Mortgage Industry News and Insights
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Waiting on the Fed Again
The markets were expecting that the week’s big news would be Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellin’s speech on Friday, but it came and went without much of a stir. Yellin reiterated that the Fed continues to watch key economic numbers as they come in; and that, “In light of the continued solid performance of the…
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Lollipops and Roses
Commentary — March 11, 2016 Although interest rates appear to have reversed direction and are headed back up (and yes, we have said this before) Black Knight Financial Services put some real world meaning to that unexpected New Year gift of declining rates. The company estimates that the six-week 30 basis point drop potentially…
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Pending Sales Lag
Commentary — March 4, 2016 Even though, as we reported last week, existing homes sold in January at the fastest pace in six months, not nearly so many potential homebuyers were rushing to sign purchase agreements. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said this week that its Pending Home Sale Index (PHSI)–a forward looking…
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Rate Dithering
Commentary ~ February 26, 2016 Mortgage rates have continued to dither and the answer to whether they are heading up or down even further depends on who you ask. Based on reports that came in for last week, we were prepared to report the good times were over. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported across the…
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Refi Resurgence
Commentary ~ February 19, 2016 Interest rates are still fueling a resurgence of refinancing. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said refinancing applications increased by 16% for the second straight week and represented more than 65% of all mortgage applications, the largest share in a year. Rates did appear to stabilize this week. The Freddie…
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Diving Interest Rates
Commentary ~ February 12, 2016 Interest rates dominated economic news again as the Mortgage Brokers Association reported that, by the end of last week most fixed-rate mortgages (FRM) had fallen back to spring 2015 levels while the 30-year jumbo FRM had an average rate last seen in the spring of 2013. The retreat continued this…
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Positive Housing News
Commentary ~ February 5, 2016 Concern rose this past week about a slowing economy, both globally and here at home. The U.S. stock market continued its recent cycle of alternating triple-digit swings and the 4th quarter GDP came in at a measly 0.7%, lowering projections for the year to around 1.9%. The gloomy outlook however…
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Rates, Prices and Hat Tricks
Commentary ~ January 29, 2016 This week the Federal Open Market Committee held its first meeting since they raised the fed funds rate. In its news conference after the two day event a spokesperson said they were closely monitoring both global and domestic economic developments and “assessing their implications for the labor market and inflation.” …
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Economic Update–Construction Chills
Commentary ~ January 22, 2016 As we recall, we, along with most of the nation, were in shirtsleeves while we wrapped up the holiday shopping and partying last month. Still, reports this week indicate that an unseasonably warm December didn’t do much for the construction industry. First there was the National Association of Homebuilders Housing…
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Piggy Banks Are Back
Commentary ~ January 15, 2016 Last week ended with an absolute blow-out of a jobs report. Newly created jobs for the month of December came in at 292,000–nearly 30% over the 200,000 that the majority of Econoday analysts had predicted. Adding to that good news was a significant upward revision in the November…