Thu, Oct 15 2020, 12:09 PM
Although the housing market continues to show strength, Freddie Mac economists say there are increasingly troubling signs in the larger economy. The t...
Thu, Oct 15 2020, 12:04 PM
When I grow up, I want to live in… Estonia? If you need a break, and are thinking about leaving the U.S., take a gander at some highly-ranked work fro...
Thu, Oct 15 2020, 9:59 AM
From 2011 through the middle of 2016, the European economy, monetary system, and policy landscape had an extreme amount of influence over volatility a...
Wed, Oct 14 2020, 4:44 PM
If you're shopping for a purchase mortgage and if you'd previously received quotes from one of the slower moving lenders back in late July or early Au...
Wed, Oct 14 2020, 4:35 PM
Bonds Start Strong But MBS Struggle to Keep Up
Last week was clearly a defensive shift for the bond market. ...
Wed, Oct 14 2020, 10:52 AM
Inflation is one of the basic building blocks of bond yields. A bond is a loan... an agreement for you to give me a lump sum of cash today and for me...
Wed, Oct 14 2020, 9:39 AM
I really wanted to mix things up today so decided to send this commentary out from the other side of the dining room table this morning. Yippee! Speak...
Wed, Oct 14 2020, 9:34 AM
The volume of mortgage applications dipped slightly last week. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Index, a measure of th...
Tue, Oct 13 2020, 4:56 PM
Mortgage Rates have been exceptionally calm recently. The only major exception has been the implementation, delay, and re-implementation of a new fee ...
Tue, Oct 13 2020, 4:36 PM
Bonds Start Strong After Playing Defense Last Week
Last week was clearly a defensive shift for the bond mark...
Tue, Oct 13 2020, 1:08 PM
Mortgage delinquencies continued to rise in July according to CoreLogic's new loan performance report. The company found that 6.6 percent of all mortg...
Tue, Oct 13 2020, 1:04 PM
California is taking steps to avoid a repeat of the conversion of thousands of single-family homes from ownership to rental properties as occurred dur...
Tue, Oct 13 2020, 10:29 AM
The new week begins with "the roll" for 30yr UMBS--our in-house term to refer to the monthly settlement process for MBS coupons, and a perennial sou...
Tue, Oct 13 2020, 9:04 AM
If I were going to open up a store for eyeglasses, I’d make the sign in front of the building blurry. Lenders now don’t have to be so clever, as we’re...
Tue, Oct 13 2020, 8:54 AM
Robert Dietz says you can count him as among those who believe the geography of housing demand is being changed by the pandemic and the resulting rece...
Tue, Oct 13 2020, 8:48 AM
Mortgage credit tightened again in September, reaching a second successive six-year low. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Mortgage Cred...
Fri, Oct 9 2020, 4:59 PM
The bond market, which drives interest rates, is in the habit of reacting to big developments that impact the economy and inflation. At present, bonds...
Fri, Oct 9 2020, 4:59 PM
Weakness and Consolidation as Bonds Wait For Stimulus
This week began with a decisive breakout to higher yie...
Fri, Oct 9 2020, 10:19 AM
At one point in time (and perhaps to this day) if you'd asked the average bond market watcher to name the top 3 months for volatility, October would d...
Fri, Oct 9 2020, 10:05 AM
The number of forbearance plans plunged last week as those that went into effect in the early days of the pandemic hit the end of their initial six-mo...
Fri, Oct 9 2020, 8:51 AM
Eddie Van Halen advised, “You only have twelve notes. Do what you want with them.” Twelve is probably the number of undecided voters in the U.S. at th...
Thu, Oct 8 2020, 3:53 PM
After rising at a medium-quick pace to begin the week, the past 3 days have been much calmer by comparison for mortgage rates . Today was the best exa...
Thu, Oct 8 2020, 3:51 PM
Too Soon To Hope For Support?
This week began with a decisive breakout to higher yields in the bond market. ...
Thu, Oct 8 2020, 10:17 AM
This week began with a decisive breakout to higher yields in the bond market. Trump's comments on stimulus have been a key source of volatility althou...
Thu, Oct 8 2020, 9:59 AM
Fannie Mae's Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) continued to rebound from its spring slide , rising for the second straight month. The HPSI, based o...
