Wed, May 28 2014, 10:40 AM
How much is 90-minutes of your time worth? How about that of your
originators, underwriters and processors? MBA recently launched a new web course ...
Tue, May 27 2014, 12:06 PM
All three home price surveys released this morning showed
prices increased in March, a more moderate improvement than in previous months in
some c...
Tue, May 27 2014, 10:11 AM
The industry knows that 2013 was the tale of two profitability profiles for residential lending:
the first half and the second half. Now the MBA hav...
Fri, May 23 2014, 11:36 AM
The U.S. Census Bureau
and the Department of Housing and Urban Development said today that the sales
of new single family homes in April were at a s...
Fri, May 23 2014, 11:19 AM
I
remember when I first entered the working world, after a few months my
HR person asked, "I see that you're not signed up for the company's
401...
Fri, May 23 2014, 8:00 AM
In yesterday's recap, I mentioned that Treasuries have been trending higher in a 'fairly classic consolidation pattern' and that this was evidence tha...
Thu, May 22 2014, 11:21 AM
There were stirrings of a spring market
in April as both existing home sales and the inventory of available homes
increased. The National Associati...
Thu, May 22 2014, 9:55 AM
More informal/off-the-record chatter from the MBA's Secondary Conference . Many companies are moving toward a variable cost model
rather than fixed...
Tue, May 20 2014, 9:52 AM
Sales, prices, and inventories all
showed some signs of life in April.
Redfin said today that median home prices were up in all markets on an
an...
Mon, May 19 2014, 10:27 AM
People
here at the Secondary Marketing conference are keenly interested in an
insider's view of what the MBA is focused on, and what is causing a ...
Mon, May 19 2014, 1:24 PM
Freddie
Mac's economists used this month's Economic and Housing Market Outlook to look
at three areas of supply and demand.
Analyzing each, they s...
Fri, May 16 2014, 10:12 AM
The
Census Bureau tells us that American families formed 423,000 new
households during the 12 months ending 3/31/14. 79% of the new
households...
Fri, May 16 2014, 9:22 AM
The California Association of Realtors
(C.A.R.) said on Thursday that the state's housing market is showing "true
signs of improvement." The marke...
Thu, May 15 2014, 2:03 PM
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells
Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) fell one point in May to 45 from the April reading
which was...
Mon, May 12 2014, 12:54 PM
Home prices continued to increase as
broadly if not as rapidly as in previous periods the
National Association of Realtors® (NAR) reported today. M...
Mon, May 12 2014, 12:01 PM
The Mortgage Bankers
Association's (MBA) estimate of new home sales rose in April . MBA bases its estimate on applications for
mortgages to purcha...
Thu, May 8 2014, 1:40 PM
Even though sales to investors and sales
of distressed homes have declined the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) reports
that all-cash sales ...
Mon, May 5 2014, 3:10 PM
Since the beginning of the housing crisis in 2008 housing experts have
cited concern over the "Shadow Inventory" and the pitfalls it could present ...
Tue, Apr 29 2014, 9:59 AM
Let's face it: lenders who ignore compliance are doomed in the
long run. Here's a recent quick note provided by the Mortgage Bankers
Association...
Mon, Apr 28 2014, 11:47 AM
MBS are coping with the double-edged sword that is stronger housing data this morning. On the one hand, the decisive reversal of an 8-month slide in ...
Mon, Apr 28 2014, 10:37 AM
Contracts for home purchases ended a dismal
nine-month downturn in March marked by the first improvement in the Pending
Home Sales Index (PSHSI) p...
Mon, Apr 28 2014, 10:04 AM
Another
trend that is winding down in the banking industry is the long period
of Fed Funds at or near 0%. Whether this happens in 2015 or 2016, ke...
Mon, Apr 28 2014, 2:45 PM
Mortgage rates
held almost perfectly steady today, with a handful of lenders offering
slightly lower costs while others were slightly higher. ...
Fri, Apr 25 2014, 10:41 AM
David Crowe, Chief Economist of the National
Association of Home Builders (NAHB) told members attending the Association's
2014 Spring Construction...
Thu, Apr 24 2014, 10:18 AM
It
is "bring your kid to work" day. Some kids are fascinated with how much
others make. They grow up to be underwriters . Others are fascinated
...
