Fri, Feb 28 2025, 3:40 PM
After more than a week of consistent and meaningful improvement, mortgage rates finally showed us that they were at least capable of moving in the oth...
Fri, Feb 28 2025, 3:16 PM
As is the case almost every week of the year, the Mortgage Bankers Association released its weekly mortgage app survey this week, showing the changes ...
Fri, Feb 28 2025, 2:57 PM
The Census Bureau released new home sales data for January this week, and the annual pace was a seemingly significant 10.5% lower than last month's pa...
Fri, Feb 28 2025, 2:36 PM
The massive spike and subsequent correction in home price appreciation (mid-2020 through early 2023) generated lots of opinions and concerns about the...
Fri, Feb 28 2025, 12:06 PM
It's no secret that we don't view the PCE inflation data as being anywhere remotely as big of a market mover as CPI. Today's trading is adding anothe...
Fri, Feb 28 2025, 11:52 AM
Here in Miami, and everywhere, lenders and real estate professionals are acutely aware of supply and demand impacting prices, as does anyone who buys ...
Thu, Feb 27 2025, 4:14 PM
Trying to Shake Off Overnight Weakness After Mixed Bag of Data
Bonds came into the domestic session at sligh...
Thu, Feb 27 2025, 3:24 PM
Stop the presses! Mortgage rates actually moved HIGHER today! While it's the first time we've been able to say such things since last Tuesday, the dam...
Thu, Feb 27 2025, 3:05 PM
The National Association of Realtors released its Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) today, which measures home purchase contracts that have been signed,...
Thu, Feb 27 2025, 12:30 PM
As of yesterday afternoon, bonds could seemingly do no wrong this week. Every opportunity for traders to circle the wagons and push back against the ...
Thu, Feb 27 2025, 11:52 AM
AI is definitely a discussion topic among lenders: what is it, will it help the borrower, will it help the lender… How would you like every hand motio...
Wed, Feb 26 2025, 4:28 PM
Bonds Can Seemingly Do No Wrong
Another day, another example of bonds ignoring the potentially negative cues...
Wed, Feb 26 2025, 3:41 PM
Mortgage rates are directly connected to the bond market, and bonds can seemingly do no wrong over the past week. Specifically, demand for bonds has ...
Wed, Feb 26 2025, 12:01 PM
While the economic calendar may look a little busy today, there are, once again, no big ticket market movers in play. The last time data had an impac...
Wed, Feb 26 2025, 11:45 AM
While the House passed President Trump’s budget resolution, the industry is abuzz about the TV at HUD’s headquarters showing an AI video of Donald Tru...
Tue, Feb 25 2025, 4:33 PM
Impressively Calm Rally Continues Amid General Growth Concerns
In the absence of the typical motivations req...
Tue, Feb 25 2025, 4:01 PM
Over the past 4 business days, the average top tier mortgage rate has fallen by 0.22%. While that may seem like a small number, consider that mortgage...
Tue, Feb 25 2025, 1:03 PM
In Connecticut, a portion of the formal and informal talk here is about how builder news touches on lenders. (As an aside, Home Depot’s earnings, repo...
Tue, Feb 25 2025, 11:36 AM
They day begins with 10yr yields down more than 10bps and trading under 4.30% at times. MBS are up 3/8ths with 5.5 UMBS coupons getting close to par. ...
Mon, Feb 24 2025, 5:05 PM
Bonds Improved Throughout The Day, With and Without Stock Market Losses
Based on the movement at the end of ...
Mon, Feb 24 2025, 4:32 PM
Mortgage rates were already in line with the lowest levels since December 18th by last Thursday. They dropped to the best levels since December 12th a...
Mon, Feb 24 2025, 11:46 AM
Today I head to Connecticut for a visit with First World Mortgage and the Northeast Mortgage Summit. Today happens to be rocker George Thorogood’s 75t...
Mon, Feb 24 2025, 10:33 AM
After a strong finish last week, there was some natural risk that short-covering and position squaring added to the gains, thus increasing the chance ...
Fri, Feb 21 2025, 5:00 PM
Solid Conclusion to a Solid Week
Bonds benefited from a one-two punch of economic data and stock market weak...
Fri, Feb 21 2025, 3:22 PM
Back on December 18th, rates began the day fairly close to where they ended the previous day. In the afternoon, rates surged sharply higher following ...
