Category: Mortgage News Daily

Posted To: Mortgage Rate WatchMortgage rates fell decisively today–at least in the context of the recent range–thanks primarily to heavy losses in the stock market. Stocks are far from the only consideration for interest rates, and many times, there’s no correlation between the two on any given trading day. But when stocks are losing ground quickly, investors seek shelter in several safer places–one of them being the bond market. More demand for bonds means lower rates. All of the above having been said, over the past two days, I’ve made it a point to talk about the inconsistent behavior between mortgage rates and bond market movement. In short, mortgage rates weren’t doing a good job of following the market. This was mostly a factor of timing, and we just needed to see bond markets hold onto recent gains with less volatility…(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.

Posted To: MBS CommentaryInterest rates that have generally been rising for a any period of time can catch a break for many reasons. Sometimes it’s Italian political drama (not that this is common, but it was a big deal in May 2018), and other times, it’s a old-fashioned stock sell-off. This week it was the latter. Time and again when big stock sell-offs help rates break a vicious cycle, we’ve seen a lot of resistance to the idea. In other words, it takes a BIG drop in stocks to catch rates’ attention if rates’s attention has been excessively focused on moving higher. That’s exactly how things went down this week. Far be it from me to complain about lower rates. Indeed, I’m not. But with these lower rates come other challenges posed by massive stock losses. If we could have our cake and…(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.

Posted To: MBS CommentaryEverything continues to be fairly unidimensional for bonds this week with the dimension in question being that of the equities market. In terms of relative movement, we can still say the bond rally is “reluctant” compared to what’s going on in stocks (see the lower half of today’s chart). Nonetheless, we’ll take what we can get in this rising rate environment–especially in the month of October, which had seen the highest yields in more than 7 years. Today’s key data release is Q3 GDP. Whereas we don’t normally look to GDP for much market-moving relevance, today stands some chance to be an exception because it’s the first reading for the quarter (whereas the next 2 will be revisions of the same quarter). That said, investors could still opt to trade earnings…(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.

Posted To: Pipeline PressWell, I’m a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona and such a fine sight to see. What if you want to put down roots there? The town, 3 and a half hours northeast of Phoenix, has plenty of reasonably-priced houses . It’s high desert, and a casual glance indicates that every tree in the yard adds about $50k to the value. Not much has changed there in the 46 years since that song was released, unlike our industry where there’s news every day. The latest is JPMorgan Chase’s downgrade of Ellie Mae after earning forecasts failed to meet expectations, while also citing lower home purchase volume, rising interest rates, and lack of entry-level supply for first-time home buyers, the kind catered to by many lenders who use Ellie Mae’s electronic origination platform Encompass. Random vendor updates…(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.

Posted To: MND NewsWireFreddie Mac reported this week that its total mortgage portfolio increased at an annualized rate of 2.3 percent in September. The portfolio balance at the end of the period was $2.151 trillion compared to $2.147 trillion at the end of August and $2.057 trillion a year earlier. Purchases and Issuances totaled $31.296 billion, bringing the 2018 year-to-date total to $286.6 billion, Sales were ($1.474) billion and Liquidations ($25.739) billion in September and totaled ($16.916) and ($215.003) billion respectively so far this year. The annualized growth rate for 2018 through the end of September was 3.4 percent and the annualized liquidations rate was (13.7) percent. Single-family refinance -loan purchase and guarantee volume was $6.5 billion in September compared to $6.9 billion the prior month…(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.

Posted To: Pipeline PressThe IRS ruled on the tax treatment of business meals? True .) Congressional Bank buying McClean Mortgage? (Rumor.) A loan officer at Umpqua stealing a processor’s lunch from the lunchroom refrigerator? (Still researching.) Wall Street firms increasingly buying loans directly from lenders? (True – but remember 2006?) Fannie’s Beth Milstein retiring next year? (True.) Stearns buying Citywide? (Ask Stearns.) Every week someone asks me about loanDepot’s future. (Don’t ask me, ask loanDepot!) Pressure being put on the CFPB/BCFP to change LO comp rules? ( True .) Yup, lots going on. Legal update Remember the news earlier this year regarding Diamond Residential Mortgage? The Illinois AG issued a press release regarding the IDFPR’s investigation into former DRMC employee, Chris Schaller. DRMC issued…(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.

Posted To: MND NewsWireThe National Association of Realtors® (NAR) just issued the first positive pending home sales report in months . Pending sales, a leading indicator for existing home sales, rose slightly in a month which saw declining sales of existing homes and a fairly devastating report on sales of newly constructed ones. NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index, a measure of newly signed contracts for existing home purchases, rose 0.5 percent to 104.6 in September from 104.1 in August, driven by increases in both the West and Midwest. The Index has now increased in only two of the last six reports. While the September uptick was hopeful for upcoming sales numbers, pending sales are generally expected to turn into closed transactions within the next two months , the PHSI is down 1.0 percent September 2017, the…(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.

Posted To: MND NewsWireAs part of an upgrade to its Desktop Underwriter (DU) that will be issued over the December 8 weekend, Fannie Mae says there will be some adjustments to the credit risk assessment functions. The company says the changes are part of prudent risk management and are meant to account for 2018 market conditions including rising interest rates, waning refinances, and higher loan-to-value (LTV) lending. The announcement notes that the new version, DU 10.3, is intended to help the company’s customers serve their borrowers in a manner that is reflective of current market realities. Fannie may says the new version will continue to analyze each loan casefile using variables that have shown to be predictive of mortgage delinquency. It will also, at a time when lending volume is expected to decline, address…(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.

Posted To: Mortgage Rate WatchMortgage rates were unchanged yet again , making this the third day in a row at essentially the same levels. Strikingly, underlying market movement was quite different compared to yesterday. It’s striking because underlying market movement drives changes in mortgage rates above all else (outside times of crisis, anyway). Simply put, markets suggested rates should fall yesterday. They didn’t. Then markets suggested rates should rise today. They didn’t. What gives? It wouldn’t be an oversimplification to say that mortgage lenders are slightly behind the curve when it comes to adjusting mortgage rates to match market movements. That’s not always the case, but it it’s the case this week. That means that yesterday’s stronger bond market and today’s weaker bond market were like ‘offsetting penalties…(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.

Posted To: MBS CommentaryThe best way to look at today is as a more sober attempt to hold the lowest yields in more than 3 weeks . The only day that’s ended any better for bonds during that time is yesterday–an arguably more emotional example of forced buying stemming from a big, nasty sell-off in the stock market. In contrast, stocks spend the entirety of today’s trading session in better shape than yesterday afternoon. At times, they’d even recovered a majority of the ground lost over the past 24 hours. But even at those times, bonds weren’t panicking. Were bonds in weaker territory? Sure ! But they weren’t panicking. 10yr yields never went higher than 3.145 and they ended the session at 3.126. MBS had an even better day, finally turning the tables on Treasuries’ recent outperformance (not…(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.