec 18 2013, 7:56 AM
Let's skip to the important stuff about today. While there will be a
backlog of three months of Housing Starts data released in the morning,
as w...
Wed, Dec 18 2013, 5:32 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher today
after the Federal Reserve announced the first reduction in its
purchases of Treasuries and MBS. The reduction...
Wed, Dec 18 2013, 2:05 PM
Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in September generally suggestsOctober indicates that economic activity has continued...
Tue, Dec 17 2013, 12:50 PM
Negative equity amounts continued to
shrink during the third quarter of 2013 CoreLogic said today. An estimated 791,000 properties regained an equ...
Tue, Dec 17 2013, 11:45 AM
Seeing as how today is yet another mid-December day that doesn't
contain the long-awaited FOMC Announcement, it's proving to be just
another incon...
Tue, Dec 17 2013, 10:59 AM
Clients of Franklin American received this e-mail yesterday: “Due to the market environment and regulatory concerns, Franklin American will be remo...
Tue, Dec 17 2013, 6:59 AM
The Week Ahead spells out the theme of the week and recaps the market exhaustion leading
up to it. Those themes remain in force until tomorrow's...
Tue, Dec 17 2013, 5:41 PM
Ginnie Mae has
taken the first steps toward a planned modernization of its securitization
platform . The company on Tuesday
released four new sys...
Tue, Dec 17 2013, 5:32 PM
It's never fun to be wrapping up our assessment of one major economic event with the conclusion that nothing really matters
until the next one. I...
Tue, Dec 17 2013, 4:37 PM
Mortgage rates remained at the same level for the 4th consecutive day despite some movement in MBS (the "mortgage-backed securities" that most dir...
Tue, Dec 17 2013, 3:23 PM
Home sales in the San Francisco Bay Area like those in the
state at large fell in November DataQuick said today. While state-wide sales, as report...
Tue, Dec 17 2013, 2:43 PM
Home sales declined in California in
November, suffering from diminishing housing affordability in the face of
rising home prices and interest rates...
Tue, Dec 17 2013, 2:16 AM
As loan officers and borrowers
prepare for the Federal Open Market Committee's ("the Fed")
potential tapering announcement Wednesday, Fannie Mae a...
Tue, Dec 17 2013, 1:30 PM
Increasing
mortgage rates eroded refinancing overall in the third quarter and refinancing
through the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) was n...
Mon, Dec 16 2013, 11:56 AM
More than any other day so far in December, today is chock full of that special holiday spirit
that makes for almost inconsequentially light activ...
Mon, Dec 16 2013, 10:39 AM
A Freddie Mac senior vice president is using
the company's blog to debunk a few myths she says may be keeping homeowners
from refinancing through ...
Mon, Dec 16 2013, 10:18 AM
The value of
US pensions has soared this year. Per JPMorgan Chase, pensions now cover 96% of future obligations! Pension values
have seen the bi...
Mon, Dec 16 2013, 7:24 AM
Exhaustion was evident in last week's bond market trading. We discussed that " year-end exhaustion " quite a bit in this post .
To make a long st...
Mon, Dec 16 2013, 5:13 PM
MBS are heading out right in line with Friday's latest levels. The day began well, and bond markets even made gains
following the stronger-than-e...
Mon, Dec 16 2013, 3:55 PM
Mortgage rates were unchanged yet again to begin the new week, and thus remain near recent highs with 4.625% the most prevalently quoted rate fo...
Mon, Dec 16 2013, 3:52 PM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency
(FHFA) is inviting public comments on a new proposal to "gradually reduce" loan
limits for mortgages purchased ...
Mon, Dec 16 2013, 1:26 PM
In the second in a series of white
papers exploring the "Foundation for a Sound Housing Market" CoreLogic looks at
the Ability-to-Repay (ATR) and Qu...
Fri, Dec 13 2013, 12:43 PM
"Exhaustion" was the theme of this morning's commentary , and today's price action is confirming that .
One of the byproducts of exhaustion is a ...
