More Lender Updates; Letters from the Trenches and Legal Updates Focused on the CFPB
Posted To: Pipeline Press
London plans to use a painfully “High-Pitched Sound Generator” to disperse large crowds at the Olympics. Observers note that it will be Cindy Lauper’s first paying gig since ‘86. Speaking of high-pitched noises (and no, this is not a lead in to a Taylor Swift joke), the constructive clamoring about the CFPB’s [...]
Mortgage Rates Lower Still, But Progress Is Slow
Posted To: Mortgage Rate Watch
Mortgage Rates improved marginally from yesterday’s new all-time lows. Without any major scheduled events to digest, bond markets were left to their own devices and paid a decent amount of attention to a sell-off in stocks. When yields in the broader bond markets move lower, MBS (the “mortgage-backed securities” that most [...]
MBS RECAP: Slightly Bumpy Ride Late, But Important Level Holds
Posted To: MBS Commentary
MBS Live : MBS Afternoon Market Summary 104-16 Turned out to be an important level for Fannie 3.5’s today. There’s more than the usual amount of content in the ‘alerts and updates’ section below if you’re looking to get caught up on how it played out. Long story short, bond markets held [...]
Mortgage Registry Now Includes all States, Federal Lenders
Posted To: MND NewsWire
The State Regulatory Registry, LLC (SRR) and the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS) have issued an Annual Report for 2011. The report notes that 2011 was the first year that all state mortgage regulatory agencies utilized NMLS to manage mortgage loan originator (MLO) licenses on the system. In addition, in January the [...]
MBS MID-DAY: Relatively Uneventful Despite Slight Weakness
Posted To: MBS Commentary
MBS Live : MBS Morning Market Summary As the trading day progresses, things are shaping up to be increasingly uneventful even though MBS are down 6/32nds. Reason being: everything has been well contained, and what little weakness we’ve seen has occurred in a rather orderly fashion and without major volume spikes. Bond [...]
Realtors Show Clout, ‘Protecting The American Dream’ in DC Rally
Posted To: MND NewsWire
Realtors® massed on the Washington Mall on Thursday to show their strength in a year in which their trade organization, The National Association of Realtors (NAR) seems anxious on several levels. An estimated 15,000 Realtors gathered at the foot of the Washington Monument to, in the words of NAR President Moe Veissi [...]
A Note on The Implications Of Flat Fee Pricing; Lender Updates Continue; Ready For Another Refi Wave?
Posted To: Pipeline Press
Facebook…Facebook…Facebook…I guess the financial press is tired of discussing things like Europe’s woes. ( Even today’s closing paragraph at the bottom is about Facebook. ) Say what you want, but it is influencing real estate down in San Francisco . To help keep things in perspective, I received this note about small [...]
The Day Ahead: Markets Free To "Trade It Out" Amid Data-Free Session
Posted To: MBS Commentary
With so many unprecedented and hefty considerations, markets might enjoy today’s complete absence of scheduled economic data as some sort of chance to seek its own equilibrium. That sentence was actually lifted from an article we wrote in July 2011 when European drama was first beginning to collide with impending Fed policy [...]
MBS RECAP: Snowball Buying As Fedspectations Team Up With Euro-Drama
Posted To: MBS Commentary
MBS Live : MBS Afternoon Market Summary Two of our favorite made-up terms joined forces today to carry MBS to yet another all-time high and 10yr yields to the high 1.6’s! The day looked as if it would be a deceleration in terms of volume and volatility this morning, but we turned [...]
Mortgage Rates Officially Hit New All-Time Lows!
Posted To: Mortgage Rate Watch
Mortgage Rates hit new all-time lows today. In most cases, lenders’ offerings are just slightly better across the board than they were in late January, the last time we officially noted “new all-time lows,” though some lenders are not quite back to their previous best levels. A much weaker-than-expected reading on [...]
NAHB, NAR Agree, Homes Never More Affordable
Posted To: MND NewsWire
For the second time in a week a national housing trade organization has shown that purchasing a home is now within the reach of a record number of Americans. On Tuesday the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) published its affordability index indicating the purchasing power of American households had broken through 200 [...]
MBS MID-DAY: More Gains On Philly Fed Miss
Posted To: MBS Commentary
MBS Live : MBS Morning Market Summary The main market-mover of the morning was the release of the Philadelphia Fed Survey, the chief component of which fell from 8.5 last month to -5.8 today. This happens occasionally with regional manufacturing reports and particularly, we’re reminded of the August Philly Fed Index that [...]
The CFPB already has how many employees? And LO’s wonder, "Could mortgage rates really go lower?"
