Tue, Aug 30 2011, 10:44 AM
Realtors
and mortgage professionals know that divorce
can often lead to the formation of a new household. According to the Census
Bureau, the nat...
Mon, Aug 29 2011, 11:01 AM
After posting two strong consecutive months, pending home sales fell in July
according to information released Monday by the National Association o...
Mon, Aug 29 2011, 10:32 AM
An IT
person is someone who understands this joke: "The definition of 'Installation
routine': A process employed by many applications to overwrite a...
Wed, Aug 24 2011, 10:09 AM
Fannie,
Freddie, and the US Government aren't the only entities struggling with debt. The
U.S. Post Office is expected to hit its $15 billion borro...
Wed, Aug 24 2011, 1:16 PM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency ( FHFA )
has released its seasonally adjusted purchase-only house price index (HPI) for
the second quarter of 2...
Tue, Aug 23 2011, 12:16 PM
The sales of new single-family houses fell slightly in July
to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 298,000. The U.S. Census Bureau and the Depa...
Tue, Aug 23 2011, 10:39 AM
Who is
Deven Sharma? He is the latest person to quit his job. Ordinarily this wouldn't
be a big deal, but he was the president of Standard & Poor...
Mon, Aug 22 2011, 12:43 PM
The third quarter is shaping up to
be the best in 2011 from the standpoint of mortgage originations according to
the Mortgage Bankers Association (M...
Mon, Aug 22 2011, 10:20 AM
No wonder
companies are hiring. The Mortgage Bankers Association raised its forecast
for loan production this year to $1.1 trillion in residential ...
Fri, Aug 19 2011, 10:18 AM
Every
month we hear about existing home sales , with the usual quote from
someone at the NAR. (This time around, Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist,...
Thu, Aug 18 2011, 12:17 PM
The National Association of Realtors ®
reported today that existing-home sales in July were down from the previous
month but were significantly h...
Thu, Aug 18 2011, 9:32 AM
Does it
seem more crowded around here than ten years ago? Maybe not in Detroit, or in Kansas, but around the world, the
population is expected to h...
Tue, Aug 16 2011, 11:06 AM
Builder confidence in the housing market
remained unchanged in August according to the National Association of Home
Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Hous...
Tue, Aug 16 2011, 2:03 PM
Housing starts in July fell from June
figures but still came in well ahead of predictions. According to information released by the U.S.
Census Bu...
Thu, Aug 11 2011, 11:23 AM
Last
night my wife met me at the front door. She was wearing a sexy negligee. The
only trouble was, she was coming home.
The correct perspective ...
Thu, Jul 28 2011, 11:36 AM
Heard on
the NPR radio show "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" from Michael Feldman:
"If the US defaults on their debt and our rating is downgraded and the...
Thu, Jul 28 2011, 8:28 AM
Markets having seemingly stabilized again following a disastrous day in equities on Wednesday. Political noise in Washington remains the dominant them...
Thu, Jul 28 2011, 2:44 PM
Pending real estate sales had
another strong showing in June according to the Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI)
released today by the National Associa...
Wed, Jul 27 2011, 10:03 AM
A loan
agent sent me a joke yesterday: "What's the difference between the US
government and a subprime borrower? None - they borrow money that they ...
Tue, Jul 26 2011, 12:04 PM
The Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development have
released New
Residential Sales data for June 2011.
New Residential S...
Tue, Jul 26 2011, 2:31 PM
Home prices in much of the nation
increased in May according to the S&P/Case
Shiller Home Prices Indices (HPI) released on Tuesday. May was the...
Mon, Jul 25 2011, 11:48 AM
When
somebody begins a sentence with "It would be nice if..." the right
thing to do is to wait politely for the speaker to finish. No project ever g...
Mon, Jul 25 2011, 2:21 PM
Fannie Mae's Economic and Mortgage Market Analysis for
July describes second quarter economic data received so far as "discouraging," and
forec...
Thu, Jul 21 2011, 11:44 AM
"If
you make a general statement, a Secondary Marketing Manager says, 'Yes, but ...'
while a loan officer says, 'Yes, and ...'"
Sometimes I w...
