MBS RECAP: One of Three Things is Going on With Bonds
Friday, January 18, 2019
Posted To: MBS Commentary Bond markets sold-off today in a slightly more alarming way than we've seen so far in 2019. This was accompanied by 11th straight trading session where stocks closed higher than they opened, as well as the best S&P prices in more than a month. One of three things... .. read more..
Mortgage Rates Nominally Higher Despite Bond Market Warning
Friday, January 18, 2019
Posted To: Mortgage Rate Watch Mortgage rates rose gently today. Most mortgage borrowers (and many mortgage professionals, for that matter) wouldn't be aware of slightly more alarming risks lurking underneath the surface. Those risks involve the broader bond market from which mortgage-related bon... .. read more..
Has RESPA's Servicer Rule Reduced Foreclosures?
Friday, January 18, 2019
Posted To: MND NewsWire In accordance with requirements of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently conducted five-year assessments of two rules it promulgated under the act. We summarized their assessment of the Abili... .. read more..
MBS Day Ahead: Bonds Break One Ceiling, But The Next One is More Important
Friday, January 18, 2019
Posted To: MBS Commentary Ever since bottoming out in early 2019, 10yr Treasury yields faced a pretty clear line in the sand from a technical standpoint. 2.82% stuck out like a sore thumb overhead due to multiple instances where it acted as a floor in 2018. It may have seemed too far away to worr... .. read more..
Condo, Sales, and Business Intelligence Products; Freddie and Fannie Program ...
Friday, January 18, 2019
Posted To: Pipeline Press For the first time in history, the six biggest banks — JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley — made $100 billion in profit in a year. Yowzah! There’s a lot going on out there, and Ben Smidt put out his... .. read more..
New Home Sales Pull Back Amid Global Uncertainty
Friday, January 18, 2019
Posted To: MND NewsWire Applications for new home purchases dropped in December , falling 6.8 percent behind those a year earlier. The deficit from November was even larger, a decline of 13 percent. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) estimates that those numbers, which do not include any adju... .. read more..
MBS RECAP: Trade Headlines Provide Sneak Peak for Bond Market Vulnerability
Thursday, January 17, 2019
Posted To: MBS Commentary The Wall St Journal ran a story this afternoon suggesting Treasury Secretary Mnuchin was pushing for a compromise deal to ease Tariffs on China in order to grease the skids for trade talks. As a result, stocks and bonds lost their cool --relatively. Case in point, in the... .. read more..
Mortgage Rates Holding Ground But Volatility Could Increase
Thursday, January 17, 2019
Posted To: Mortgage Rate Watch Mortgage rates were technically steady today. In fact, as of this writing, most lenders are offering slightly better terms compared to yesterday, but only by barely-detectable amounts. The afternoon brought volatility in financial markets owing to trade-related head... .. read more..
Subservicer, Non-Agency Products; World Debt Increasing; Primer on "Duration"...
Thursday, January 17, 2019
Posted To: Pipeline Press Time has a way of slipping by. For example, I’ve really been meaning to transfer a bunch of Lotus 1-2-3 and Quattro Pro spreadsheets I have off of some floppy disks and onto my laptop but never seem to get around to it. Speaking of time passing, Moody’s send ... .. read more..
MBS Day Ahead: There Are Only So Many Ways To Say It
Thursday, January 17, 2019
Posted To: MBS Commentary Unless you've missed the past few days of commentary, you've heard me say something about the sideways uncertainty in markets as investors wait for a government shutdown resolution. There are only so many ways to say it. So I'll let someone else say it this m... .. read more..
Will New FHFA Head Follow his Instincts or Bow to Reality?
Thursday, January 17, 2019
Posted To: MND NewsWire "The most important question in housing policy heading into the new year has nothing to do with interest rates, housing supply, or home sales," Urban Institute (UI) non-resident fellow Jim Parrott says. "It's what kind of director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHF... .. read more..
MBS RECAP: Bonds Looking Reluctant to Make Bigger Moves Without Data
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Posted To: MBS Commentary Today would have been Retail Sales day were it not for the government shutdown. This also prevented Business Inventories from reporting (not an insignificant piece of data even if not on par with Retail Sales). Tomorrow will see the New Residential Construction numbers (... .. read more..
Mortgage Rates Up Slightly, But Still in Great Shape
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Posted To: Mortgage Rate Watch Mortgage rates rose modestly today after spending the past 2 days moving sideways. It was really yesterday's market weakness that caused today's move. Mortgage rates are most directly affected by the trading of mortgage-backed securities (MBS). When MBS are weaker, ... .. read more..
Manufactured Home and Capital Markets Products; Radian Expands; Big Banks' Mo...
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Posted To: Pipeline Press As pricing battles rage in the wholesale channel, there has been plenty of news of layoffs in residential lending over the last six months industry-wide, due to reasons like becoming more efficient, lower volumes, or fewer delinquencies, the most recent being BB&T an... .. read more..
Builder Confidence Buoyed by Lower Rates
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Posted To: MND NewsWire After falling an aggregate of 12 points in November and December the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) appears to have stabilized. The HMI, a measure of home builders' confidence in the market for newly constructed homes, g... .. read more..