Thu, Oct 8 2020, 9:01 AM
Illinois, Alaska, and California. This morning’s drama revolves around the next presidential debate (virtual or not) but folklore tells us that it was...
Wed, Oct 7 2020, 4:42 PM
This morning's weekly survey data from the Mortgage Bankers Association showed a nice increase in refinance applications offset by a smaller decrease ...
Wed, Oct 7 2020, 4:39 PM
Dashed Hopes For Bond Bounce After Trump Tweet Reversal
Tuesday was going poorly for bonds until a Trump Twe...
Wed, Oct 7 2020, 9:51 AM
Tuesday was going poorly for bonds until Trump Tweets (instructing his representatives to stop negotiating a stimulus bill) sent markets into a tailsp...
Wed, Oct 7 2020, 9:32 AM
You have a couple workdays under your belt this week, so let’s take a one paragraph break from mortgage stuff. Pumpkin patches are here, and every par...
Wed, Oct 7 2020, 8:41 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said the volume of purchase mortgage applications declined for a second week but refinancing more than recovere...
Tue, Oct 6 2020, 4:20 PM
After falling moderately to start the week, mortgage rates put in a calmer performance on Tuesday. As we discussed yesterday, volatility in the bond m...
Tue, Oct 6 2020, 4:12 PM
Late Day Reversal For Bonds After Trump Stimulus Threat
Today wasn't going too terribly poorly for the bond ...
Tue, Oct 6 2020, 11:25 AM
For too long and, to this day, far too frequently in many circles, market movement is credited to or blamed on oversimplified "cause and effect" rel...
Tue, Oct 6 2020, 11:24 AM
The Urban Institute (UI) estimates that there are about 400,000 homeowners who have become "needlessly delinquent" as a result of the COVID-19 pandemi...
Tue, Oct 6 2020, 10:22 AM
Entry-level priced homes, which continue to be in short supply, are, helping to drive strong price gains. CoreLogic says home prices nationwide, inclu...
Tue, Oct 6 2020, 10:13 AM
Yes, here we are at the 10th month of the year. You know, “Dec” ember. Oh, this is “Oct” ober. There’s a reason. The numerical names of months date ba...
Mon, Oct 5 2020, 4:14 PM
Mortgage rates have been spoiled, relatively, by an extraordinarily calm/narrow trading pattern in the bond market. That's important because the bond ...
Mon, Oct 5 2020, 3:37 PM
Bonds on The Defensive as Range Breakout Looks More Serious
Last week saw yields break higher after being sq...
Mon, Oct 5 2020, 9:26 AM
While overall mortgage delinquencies declined by 0.03 percent from July to August, Black Knight's newest Mortgage Monitor reveals some disquieting inf...
Mon, Oct 5 2020, 9:08 AM
The incredible range trade of Q3, 2020 is well established and, by now, hopefully well understood. The boundaries are clear in terms of 10yr yields w...
Mon, Oct 5 2020, 9:07 AM
Are you sure that the underwriter or processor working from home isn’t working simultaneously, on a different laptop, for another company besides your...
Fri, Oct 2 2020, 4:31 PM
MBS Outperformance is Actually Helping Rates
Overnight news of Trump's covid diagnosis caused some volatilit...
Fri, Oct 2 2020, 11:31 AM
The TRID Rule has been in effect for exactly 5 years (October 3, 2015) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has published an assessment...
Fri, Oct 2 2020, 10:50 AM
By now, most everyone has heard that the president was diagnosed with covid overnight. At face value, this seems like it should be very big news for...
Fri, Oct 2 2020, 9:40 AM
The number of active COVID-19 related forbearance plans grew over the past week according to Black Knight's most recent survey on the subject. The num...
Fri, Oct 2 2020, 8:57 AM
We’re finally in October, which means one thing is certain: that all the cobwebs and dust in my house just became Halloween decorations. Markets don’t...
Thu, Oct 1 2020, 5:28 PM
Mortgage rates were mixed today, depending on the lender. The underlying bond market (which dictates day to day changes in rates) has been more volati...
Thu, Oct 1 2020, 3:52 PM
Bonds Fight To Remain in Ultra-Narrow Range
Yesterday presented a short-term, small scale threat to the bond...
Thu, Oct 1 2020, 11:22 AM
Construction spending expanded again , with residential construction among the healthier sectors. The U.S. Census Bureau put total August public and p...