Wed, Jul 20 2011, 3:21 PM
An increase in contract cancellations
caused a decline in the sales of existing homes in June. Still, according to the National
Association of Real...
Mon, Jul 18 2011, 9:26 AM
"Texting
is like intellectually roaming free in a cul-de-sac." Feel free to quote
Ralph Nader on that one.
Five-time
Jeopardy winner Rich Cordr...
Mon, Jul 18 2011, 2:21 PM
Two press releases that came out on
Monday may point to a new direction for the residential construction market and
perhaps for housing policy.
H...
Fri, Jul 15 2011, 9:04 AM
Everyone
knows why squirrels swim on their backs. (It's Friday, I couldn't figure out
how to tie that joke in with in with any mortgage related news...
Thu, Jul 14 2011, 10:31 AM
RealtyTrack has reported a generally downward trend
in foreclosure filings since last fall, but the monthly variations tended to
mask the magnitude ...
Mon, Jul 11 2011, 11:09 AM
Remember when loan
processors were as fast as the workers in clip #2? (The fish are fun to watch
as well.) HowDoesHeDoThat?
As I write this, ...
Wed, Jun 29 2011, 10:05 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage
Applications Survey* for the week ending June 24, 2011.
After seeing a m...
Wed, Jun 29 2011, 9:26 AM
Bonds got beat up yesterday as a combination of overbought technicals, quarter-end debt auction supply, and a rally in the stock market all pressured ...
Wed, Jun 29 2011, 2:14 PM
There's some positive news on the future of home
sales.
The Pending Home Sales Index rose sharply in May, indicating an upbeat
outlook for the ...
Mon, Jun 27 2011, 11:05 AM
[I am away from the computer and my access to e-mail is sporadic and not timely. In my place are daily commentaries from a series of very knowledgeabl...
Fri, Jun 24 2011, 4:25 PM
We're back to and maybe even setting new year-to-date mortgage rate lows right now.
These positive developments follow a short period of stagnation...
Thu, Jun 23 2011, 8:26 AM
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield briefly moved above 3% after Fed chairman Ben Bernanke's press conference on Wednesday, but it's now is four ...
Thu, Jun 23 2011, 2:11 PM
The Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development have
released New
Residential Sales data for May 2011.
New Residential Sal...
Wed, Jun 22 2011, 11:16 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association
(MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey* for the week
ending June 17, 2011.
Although mortga...
Tue, Jun 21 2011, 8:54 AM
Rates rose yesterday in a quiet trading environment largely thanks to gains in the stock market. The S&P closed +0.54% at 1278.36. The 10yr note fini...
Tue, Jun 21 2011, 1:32 PM
The National Association of Realtors today released Existing Home Sales
data for May 2011.
Existing Home Sales declined by 3.8 percent to a se...
Mon, Jun 20 2011, 12:13 PM
How hard is it to
create a new currency in a digital age? DigitalMoney = DigitalThieves
Reader feedback on current industry trends, borrower...
Mon, Jun 20 2011, 4:02 PM
At the second anniversary of the current
economic expansion, housing remains stuck in a rut according to Fannie Mae's
Economic Outlook for June ...
Mon, Jun 20 2011, 3:31 PM
Home loan borrowing costs are hovering near the best levels we've seen all year. Volatility has however picked up in the bond market. Just last T...
Thu, Jun 16 2011, 12:10 PM
The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development
have released New Residential Construction statistics for May 2011.
...
Wed, Jun 15 2011, 1:57 PM
The National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) today reported
that its Housing Market Index (HMI) fell
to 13 after standing at 16 for six out ...
Wed, Jun 8 2011, 10:14 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey* for the week ending June 3, 2011.
The Refinance inde...
Wed, Jun 1 2011, 9:57 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 27, 2011. The MBA's loan applic...
Tue, May 31 2011, 12:17 PM
Anyone lending in
"higher loan amount areas" should read the latest from HUD on the
probable/possible changes that will take place on October 1. "Ba...
Fri, May 27 2011, 1:13 PM
The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) released its April Pending
Home Sales Index (PHSI ) today. The index is said to be a leading indicato...
Thu, May 26 2011, 3:11 PM
Foreclosed properties continued to impact the
home sales market during the first quarter of 2011
according to a report released Thursday by Real...