Fri, Dec 13 2013, 12:19 PM
After asking for taxpayer assistance for
the first time in its 79 year history last September, a new actuarial report
says the Federal Housing Admin...
Fri, Dec 13 2013, 11:01 AM
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
has issued new guidelines for lenders who manually underwrite FHA-backed
mortgage loans. The new underwr...
Fri, Dec 13 2013, 10:11 AM
The
old saying goes, "If there is only one attorney in a town, he'll starve to
death. If there are two attorneys in a town, they'll both get rich." ...
Fri, Dec 13 2013, 7:16 AM
It's been a rather exhausting year for bond markets. Unlike the past
3 years, 2013 marks a substantial dose of selling. Not only that, but
the s...
Fri, Dec 13 2013, 5:12 PM
A new study from the Harvard Joint
Center on Housing Studies in conjunction with the McArthur Foundation looks at
the growing importance of rental h...
Fri, Dec 13 2013, 4:57 PM
The four federal agencies most
involved in supervision of financial institutions as they work to comply with
new Dodd-Frank Act regulations said tod...
Fri, Dec 13 2013, 4:47 PM
One of the bullet points in this morning's commentary said "bond markets
would rather be napping." As it turns out, they made that dream a
realit...
Fri, Dec 13 2013, 3:46 PM
Mortgage rates were unchanged today on average, and thus remain near recent highs with 4.625% the most prevalently quoted rate for ideal, confor...
Thu, Dec 12 2013, 12:36 PM
The Jobless Claims is one of the cornerstones of the economic data
environment. It prints every week, same time, dame day. It's
relatively easy ...
Thu, Dec 12 2013, 11:06 AM
The Mortgage Bankers
Association (MBA) said today that applications for the purchase of newly
constructed homes declined in November by about 18 p...
Thu, Dec 12 2013, 11:00 AM
While mortgage delinquency rates are
expected to continue their decline to more normal levels next year, multiple
factors will slow that drop from...
Thu, Dec 12 2013, 10:26 AM
The
bitcoin movement just became a little more complicated: JPMorgan Chase is going
after the bitcoin biz by patenting a similar system. But these...
Thu, Dec 12 2013, 9:51 AM
Foreclosure
starts reached a 95 month low in November.
RealtyTrac, in its November U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, said that a
total of 52,826 pr...
Thu, Dec 12 2013, 4:46 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher again today ,
bringing them just shy of the highest rates of the past several months
seen last Wednesday. The most...
Thu, Dec 12 2013, 4:39 PM
Bond markets moved back and forth within fairly narrow ranges
today, although most of that sideways movement took place at weaker
levels. This wa...
Thu, Dec 12 2013, 4:10 PM
Both very small mortgages and
some "streamlined" refinancings will exempted from certain of the
appraisal requirements for higher-priced mortgag...
Thu, Dec 12 2013, 2:54 AM
In general, Treasury auctions haven't elicited as much reaction on
the part of MBS as they did back in 2008-2010 when markets were still
feeling o...
Wed, Dec 11 2013, 12:53 PM
Treasuries were only moderately weaker overnight despite the
potential for a "QE off" move after yesterday's budget deal
announcement ("QE off" c...
Wed, Dec 11 2013, 11:06 AM
After first delaying action on his
nomination for months and then rejecting it in October the Senate finally
confirmed Mel Watt as the new director...
Wed, Dec 11 2013, 10:58 AM
Five US regulators writing the Volcker
rule have ended three years of debate and approved a ban on proprietary
trading by some banks. The Commodit...
Wed, Dec 11 2013, 9:26 AM
The slight rise in mortgage application
volume during the week ended December 6 was the first increase in six weeks . The
Mortgage Bankers Associat...
Wed, Dec 11 2013, 7:40 AM
The big news for mortgage markets out last night is the confirmation
of Mel Watt to take over for Demarco as FHFA Director (technically, Watt
will...
Wed, Dec 11 2013, 6:25 PM
Mortgage rates moved sharply higher today,
erasing more than half of the improvement seen in the relief rally of
the past 3 days. That rally ...