Posted To: Pipeline Press
Accenture Credit Services announced that, “Low interest rates, less competition, more regulation and tighter credit standards have pushed the time it takes the biggest mortgage lenders to refinance a mortgage loan from 45 days a year ago to more than 70 days now.” Underwriters, who in the past could underwrite 6-8 files [...]
The Day Ahead: Calendar Lightens Up Before Data-Less Friday
Posted To: MBS Commentary
If the calendar of upcoming events and y’day’s volume are any indication, it’s possible that Wednesday was the climactic final scene before the intermission. Volume ramped up steadily on the first three days of the week, hitting it’s best levels since mid-March. 10yr Treasuries hit their best levels since October, stocks their [...]
MBS RECAP: Another Logical Day Of Record Highs
Posted To: MBS Commentary
MBS Live : MBS Afternoon Market Summary We characterized yesterday as “logical and well contained” with the benefit of some hindsight. While today’s session wasn’t “well contained,” it was rather logical in that it went where you’d expect it to go given the events. Merkel surprisingly supportive of Greece remaining in the [...]
Judicial States Continue to Skew Foreclosure Statistics
Posted To: MND NewsWire
There were substantial improvements in delinquency rates during the first quarter of 2012 according to the National Delinquency Survey for the period released this morning by the Mortgage Bankers Association. At a conference call for media accompanying the release, Jay Brinkmann, MBA’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of Research and Education [...]
Mortgage Rates Steady At All-Time Lows Thanks To Europe And The Fed
Posted To: Mortgage Rate Watch
Mortgage Rates are steady to slightly improved today following as Europe’s fiscal woes continue providing downward pressure on US interest rates. The forces at work keeping rates low were joined today by “minutes” from the most recent FOMC meeting. All told, several notable lenders are offering their all-time lowest interest rates [...]
Concerns Grow Over Freddie/Fannie Price Dislocations
Posted To: Secondary Markets
One of the themes discussed at the MBA’s recent conference in New York was the idea of “a merger” of the mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The FHFA itself now lists one of its goals to “build a single securitization platform” in the Strategic Plan for 2013-2017 this [...]
"Mega-Lenders" Lagging Smaller Ones in Processing Time
Posted To: MND NewsWire
Small and medium-sized lenders and community banks appear to be closing loans for refinancing faster than their “mega-lender” counterparts according to the Origination Insight Report for April released Wednesday by Ellie Mae. The company, which samples loan applications that are processed through its loan management software, reported that, “While the average refinance [...]
Stats Point to a Decent Housing Market; Nationstar and ResCap; Europe Continues to Move Rates
Posted To: Pipeline Press
Obama played golf with Joe Biden last weekend. They were kicked off the course because every time Obama yelled “Fore”, Biden screamed – “More Years!” But the mortgage industry is more concerned with another Biden: Joe’s son Beau, who is Delaware’s Attorney General. Officials wonder why banks aren’t excited about residential lending, [...]
MBS MID-DAY: After Merkel-Speak Soothes, Draghi Speaks Sooth
Posted To: MBS Commentary
MBS Live : MBS Morning Market Summary The main market-mover this morning was a CNBC interview with Angela Merkel. In it, the German chancellor offered an increasingly supportive tone on Greece remaining in the Euro-zone, saying that Germany would be open to Greece seeking additional stimulus. This was a net-negative for bond [...]
Single Family Construction Strengthens, Multi-family Falls Sharply
Posted To: MND NewsWire
Permits for construction of multi-family housing plummeted in April, offsetting a small increase in single family permits and dropping the total down 7 percent from revised April figures. Permits for all privately owned residential construction were issued at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 715,000, down from the March rate of 769,000. [...]
Ending Uncertainty is Prescription for Housing Recovery
Posted To: MND NewsWire
Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth A. Duke told attendees at a break-out session of the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) Midyear Legislative Meetings that she wished she had, as the session title suggested a ” Prescription for Housing Recovery .” “I do see policies that I believe will help reduce the shadow inventory [...]
Refinancing Applications Jump by Double Digits
Posted To: MND NewsWire
Refinancing activity spiked during the week ended May 11, rising 13.0 percent from the previous week’s level according to the Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey released this morning by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Refinancing represented 74.9 percent of all applications compared to 72.1 percent the previous week. The increase drove the Market [...]
The Day Ahead: Moderate Morning Econ With Fed Minutes In The PM
Posted To: MBS Commentary
Wednesday looks to be a different animal than Tuesday’s rather logical and well-contained session. Yesterday boasted one of the highest concentrations of economic data in recent memory, and while none of it was of earth-shattering importance, markets barely registered a response to the best of it. In other words, Greece and the [...]
