Category: Mortgage News Daily

Posted To: MND NewsWireThe week ended November 2 was another week of retreat for mortgage applications as the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA’s) Market Composite Index dropped by 4.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis. This brought the index to its lowest level since December 2014 . The index was down 2.0 percent on an unadjusted basis compared to the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 3 percent and the share of applications that were for refinancing shrunk to 39.1 percent from 39.4 percent of the total. Despite fluctuating almost weekly and even with rising interest rates, the share of loans that were for refinancing has declined by only a net of 2 percentage points since the end of July. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index declined by 5 percent from one week earlier to the lowest level since…(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 CommentaryJustified or not, midterm elections are the market mover du jour. Midterm elections happen today, so it’s fair to wonder if they will be a market mover today. They probably won’t be! First, let me say that I’ve been wrong before when it comes to the finer points of the timing surrounding political developments (indeed, please feel free to write in if you have another understanding about what I’m about to say). But my understanding is that the first polls close at 6pm ET , which is, of course, an hour after the last bond trades of today’s session. That means that we’re more likely to see any impact from elections in overnight trading. The caveat would be that old chestnut about “x% of precincts reporting.” You know how those news stations do that, right? In…(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 Press“I can’t believe my grandpa is voting Democrat this year…he would have never done that when he was alive.” (Or Republican – your choice.) Things aren’t always what they appear. How about how non-conforming rates for fixed terms and ARMS are currently .125%-.25%+ lower than Agency? Crafty MLOs are looking for ways to be more rate competitive and for well qualified borrowers, quoting non-confirming rates could win the deal. Many non-conforming investors will accept loan amounts $453,150-$679,650 to compete in with Fannie & Freddie. With no Agency gfees, different loan level price adjustments, and lower compliance costs with portfolio products, they’ve been lower for a while. Lender Products and Services “The mortgage industry is a roller coaster…(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 ease of access to mortgage credit rose in October according to the Mortgage Credit Availability Index. An increase in the Index, a product of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), indicates that credit standards are loosening while a decline is a sign that standards are tightening. The 2.5 percent change in October took the composite index to 186.7. Among its components the Conventional MCAI, which itself is composed of two indices, gained 5.5 percent. One of its sub-measures, the Jumbo MCAI, surged by 6.3 percent while the other, the Conforming MCAI was 4.6 percent higher. Moderating the overall gains, the Government MCAI ticked down 0.4 percent. “Credit availability increased in October, driven largely by an expansion in the supply of conventional credit , while government credit fell…(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 didn’t move much today. A few lenders were microscopically stronger or weaker, and the average lender was perfectly unchanged. That’s fairly decent news, considering underlying bond markets suggested higher rates by the end of the day. That said, this could easily be one of those situations where lenders are heading into tomorrow morning with a bit if an upward adjustment to make to rates (reason being: they need to see a certain amount of movement in any given day before “repricing.” Otherwise, they’ll just wait for the following morning). Even then, the landscape of tomorrow morning’s bond market could look very different. Some market participants don’t think midterm election results will matter much at all. Others think they could be the jumping-off point for the next phase…(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 CommentaryWhile we can point to tonight’s election results on the calendar, and imagine that they’ll have an impact on financial markets, stocks and bonds simply continued doing what they’ve been doing since October 28th. That’s when stocks and bond yields bottomed out in a move that was driven exclusively by heavy selling in stocks. Since then, they’ve been bouncing back slowly but surely. Friday’s NFP reaction threw a bit of a wrench in the works as neither stocks nor bonds appreciated the implication of faster/more Fed rate hikes. There was a bit of healing yesterday as both sides of the market rallied. Today, however, it was back to the same old business of rates and stocks moving in the same direction. Today, that direction happened to be higher. It remains to be seen just…(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 NewsWireCash-out refinancing is currently a larger share of the refinance market than at any time since the financial crisis . However, the Urban Institute (UI) says even though those refinances were one of the main contributors to the crash, the present trend doesn’t worry them. Cash out loans, defined as those where the new loan is at least 5 percent larger than the loan it replaces, made up 77 percent of total refinances in the second quarter of 2018. According to Freddie Mac, which tracks its loans that are refinanced into another Freddie Mac product, this is the largest share since 2008. Despite the high percentage of loans, the dollar volume of equity that is being withdrawn is still well below the crisis peaks. Homeowners cashed out $15.8 billion in equity during the second quarter of this year…(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 CommentaryBonds had a rough week last week, more than fully erasing the rally they enjoyed as stocks sold-off in the previous week. Today’s first chart shows that bonds were quick to turn tail and head back toward previous levels, relative to the bounces seen in stocks and European bonds. In other words, the yellow line moved back up the quickest. Does this mean that bonds are simply predetermined to have a bad time these days? Not entirely. Part of the problem with the first chart (and indeed, with any chart that automatically scales the y-axis such that overlaid lines occupy the same vertical space) is that the relationship between the lines can look vastly different if we adjust the time frame. For instance: This second chart suggests that Treasuries were never all that keen to rally in the 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: Pipeline PressRemember the delinquency and foreclosure issues we had several years ago? It is still part of the biz. Hubzu, an online marketing platform, released data ranking the top 20 U.S. markets by the highest percentage of REO properties bought and sold within 2017 (Jan 1 – Dec 31). The data shows that the most active buy, renovate and sell markets are dominated by areas in the South, with Huntsville (38 percent of REO properties bought and sold within one year), Clarksville (34 percent), Gainesville (30 percent), and Pensacola (28 percent) topping the list. Events & Training Times are changing. Are you ready for the change? See how the market has shifted and learn new ways to diversify your business and expand your revenue stream. Discover more about investment property loans and how they can…(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 continued pushing up to new 7-year highs today, even if only by a small margin. This is notable because the underlying bond market (the primary factor in mortgage rate movement) suggested that rates should have fallen today. The issue is that bond markets were so weak on Friday that mortgage lenders didn’t have a chance to fully adjust their rate sheets to reflect the losses. As such, there were still some losses to deal with this morning, and today’s modest bond market improvement wasn’t quite enough to offset them. In other words, we began the day with enough of a disadvantage from Friday that it couldn’t be overcome. As for today’s overall bond market atmosphere, things were far calmer today, with trading levels essentially sideways for the duration. There is some potential…(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.