Wed, Aug 28 2013, 4:55 PM
When equities markets made a big "risk-off" move on Monday afternoon
after Kerry's Syria speech, it was plain to see that bond markets
weren't muc...
Wed, Aug 28 2013, 2:10 PM
A recent entry in the Liberty Street Economics blog
of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FYBNY), compared the recent decline in
Treasury yields ...
Wed, Aug 28 2013, 1:35 PM
In a sudden departure from
earlier actions, regulators today proposed two contradictory new approaches for
defining Qualified Residential Mortgage...
Tue, Aug 27 2013, 12:52 PM
The growth in home prices nationally
accelerated in the second quarter. The
S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which covers all nine U.S. census di...
Tue, Aug 27 2013, 12:35 PM
As the morning update below notes, bond markets couldn't help but get
involved with the global flight-to-safety surrounding the turmoil in
Syria. ...
Tue, Aug 27 2013, 10:00 AM
I am spending some time in Kansas, and some of the discussion is about
how hiring is so much more interesting and fun than eliminating staff.
Obvi...
Tue, Aug 27 2013, 9:46 AM
Delinquency rates and incidence of properties in foreclosure
fell again in July, Lender Processing Services (LPS) reports, but more than 4.5
millio...
Tue, Aug 27 2013, 7:02 AM
The week got off to an interesting but pleasant start for bond
markets with MBS ending the day 3/8ths of a point higher than Friday's
close. Almo...
Tue, Aug 27 2013, 6:14 PM
Mortgage rates hit their lowest levels in nearly two weeks today . Conventional 30yr Fixed quotes for the most ideal scenarios ( best-execution ...
Tue, Aug 27 2013, 4:52 PM
MBS and Treasuries are both near their best levels after a day that
has
been almost exclusively positive thanks to the flight-to-safety
associat...
Mon, Aug 26 2013, 12:33 PM
All four sectors of commercial real estate continue to experience growth, but at different rates, the
National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said to...
Mon, Aug 26 2013, 11:52 AM
So far today, we've seen one of the quietest, least-offensive post-data
rallies in recent memory. The overnight session set the stage for a
quiet...
Mon, Aug 26 2013, 11:37 AM
Home prices
keep edging closer to pre-crash price levels and today's Home Price Index
report from Lender Processing Services (LPS) indicates that na...
Mon, Aug 26 2013, 9:42 AM
Here is an e-mail from Gary B. up in Washington: "Rob, I work for a mortgage bank, and we'd heard that that LOs have to be fingerprinted every three ...
Mon, Aug 26 2013, 6:58 AM
The week ahead is very different from the week past. Fed speakers
will be out in greater numbers and economic data arrives in abundance.
Top tha...
Mon, Aug 26 2013, 5:15 PM
Mortgage rates continued lower today
after a weaker-than-expected economic report this morning from the
manufacturing sector. Not only does w...
Mon, Aug 26 2013, 5:02 PM
This morning's weaker-than-expected Durable Goods numbers started the
day off positively for MBS and Treasuries. MBS especially were solid
all da...
Sat, Aug 24 2013, 3:55 PM
With so much going on in the lending, banking, and real estate business, let's take a look at some thoughts from readers across the nation " in the tr...
Fri, Aug 23 2013, 11:29 AM
While there was a normal amount of overnight trading and volatility,
none of it really matters considering bond markets were near unchanged
levels...
Fri, Aug 23 2013, 11:00 AM
New home sales in July were at the lowest level in nine
months the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development said
this morning...
Fri, Aug 23 2013, 10:42 AM
When S&P downgraded the United States (remember that?), it did
absolutely nothing to Treasury rates, and certainly didn't seem to
motivate Congres...
Fri, Aug 23 2013, 5:25 PM
Mortgage rates shot significantly lower today
after the New Home Sales report showed far fewer executed purchases
contracts than expected for ...
Fri, Aug 23 2013, 4:52 PM
Weaker-than-expected New Home Sales data threw bond markets for a
loop today. There was essentially no data on tap this whole week, with
the exce...
Fri, Aug 23 2013, 4:42 PM
In January 2013 the Federal Housing Finance Agency, conservator of Fannie
Mae approved a settlement between Fannie Mae and Bank of America in the amo...
Fri, Aug 23 2013, 4:16 PM
Many mortgage servicers are still doing
a poor job with record keeping , payment processing and other basic services a
report issued by the Consume...