Fri, Feb 21 2025, 2:59 PM
Per the latest release from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), both refinance and purchase indices decreased this week. In terms of the change fr...
Fri, Feb 21 2025, 2:30 PM
The Census Bureau released its New Residential Construction report this week, frequently referred to by its principal component "housing starts" (a te...
Fri, Feb 21 2025, 2:01 PM
The National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) along with Wells Fargo released the monthly builder confidence index this week, and it came out much w...
Fri, Feb 21 2025, 11:57 AM
MBS are very close to their February 5th levels, which were the best since the morning of December 18th before the Fed announcement (and dot plot) cau...
Fri, Feb 21 2025, 11:53 AM
While much of the nation deals with the severe cold, I received this note from a new loan officer in Oklahoma. “Rob, I overheard my secondary group ta...
Thu, Feb 20 2025, 4:50 PM
Very Low Volatility After Early Morning Rally
Bonds were sideways to slightly weaker in the overnight sessio...
Thu, Feb 20 2025, 4:00 PM
It was a fairly decent day for mortgage rates with the average lender returning to the lowest levels in just over 2 months. The improvement followed e...
Thu, Feb 20 2025, 12:00 PM
There's an interesting little case study in this morning's market movement. Bonds had been sideway to very slightly weaker overnight, but began to ral...
Thu, Feb 20 2025, 11:44 AM
“Inflation is really getting out of hand... But that's just my 5 cents.” Inflation impacts the prices of fixed-income securities, like the kind backed...
Wed, Feb 19 2025, 4:30 PM
Deep Dive on Today's Misunderstood Fed Comments
Today's only potential big ticket event was the release of t...
Wed, Feb 19 2025, 3:42 PM
It was almost a mildly interesting day as rates started out slightly higher. To be fair, even that would not have been too interesting because the mo...
Wed, Feb 19 2025, 11:45 AM
So, you drive across town to a gym to walk on a treadmill? There are always interesting and strange things going on out there. Huh? The Florida’s gove...
Wed, Feb 19 2025, 10:34 AM
Bonds extended yesterday's selling streak in the overnight session, but not in an alarming or serious way. Momentum reversed at 9am without any clear ...
Tue, Feb 18 2025, 4:52 PM
Bonds Give Up Friday's Gains
Bond market volume was a little better than half of its recent average today--s...
Tue, Feb 18 2025, 4:24 PM
Mortgage lenders were unable to update their rates yesterday as the bond market was closed for the Presidents Day holiday. Three day weekends can occ...
Tue, Feb 18 2025, 11:45 AM
This weekend I spent a little time in the Miami Airport and overheard two people discussing how they were waiting for a builder in Tennessee to finish...
Tue, Feb 18 2025, 11:33 AM
Traders have done a reasonably good job of making it back to the office after the 3-day weekend. Volumes are almost in line with last Tuesday (also a ...
Fri, Feb 14 2025, 5:12 PM
Paradoxical Rally Gets Logical After Retail Sales
If yesterday's PPI-driven rally was a paradox, today's con...
Fri, Feb 14 2025, 3:20 PM
The final two days of the present week weren't on many bingo cards as of Wednesday afternoon. At the time, rates were jumping higher in response to i...
Fri, Feb 14 2025, 2:47 PM
In this week's update on mortgage applications from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), purchases continued a modest retreat but refinance demand ...
Fri, Feb 14 2025, 11:53 AM
What a difference the past two mornings have made for a bond market that was seemingly on the ropes on Wednesday. After yesterday's paradoxical (thoug...
Fri, Feb 14 2025, 11:25 AM
As rumors of the demise of HMDA reporting swirl, as well as a 50 percent reduction in HUD headcount and actual VA cuts, think about this the next time...
Thu, Feb 13 2025, 4:36 PM
What's Up With Today's Paradoxical Bond Rally?
PPI may not be as heavy a hitter as CPI on average, but one c...
Thu, Feb 13 2025, 3:21 PM
Mortgage rates jumped quickly higher yesterday following the higher inflation reading in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Now today, rates have complet...
Thu, Feb 13 2025, 11:45 AM
Capital markets participants around the world breathed a sigh of relief when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that President Donald ...