Wed, Apr 23 2014, 12:15 PM
New homes sales in March were down 14.5
percent from sales in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 384,000.
The New Residential Sale...
Wed, Apr 23 2014, 12:07 PM
Even before this morning's economic data, bond markets were already in slightly stronger territory. The data itself only helped, though it's a doubl...
Wed, Apr 23 2014, 10:28 AM
The number of banks available to consumers is decreasing - but it
is not because of failures. In fact, there has not been a bank failure
in the ...
Wed, Apr 23 2014, 7:00 AM
The first two days back from the extended weekend have been surprisingly uneventful, and that's saying something considering they were already likely ...
Wed, Apr 23 2014, 3:14 PM
Mortgage rates
moved lower at a healthy pace today, more than erasing the past two
days of weakness, but leaving most of last Thursday's weakne...
Wed, Apr 23 2014, 1:26 PM
California appears to be gearing up for
a strong spring market according to pending home sales figures released today
by the California Association ...
Tue, Apr 22 2014, 11:31 AM
Sales of existing homes were
essentially unchanged in March compared to February the National Association of
Realtors® (NAR) said today. Home price...
Tue, Apr 22 2014, 10:17 AM
Here's a good question: can
a lender who emails disclosures to loan applicants via an e-delivery
system, still remain compliant under RESPA and TI...
Tue, Apr 22 2014, 1:57 PM
Recent postings on CoreLogic's Insights Blog have a couple of
different views of some of the housing numbers generally taken at face value by
...
Mon, Apr 21 2014, 9:36 AM
Home remodeling remains strong
throughout the country although it has begun to experience some of the
moderation that has been predicted since lat...
Mon, Apr 21 2014, 9:32 AM
The commentary on Saturday noted predictions for 2014, and how things were shaping up so far. Attorney Phil Stein observed, "Here is another issue to ...
Tue, Apr 15 2014, 11:45 AM
The National Association of Home
Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) rose to 47 this month,
indicating a slight improvement in th...
Tue, Apr 15 2014, 10:49 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA)
estimated today that there was a 15 percent increase in applications for new
home purchases in March compar...
Mon, Apr 14 2014, 9:03 AM
The Fed's comments on housing last week were interesting. "Housing activity
remained slow over the intermeeting period. Although unfavorable weath...
Thu, Apr 10 2014, 10:25 AM
The recent spate of agency news has been interesting to follow.
Arguably F&F should not stay under government conservatorship, but
what are the ...
Wed, Apr 9 2014, 1:45 PM
Although the second home mortgage market
experienced a severe decline during the housing downturn, Americans still
aspire to buy second homes and ha...
Tue, Apr 8 2014, 10:17 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) noted this morning that mortgage
credit was slightly more available in March than it was in February. The Ass...
Mon, Apr 7 2014, 11:00 AM
The Obama Administration's February
Housing Scorecard, just released, harkens back to those not so thrilling days
of yesteryear, using data from sev...
Wed, Apr 2 2014, 10:55 AM
Vacation home purchases recovered
strongly in 2013, helping to offset some of the inevitable flagging interest in
investment purchases the Nationa...
Fri, Mar 28 2014, 9:13 AM
I
continue to receive questions about the CFPB's stance on kickbacks and
referrals . I usually tell the person to write to the CFPB directly, but...
Fri, Mar 28 2014, 2:34 PM
CoreLogic Chief Economist Mark
Fleming suggests that an examination of housing's one-percenters might be as valuable
an analysis as a glance at th...
Thu, Mar 27 2014, 10:43 AM
The National Association of Realtors®
(NAR) Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) for February added more confirmation of a
slowing home housing market. ...
Thu, Mar 27 2014, 10:19 AM
Home
sales continue to cool , dipping to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.08
million in February RealtyTrac said today.
This was a -0.2 per...
Thu, Mar 27 2014, 9:50 AM
Bank of America bought Countrywide and Merrill Lynch in 2008 and 2009 respectively. How is that investment paying off? Well, it just cost BofA anoth...
Thu, Mar 27 2014, 8:00 AM
Bond markets will get what is probably their busiest day of economic events today. Right out of the gate, two relatively important pieces of data w...