Tagged: HomeFinance

Even though the week ended January 4 was shortened by the New Year’s holiday mortgage application volume rebounded strongly. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Index, a measure of application volume, was up 23.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis compared to the previous week and 68 percent on an unadjusted basis.  […]

Mortgage rates rose moderately for the 3rd day in a row today, bringing them to the highest levels since December 31st for the average lender.  In outright terms, this equates to an increase of an eighth of a percentage point (.125%) since the most recent lows last Thursday. While it’s only 3 days of weakness in the […]

Even With Lower Rates, Mortgage Applications Drop 9.8% The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) office was closed during Christmas Week and did not issue its usual summary of mortgage application activity for the week ended December 21.  Its report for the week ended December 28 therefore covers changes to its volume indices since December 14.  These […]

The US taxpayer has been bearing the credit risk of 90% of all new origination over the past 10 years. What about property/collateral risk? Yesterday FEMA issued a new opinion disallowing new or renewal flood insurance policies during the partial shutdown of the federal government. NAR weighed in. “Today’s ruling comes contrary to Congressional intent […]

Fannie/Freddie “Reform” Discussion Heats Up Again The debate has opened again on the fate of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (the GSEs).   Ten plus years after the two were put in federal conservatorship at the start of the housing crisis the issue of what to do with them and when never seems to come any […]

You can cut the numbers in several ways, but no matter the way it is reported, American households are in relatively good shape when it comes to mortgage debt. While this isn’t a number many homeowners think about after they get up from the closing table, CoreLogic points out that it could be very important […]

Loan Defect Report Shutdown and Possible Impact on Lenders Verus Non-QM Deal Welcome to the Winter Solstice with more daylight in the Northern Hemisphere every day for the next six months. Today is definitely greeted by residents of Fairbanks, Alaska where the sun sets at 2:40 in the afternoon (with a high temperature of -14). […]

by: Matthew Graham   MBS RECAP: Stock Sell-Off Makes Strong Case For Bond Consolidation   Dec 17 2018, 5:46PM Just when you thought we might be done talking about “consolidations,” there’s that word again!  I’d suggested on Friday that the modest bond market gains helped to confirm a consolidation as opposed to a correction, with […]

Lots of folks in the mortgage biz like statistics and odds. They may not remember them, but they like them. (As Marcus L. writes, “People still play the lottery even though most of us can’t get the USB in the first time correctly and those odds are 50/50.”) Plenty of home loans are impacted by […]

Borrower activity continued to pick up last week as interest rates retreated to September levels and mortgage applications extended their recent winning streak. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Index, a measure of application volume, increased 1.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ended December 7.  On an unadjusted […]