Category: Mortgage News Daily

Posted To: Mortgage Rate WatchMortgage rates were almost perfectly unchanged today. That leaves them right in line with last Friday’s levels. I devoted a considerable number of words in yesterday’s article to explaining why most other articles about mortgage rates were inaccurate yesterday. Suffice it to say that the absence of change compared to last Friday fully drives home the point I was making. In short, due to the primary source data that most news organizations use for their big mortgage story each week, the average article proclaimed a nice drop in rates. In actuality, that drop happened at the end of last week. From there, rates have barely budged. These rates aren’t the worst we’ve seen and they’re not the best. They’re pretty comparable to most of the past few months. You’d have to go back to May 2018 to see…(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 Commentary10yr yields ended the week at almost exactly where they began. With the exception of Tuesday, bonds closed within 1.5bps of each other on the other 4 days this week. Tuesday was only 2bps higher and gave way to an overnight rally that restored the range anyway! Long story short, for all the hullabaloo about Turkey/China/Etc. it was a really quiet week. Part of the issue is that Turkish shockwaves had their fun last week, but even then, it’s not as if bonds are making big moves in the bigger picture. If bonds aren’t moving, perhaps we can find something interesting to say about something that IS moving and that usually has an effect on bonds. Granted, I’ll be the first to point out that the stock market should never be seen as a bond market indicator, but if we want to keep track…(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 NewsWireLoan performance continued to improve in the second quarter. The overall delinquency rate on one-to-four-unit residential properties fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.36 percent of all loans outstanding at the end of that period, a 27-basis point (bp) decline from the first quarter of this year. The National Delinquency Survey conducted by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) found delinquencies in all stages were lower than during the first quarter; the 30-day delinquency rate dropped 2 bps while the 60-day and 90-delinquency buckets dropped by 8 and 18 bps respectively. The overall rate, however was up 12 bps from the second quarter of 2017. The delinquency rate includes loans that are at least one payment past due but does not include loans in the process of foreclosure. The share…(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 CommentaryIt may end up being a slow, summertime Friday with the news cycle calming down relative to earlier in the week, not to mention the fact that its peak vacation season (traders take vacations too, ya know!). That gives us a moment to step back and reflect on some bigger picture trends . US rates have been playing Red Light, Green Light with global risks all year. If they had their way, they’d continue moving higher, but they slowed their roll and settled into a more gradual pace after the Italian political drama in the middle of the year. The weeks leading up to the Italian drama ended up looking like a big, temporary breakout of what would eventually become the sideways-to-slightly-higher range. Subsequent global risks haven’t measured up to Italy in terms of bond market impact. Trade…(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 PressCapital markets folks know that there are billions of dollars of outstanding 5, 6, 7, and even 8% securities filled with high interest-rate loans. LOs know that they aren’t paying off/refinancing. One possible reason? Despite the headlines talking about housing appreciation outpacing wages, about 10% of all U.S. homes with a mortgage are “seriously underwater.” These are homes where the balance on the loans are 25 percent higher than the actual market value of the home. There are 5.5 million seriously underwater properties in the U.S. , but some areas are harder hit than others. In Louisiana, 21.7 percent of homes are seriously underwater, 18.5 percent in Illinois and 17.8 percent in Missouri. Some zip codes are particularly dire: 65809, in Springfield, Missouri has 81 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: Pipeline PressTrillions of dollars of securities are tied to LIBOR, but the London Interbank Offered Rate is scheduled to be phased out at the end of 2021. Companies servicing adjustable rate mortgages tied to LIBOR are concerned, understandably, about the transition to another index. So far, the front runner substitute seems to be the Secured Overnight Financing Rate. Floating-rate bank bonds tied to SOFR could be brought to market within months . A name to watch: TD Securities. TD Bank has aided issuance of SOFR-based bonds from the World Bank and Fannie Mae. Technology and Vendor News Lenders can now participate in STRATMOR’s Technology Insight Study, a unique STRATMOR study that gets at the heart of the mortgage technology experience from the lender’s viewpoint. perspective. Time is running…(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 analysts had predicted, both housing permits and starts recovered , albeit only slightly, in July after a poor showing the previous month. The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development now report that housing permits are being issued at a pace higher than in 2017, but housing starts are still lagging the earlier number. Permits for privately owned residential construction were issued in July at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,311,000 units. This is an increase of 1.5 percent from the June rate of 1,292,000 (revised from 1,273,000 units). July’s permitting rate is now 4.2 percent higher than that of July 2017. Analysts polled by Econoday had predicted permits would be at a rate ranging from 1,280,000 to 1,325,000. Their consensus was slightly below 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: MBS CommentaryI found myself driving in the truck for more than an hour yesterday evening–long enough to hear the news cycle repeated several times. During that time, I was emphatically warned about this ” new ” and ” surprising ” issue of Turkey’s financial crisis. Apparently this has the potential to send shockwaves through global financial markets. Other people get road rage when other drivers are less than courteous, or due to ridiculous traffic perhaps. I get road rage when news radio misses the mark on financial market movers. I explained this to the officer that pulled me over for ostensibly making menacing gestures toward other drivers. He was going to give me a ticket anyway until I pulled out the laptop to put together the following chart for him. After he saw it, he apologized…(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 loans held on to the June share of 71 percent of closed loans in July which remains the highest share in the seven-year history of Ellie Mae’s Origination Insight Report . Refinances also held steady, remaining at 29 percent although the percentage of refinancing through the VA gained 2 percentage points to 25 percent. Conventional and FHA stayed at 31 and 19 percent respectively. The distribution of new loans remained the same as in June as well, with 66 percent of originations going to conventional loans, 20 percent FHA, and VA loans accounting for 10 percent. The share of Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) dropped to 6.6 percent from 6.9 percent the previous month. “The purchase market remained solid in July and as we see inventories rise, we might begin to see a transition to a buyer…(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 WatchBe careful what you read–or perhaps, who you trust–about mortgage rates today. There’s a lot of misinformation out there. Don’t be mad. No one is out to get you. No one is out to intentionally deceive you (at least not when it comes to today’s mortgage rate news. Rather, the misinformation is a byproduct of a few unfortunate realities that we contend with on a regular basis. The first reality is that Freddie Mac’s weekly rate survey is widely relied upon by media outlets. There’s nothing wrong with Freddie’s data as long as you understand what you’re getting. It is a stale, loosely accurate report of what a few lenders are offering on a few days of any given week. Over time (preferably, a LONG time), it does a nearly perfect job of capturing the ups and down in mortgage rates. The problem…(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.