Tue, Oct 1 2013, 10:20 AM
What is bothersome for many CEOs, as we enter the 4 th
quarter, is profitability - or lack thereof. I received this note from
the CEO of a reside...
Tue, Oct 1 2013, 7:01 AM
The day is young, but at midnight eastern, we have no Shutdown
resolution and the Senate is ostensibly out until 930am ET. Overnight
markets gree...
Tue, Oct 1 2013, 5:05 PM
Mortgage rates were flat to slightly higher today, depending
on the lender. Overall, rates are still very close to their best
levels since Ju...
Tue, Oct 1 2013, 4:39 PM
Bond markets were ready to take short term guidance from the
"government shutdown" resolution or lack thereof. This has been far
from a primary m...
Tue, Oct 1 2013, 1:59 PM
Fannie Mae's Total Book of Business
finished the month of August with a balance of $3.167 trillion and a compound
annual growth rate of (0.8) percen...
Tue, Oct 1 2013, 1:07 PM
Freddie Mac wants its customers and business
partners to know they are open for business and largely unaffected by the
government shutdown. Despite...
Mon, Sep 30 2013, 12:48 PM
Another definition of Qualified Mortgage
(QM) was rolled out for comment today.
This one, proposed by the Department of Housing and Urban Develop...
Mon, Sep 30 2013, 12:38 PM
While the real estate market has
been bubbling, Robert J. Shiller doesn't think we are in a real estate bubble. At least not yet . Shiller who, al...
Mon, Sep 30 2013, 12:24 PM
Bond markets started the day in slightly stronger territory though
remained in line with Friday's latest levels. Overnight events were
supportive...
Mon, Sep 30 2013, 10:47 AM
"Rob, I attended a seminar last week, and one of the speakers
mentioned something called 'Freddith Mae'. Ever heard of that?" Nope -
either I'm ou...
Mon, Sep 30 2013, 7:17 AM
A lot about how the week shapes up depends on what happens by
midnight tonight with respect to the 'government shutdown.' The
government agency r...
Mon, Sep 30 2013, 6:45 PM
Mortgage rates rose very slightly today for
the first time in 3 weeks. The difference in rate sheets compared to
Friday's latest was minimal,...
Mon, Sep 30 2013, 4:50 PM
In the context of the nearly month-long rally in place since Sep
6th, today's MBS movements were more volatile than average. Fannie
3.5s started...
Fri, Sep 27 2013, 12:34 PM
MBS began the day in an unassuming stance. Treasuries had just
rallied sharply in the overnight session with 10's moving from 2.67 to
under 2.63,...
Fri, Sep 27 2013, 10:24 AM
Although she is blind, Justice never sleeps, and any company's management who thinks it can skirt the Bank Secrecy Act might
be in for a rude awak...
Fri, Sep 27 2013, 8:29 AM
Last week's FOMC statement and all that's followed have acted the part of Occam's Razor
in reducing the ifs and thens of bond market movement to p...
Fri, Sep 27 2013, 5:36 PM
The trading day is essentially over and MBS are heading out 3 ticks
higher than the levels reported in the last alert. This is enough to
obviate ...
Fri, Sep 27 2013, 4:29 PM
Mortgage rates fell noticeably today, keeping
alive an impressive streak of 13 days without higher rates. Three out
of those 13 have been 'un...
Fri, Sep 27 2013, 2:03 PM
Commercial and multi-family mortgage
debt increased by $24.5 billion in the second quarter of 2013, with $10.9
billion of that being debt in the m...
Fri, Sep 27 2013, 1:26 PM
The Federal Housing Administration
(FHA) notified Congress this morning that, as had been rumored earlier in the
week, it will need to draw on its b...
Thu, Sep 26 2013, 12:56 PM
MBS opened just a tick under yesterday's latest levels and have
mostly moved weaker from there. Treasuries similarly started the day
just above y...
Thu, Sep 26 2013, 11:02 AM
As the National Association of Realtors®
(NAR) said it had anticipated, pending home sales eased in August falling what
may have been accelerated ac...
Thu, Sep 26 2013, 10:49 AM
The pre-foreclosure or "shadow inventory," that is
homes that are in the process of foreclosure, has fallen by over a third since
August of 2012 t...
Thu, Sep 26 2013, 10:42 AM
Does anyone really retire anymore? Most seem to adapt to re-careers,
heading off to other pursuits. But still plenty of U.S. citizens retire,
and ...
