Category: Mortgage News Daily

Posted To: MBS CommentaryTired of hearing about Turkey yet? This is what happens when fairly quiet markets are interrupted by a thunderous roar from an unexpected place. Newscasters, analysts, and armchair economists you’ll talk to over the weekend are all happy to finally have SOMETHING to discuss other than Elon Musk, Apple being a trillion dollar company, or whether or not Keke loves them. Long story short, there’s nothing too meaningful going on in the world of interest rates this week, and the Turkey thing would be worth discussing even during busier times of year. As such, it’s going to feel like the only thing anyone is talking about for a while yet. Unfortunately, it’s pretty simple: it takes a LOT of drama out of Turkey to generate a merely moderate response in US bond markets. Moreover, when…(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 NewsWireWe now have an unfortunate sign that the recovery is complete. The National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) says housing affordability is the lowest level since just before the housing crisis hit. The NAHB says the Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) shows that a combination of rising home prices and higher mortgage rates now means that only 57.1 percent of new and existing homes sold during the second quarter of 2017 were affordable to families earning the U.S. median income of $71,900. This is down from the 61.6 percent of homes sold in the first quarter that were affordable to median-income earners and is the lowest reading since mid-2008. The index reflects the increase in the national median home price to $265,000 in the second quarter, the highest median price ever recorded…(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 PressThis week in Salt Lake City, mPower hosted an event at the Lenders One Summer Conference, drawing nearly 400 people. The executive panel, led by MBA’s Tricia Migliazzo, presented challenges and solutions in today’s workplace and shared insights for what it takes to lead in the mortgage industry. The session marks the 13 th in-person mPower programming event for 2018. mPower, MBA Promoting Opportunities for Women to Extend their Reach, is MBA’s networking and professional development platform for women in real estate finance. Corporate Changes and M&A Corporate changes continue, whether it is at small lenders across the nation, National MI, or last week’s news from Wells Fargo for its warehouse clients. “The Mortgage Banker Finance Group (MBFG), Wells Fargo Securities’…(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 CommentaryHave you heard the one about the Turkish debt crisis? Things are pretty bad for Turkey and the currency is indeed in freefall, but until the charts do something different, they’re not yet making a compelling case for a “risk-off” connection to the US bond market. Rather, today’s action was centered on this morning’s Producer Price Index (PPI). PPI isn’t typically a big market mover, but the stakes are a bit higher at the moment. Reason being: tomorrow brings the more important CPI data (consumer price index). The most widely-followed part of the CPI data–“core” year-over-year–has poked and prodded a ceiling of 2.3% during the recovery from the Great Recession, but it has yet to break through. With last month’s reading right on the 2.3% line, a downturn…(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 PressLots of originators are fascinated by demographics. Every year, about 27,000 people move from New York City to Philadelphia , making that specific move one of the largest region-to-region migration flows in the United States. New York in general is often the first stop for immigrants coming to the U.S., and Philly is appealing to both young families trying to get a lower cost of living as well as immigrant populations seeking a long-term community after arrival – and the chance to spend the summer at a beach house with all your next-door neighbors from back in Philly! The number of Philadelphia residents born abroad has increased by 69 percent since 2000. Zillow I keep being asked, “Will Zillow Mortgage/MLOA use Zestimate as a home’s value?” (On a serious note, what happens…(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 CommentaryIn the short-term (past few weeks), the trend has not been our friend. After breaking above a narrow, sideways range, yields had been pushing higher and even crested 3% on the first 2 days of the month. Over the past week, however, they’ve been trying to change their evil ways- -trying and mostly failing. The benchmark for these efforts depends on your perspective, but the pivot point (a level that has tended to result in more bounces than breaks when approached from either direction) of 2.95% is well-situated to cast some judgment . Also nearby is the middle bollinger band (a 21-day exponential moving average that often serves as the dividing line between positive and negative momentum. Then there are the momentum studies themselves. These involve somewhat more complex math, but all seek…(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 Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) says that responses to its recent Mortgage Builder Applications Survey indicates an increase of 3.6 percent in applications for financing newly constructed homes in July compared to the same month in 2017. That is an 0.2 percent uptick from June. Based on the survey results, which are not seasonally adjusted, and other assumptions about factors that include market coverage, MBA estimates that new single-family home sales were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 637,000 in July. This is an 8.5 percent increase from MBA’s June estimate of 587,000 units. On an unadjusted basis, MBA estimates that there were 53,000 new home sales during the month, the same number as in June. Joel Kan, MBA Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting…(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 NewsWireFannie Mae has informed us that they too have activated their disaster response policies for homeowners , this time for those affected by the California wildfires. Homeowners impacted are eligible to stop making mortgage payments for up to 12 months during which time they will not incur late fees or have delinquencies reported to the credit bureaus. While homeowners are advised to contact their mortgage servicers as soon as possible those servicers are also authorized to suspend or reduce a homeowner’s mortgage payments immediately for up to 90 days if they believe a homeowner has been affected, even without homeowner contact. Any eligibility for up to 12 months forbearance will not be affected. Servicers must suspend foreclosure and other legal proceedings if it believes there is a disaster…(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 finally did what they were supposed to do today. Specifically, they fell in response to bond market improvement. That’s the way it should be, but over the past two days the typical relationship between bonds and mortgage lenders’ rates has been a bit inconsistent due to the timing of market movement throughout the day. On Tuesday, bonds weakened throughout the day. This would normally coincide with rates moving higher, but the bond market weakness didn’t happen quickly enough for most lenders to take action. As such, they were left to make the adjustment the following morning. Then on Wednesday, bonds improved, but not quickly enough for most lenders to bring rates lower. That left us with a bit of an advantage to start the day today. Before most lenders published their first…(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 CommentaryThis week continued in the fine tradition of of ultra-light summertime volume and liquidity, but today’s contribution was a bit more worthwhile than the previous 2 entries. Today, at least, had the 10yr Treasury auction–the heretofore most important event of the week for bond markets. This was the biggest 10yr auction in history–not in terms of importance, but in terms of the outright amount being auctioned. How would markets digest this glut of issuance on an illiquid summer trading week that was already seeing a bigger-than-expected surge in corporate bond issuance? As fate would have it, markets coped pretty darn well. There was no meaningful sell-off ahead of the auction, and the stats were definitely on the strong side. Despite that, we didn’t have any meaningful relief rally…(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.