Fri, Aug 23 2013, 1:22 AM
I once read that if the title of an article is phrased in the form of
a question that the answer is "no"--something to do with an author
that's no...
Thu, Aug 22 2013, 12:59 PM
Home prices continued their strong two year-long national trajectory
by increasing 2.1 percent in the second quarter and 0.7 percent from May to
Jun...
Thu, Aug 22 2013, 11:26 AM
MBS are in slightly positive territory for now, but advancing to
anything more triumphant has proven quite challenging so far. Fannie
4.0s saw th...
Thu, Aug 22 2013, 11:01 AM
Many parents of young adults grapple with the, "Do we help little Sage buy a home, or let him rent?" question. The Wall Street Journal reports 37% ...
Thu, Aug 22 2013, 9:04 AM
Wells Fargo Bank confirmed on Wednesday
that it will be laying off about 20 percent of its mortgage production staff
because of a drop in its refi...
Thu, Aug 22 2013, 7:37 AM
What would an uneventful reaction to today's Jobless Claims data tell
us? Quite a lot actually. Considering that last week's Claims data
was the...
Thu, Aug 22 2013, 5:31 PM
Mortgage rates were higher again today ,
extending yesterday's movement following the FOMC Minutes. This
morning's Jobless Claims report showe...
Thu, Aug 22 2013, 4:51 PM
Looking at today's trading activity in MBS in the context of recent
movement gives the impression that it was the sideways (but potentially
suppor...
Thu, Aug 22 2013, 4:12 PM
Distressed sales have plunged in
the last year, the California Association of Realtors® (C.A.R.) said today, and
are now at only about half of the l...
Wed, Aug 21 2013, 11:29 AM
The overnight session was shockingly docile for Treasuries, with 10yr
yields staying super-glued to the 2.81-2.84 range before entering
domestic s...
Wed, Aug 21 2013, 11:19 AM
Sales of existing home increased
strongly in July and median home prices are now nearing their pre-crash peak National
Association of Realtors® (N...
Wed, Aug 21 2013, 11:05 AM
There is a lot of continued controversy and focus over the various
compensation plans for loan officers and regulatory audits. Obviously,
these c...
Wed, Aug 21 2013, 9:25 AM
Applications for refinancing fell again
during the week ended August 16 the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said
today. MBA' Refinancing Index, ...
Wed, Aug 21 2013, 7:00 AM
After The first two days of the week offered a fairly large sell-off and
an equally large rally for bond markets--all against the backdrop of NO da...
Wed, Aug 21 2013, 5:15 PM
Mortgage rates rose moderately
following today's release of Minutes from the July 31st FOMC Meeting.
There was no meaningful new information,...
Wed, Aug 21 2013, 4:54 PM
The best thing that bond markets (and stocks too, for that matter)
could have hoped for from today's FOMC Minutes would have been a
fractured Fed ...
Wed, Aug 21 2013, 4:14 PM
Ellie Mae said today that loans for refinancing
represented only 47 percent of loans originated in July, dropping from 51
percent in June and repr...
Wed, Aug 21 2013, 1:47 PM
Fannie Mae economists Doug Duncan, Orawin T. Velz, and Brian Hughes-Cromwick said today that despite two downside risk factors
they see the economy ...
Tue, Aug 20 2013, 11:26 AM
Today's story is a fairly simple one. It relies on the prologue that
bond market momentum has been decidedly skewed toward the weak side for
at l...
Tue, Aug 20 2013, 10:20 AM
One can have a lot of fun with statistics. If I own one dog, and
adopt another, my dog population has gone up 100%. The same can be said
for the c...
Tue, Aug 20 2013, 7:06 AM
At least tomorrow morning there will be something substantive coming up
during the course of the day to discuss with anticipation. Until then,
we...
Tue, Aug 20 2013, 5:26 PM
Bond markets had a tremendously strong overnight session with solid
gains and big volume. Whether this had anything to do with the actual
events ...
Tue, Aug 20 2013, 3:42 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower today ,
recovering a good portion of yesterday's losses. There were no
significant economic events and much of the ...
Tue, Aug 20 2013, 1:53 PM
While
it is clear that the recovery of the housing markets is well underway, it is
all too easy to overlook that today's housing finance system has ...
Mon, Aug 19 2013, 11:24 AM
Against the backdrop of a silent data calendar, bond markets are on the
ropes. Both MBS and Treasuries have been grinding uncomfortably against
F...