Thu, Sep 26 2013, 10:22 AM
Reuters and the Wall Street Journal are both reporting that the Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and its Federal Housing Administr...
Thu, Sep 26 2013, 8:00 AM
In a similar vein to yesterday's outlook, we're still on guard against
any potential jolts from stronger data. Anything else, however, is
friendl...
Thu, Sep 26 2013, 5:39 PM
Foreclosure starts in the
second quarter of 2013 were down to half the level of a year earlier the Office
of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said ...
Thu, Sep 26 2013, 5:21 PM
Freddie Mac's total mortgage portfolio
ended August with a principal balance of $1.93 trillion. This represented a 5.0 percent reduction from
the...
Thu, Sep 26 2013, 5:10 PM
Bond markets were slightly weaker heading into today's session and
extended the weakness by very small steps after the day's meaningful
events. T...
Thu, Sep 26 2013, 3:47 PM
Mortgage rates were unchanged today, keeping
them in line with the lowest levels in over three months. This is the
12th business day in a row...
Thu, Sep 26 2013, 1:04 AM
Distressed homes accounted for 25
percent of residential home sales in August, up 2 percentage points from
July. RealtyTrac, in its August U.S. ...
Wed, Sep 25 2013, 12:23 PM
Bond markets came into the domestic session in slightly weaker
territory, carrying some negative momentum from European hours. Volumes
were low, ...
Wed, Sep 25 2013, 11:28 AM
New home sales turned upward in August after an especially
poor showing in July, though remain well off levels from the first half of the year. Th...
Wed, Sep 25 2013, 10:45 AM
Incidents of mortgage
application fraud identified in the second quarter were less likely to be
property related and more likely to be tied to in...
Wed, Sep 25 2013, 10:29 AM
I didn't make it to the gym today. That makes five years in a row.
Speaking of five years, WAMU 's failure - the largest
commercial bank failur...
Wed, Sep 25 2013, 9:19 AM
Applications for both refinancing and
home purchase increased last week as mortgage interest rates retreated. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MB...
Wed, Sep 25 2013, 7:23 AM
Today
- Focus is on Durable Goods and New Home Sales in the AM.
- Either one could help reinforce a pause in the rally if stronger than expec...
Wed, Sep 25 2013, 5:42 PM
Coming out of last week's FOMC Announcement, it seemed almost too simple
to conclude that this it marked a solid opportunity for rates to stop
c...
Wed, Sep 25 2013, 4:02 PM
Mortgage rates fell to new 3-Month lows today. That makes this the 11th straight day where rates have held steady or moved lower. Conforming, 30...
Tue, Sep 24 2013, 12:36 PM
Fannie 4.0s are trading in territory not seen since we passed it on
the way down back on June 19th. Today's gains have been slow and
steady, once...
Tue, Sep 24 2013, 11:03 AM
Indices released
by two of the leading sources of home price information this morning confirm
the continued growth of home values in the U.S., at...
Tue, Sep 24 2013, 10:49 AM
Given the change in the MBA's logo, David Frase writes, "I love the
new MBa logo! It emphasizes the loss of 'capital' experienced by our
industry...
Tue, Sep 24 2013, 7:14 AM
To be fair to Monday, there wasn't much by way of 'drama' detectable
in trading levels. After some early gyrations, MBS were generally
moving hig...
Tue, Sep 24 2013, 6:36 PM
MBS hit 3-month highs today--levels not seen since we crashed into
them at the end of the day on June 19th. Fannie 4.0s made highs at
104-16 the ...
Tue, Sep 24 2013, 4:03 PM
Mortgage rates were lower yet again, making
for an astonishing 10th consecutive day without rates moving higher.
In the 13 days of rate sheet...
Tue, Sep 24 2013, 2:29 PM
There
are " Four Ds " that plague consumers, the Director of the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau told an audience of Bankers on Tuesday; decep...
Mon, Sep 23 2013, 12:23 PM
Feeling
that they may have reached only about half of the families who could benefit
from the program, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) ...
Mon, Sep 23 2013, 12:07 PM
The week got off to an expectedly slow start in terms of volume and volatility, with prices holding
near Friday's latest levels for the first few ho...
Mon, Sep 23 2013, 11:11 AM
As usual, we have some keen insights and observations about the residential lending biz worth sharing (along with vendor, agency, and investor updates...
Mon, Sep 23 2013, 10:22 AM
Phew! It turns out that the acronym for the Mortgage Bankers Association (of America) remains "MBA." MBa is just its logo .
Here is an interesting...
