Category: Mortgage News Daily

Posted To: Pipeline PressWhether it is reducing the number of cookies in a package and keeping the price the same or putting less ounces of cereal in a box and keeping the price the same, both are ways of slyly passing on costs to consumers. In housing, the same thing can be done. It turns out that 10% of the homes in Seattle consist of a single room ! Is this 1720? (Think your job is tough? What about appraisers appraising, and investors valuing, homes with only one room?) As we head toward winter, and higher rates, on the flip side Trulia analysis shows 17% of U.S. listings have dropped asking prices . Housing outpacing wage gains is not a long-term recipe for success for real estate. Training and Events Join me for lunch next week! On Thursday, October 25 th at Wente Vineyards in Livermore, CA join me, the California…(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 NewsWireAnyone who has ever worked as a real estate agent will understand the real reasons behind a new finding from the National Association of Realtors® (NAR). The organization recently conducted a survey among its Realtor members to find out how many considered themselves as members of a team . The survey, conducted in July, involved a sample of 50,436 active Realtors . A total of 3,483 useable responses were received for an overall response rate of 6.9 percent. The responses indicated that the team concept is becoming more common in the real estate world, although it certainly is not dominating it. Twenty-six percent of respondents said they were members of a team. NAR says the definition of a real estate team varies and in some cases is a legal definition. Some states describe it as two or…(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 moved higher at a quicker pace today, following the release of the Minutes from the most recent Fed meeting. But correlation isn’t necessarily causality in this case. The Minutes provide a more detailed account of the Fed meeting that resulted in September’s rate hike. That rate hike was foregone conclusion and the Fed has been a relative open book in the intervening 3 weeks. In other words, there wasn’t bound to be much by way of surprises. Even so, investors are always looking for clues in this more robust snapshot of the Fed’s decision-making process. As such, it has the potential to cause some market volatility . There was market volatility today–especially for bonds (which directly affect mortgage rates). It’s debatable whether it was purely a function of the Fed. More…(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 NewsWirePurchase mortgage originations are expected to increase a bit in 2019, but not by enough to offset the continuing decline in refinancing. A forecast from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), released Tuesday at its 2018 Annual Convention and Expo, predicts a 4.2 percent gain over the 2018 volume of purchase mortgages next year to a total of $1.24 trillion. However, the association expects refinancing activity to fall 12.3 percent to $395 billion. The result will be a net decrease of about $1 trillion in total originations to $1.63 trillion. Business should pick up in 2020; total volume is expected to be $1.68 trillion. Purchase originations are expected to increase to $1.27 trillion and even refinancing will gain ground, rising to $410 billion. Mike Fratantoni, MBA chief economist and senior…(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 PressAs thousands of MBA conference attendees head for the DC airports, what’s the chatter? Regulators who want to remind lenders that not being able to afford a compliance department doesn’t allow a company to make RESPA violations. That it is perfectly legal for builders to offer granite countertops, and to have a preferred lender. Companies who seem afraid, with the current industry-wide appetite for LOs, to tick off loan officers, so “drudgery” like teaching them compliance, how to use the LOS, etc., has fallen by the wayside. About how great a start Bob Broeksmit is off to as president of the MBA, and the value of the MBA’s charity, MBA Opens Doors Foundation , has in helping families. Lender Products and Services Gearing up for 2019, Lenders must reassess their…(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 CommentaryThere are only so many ways to say that bonds are range-bound and waiting for the motivation to break that range. Could it be the Fed Minutes today? Sure! But could the Fed Minutes also be a non-event that only prolongs the sideways indecision? Again, sure! One thing to keep in mind about this particular release of the Fed Minutes is that they pertain to a meeting where the Fed hiked rates, kept its rate hike outlook essentially unchanged, and published the least-edited version of their policy statement that we’ve seen in modern memory. The only noticeable change was the abandonment of the word “accommodative”–a qualitative reference to where the Fed views itself on a spectrum of tight/loose monetary policy. All of the above places a tremendous amount of emphasis on the Minutes…(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 NewsWireAll three reports on residential construction activity in September were disappointing, but no more so than any of the other housing data that speaks to the ongoing process of leveling-off. While there had been some erosion expected from the August numbers, the actual data did not meet analysts’ expectations. Upward revisions to August permitting took some of the sting out of that report, but the opposite happened with housing starts. Results were particularly poor in the South, likely resulting from the impact of Hurricane Florence . Permits for residential construction were issued at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,241,000 units. This is 0.6 percent lower than the August estimate of 1,249,000 and 1.0 percent below the annual rate of 1,254,000 the previous September. The August number…(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 CommentaryHindsight really is 20/20, and foresight wasn’t too bad either. Either way, the picture is becoming clearer as bond yields move back toward recent highs in the wake of today’s Fed Minutes. Let’s start with the foresight . We’d been expecting (or at least entertaining the strong possibility) bonds to weaken earlier this week in the event the stock market found its footing. Stocks found that footing yesterday, but bonds didn’t panic too much. My conclusion from yesterday’s recap was that “bond traders could be waiting to make their move until tomorrow afternoon’s Fed Minutes,” or that we were getting a temporary boost from somewhere. Today’s uneventful Fed announcement (stocks closed right at pre-Fed levels and bonds didn’t really make a big move…(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 NewsWireMortgage applications were down last week by the largest seasonally adjusted percentage since September 2017 . The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Index, a measure of application volume, dropped by 7.1 percent during the week ended October 12, and was down 7.0 percent unadjusted. There was a minor holiday, Columbus Day, that shortened the week for some financial institutions, but MBA said its numbers were adjusted to account for the holiday. Refinancing also suffered a major loss, declining 9 percent compared to the week ended October 5. It was the largest dip since the week ended November 24, 2017. The share of mortgage activity ticked down to 38.1 percent of total applications from 39.0 percent during the week ended October 5. The Purchase Index lost 6 percent…(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 NewsWireRecent research from Trulia shows home price reductions are increasing . The share of homes for sale that have had at least one price cut since being listed is the highest since 2014. This, the company says, is more evidence that the market may finally be tilting in homebuyers favor, but the benefits are certainly not evident across the board, or maybe even where they are most needed. During the first part of this year the share of listings with a price changes stayed much as it was in 2017, but then shot up in July and August. When this is coupled with the slowdown in home price growth that has been noted in most indices, and inventories that are finally creeping up, the increase in price cuts, according to Trulia, could be a critical third confirmation that things may finally be shifting…(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.