The share of respondents who say they’d rent if they were going to move rose to a record 36% in a new survey by Fannie Mae, the government-backed mortgage finance giant.
Tag Archives: mortgage fraud news
Lower rates drive multifamily lending surge
Origination volumes grew across nearly all sectors of commercial real estate on both a quarterly and yearly basis, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Large title underwriters benefit from 3Q uptick
Three of the four largest title insurers were profitable in the third quarter; First American’s loss should set it up for future gains, its execs said.
How homebuilders are attracting buyers despite headwinds
Residential construction companies facing their own construction cost burdens are continuing sales incentives that have cut into some of the largest players’ profit margins.
Mortgage Rates Lower Again As Lenders Catch Up With Bonds
The bond market dictates day to day movement for all manner of interest rates, including mortgages. On election night, bond yields (another word for “rates”) spiked as soon as traders felt the results were evident. The following morning, mortgage-backed bonds started out much weaker and mortgage rates were at the highest level in months. Fast forward two days and mortgage rates are back below 7% and at the lowest levels since October 25th. While that’s not an exceptional leap into the past, it’s certainly better than a continued move to infinity and beyond. What gives?! In not so many words, not much. The bond market had rushed to get into position for the election, and the reaction to election night itself ended up being a mere formality that was quickly erased–a testament to how accurately the market predicted where it would have wanted to be WELL in advance. Today’s rate improvement wasn’t as much a factor of bond market gains as it was mortgage lenders getting caught up to the gains from yesterday. Lenders have been understandably cautious given the big swings in bonds and the prospect for additional volatility. At times like this, it’s not uncommon for lenders to wait a bit longer than normal to be sure bond market improvement is sustained before adjusting mortgage rates. As nice as this recovery is, it shouldn’t be viewed as indicative of ongoing success. Rates continue to face headwinds that will only truly be defeated by weaker economic data and lower inflation. To that end, economic reports will continue playing an important role. Next week’s headliners include the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Retail Sales on Wednesday and Friday respectively. Monday is closed for Veterans Day.
Back to Uneventful Already?
Back to Uneventful Already?
MBS are ending the trading day at almost perfectly unchanged levels–not the sort of thing one might expect on what has been yet another exceptionally volatile week with both a presidential election and Fed announcement. Part of the reason is that MBS happened to align well with the portion of the yield curve that was right in the middle of gains and losses. In other words, 2-3yr Treasuries sold off. 10-30yr Treasuries rallied. 5yr Treasuries were roughly unchanged, just like MBS. So no, we’re not quite back to “uneventful” yet, even though things have calmed down markedly from Wednesday morning.
Econ Data / Events
Consumer Sentiment
73 vs 71 f’cast, 70.5 prev
Inflation Expectations 1yr
2.6 vs 2.7 f’ast/prev
Market Movement Recap
10:21 AM Slightly stronger overnight and gaining more ground now. MBS up 6 ticks (.19) and 10yr down 7bps at 4.268
12:01 PM slightly weaker since last update. MBS up 2 ticks (.06) and 10yr down 3.4bps at 4.304
02:26 PM MBS now unchanged and 10yr down 3.3bps at 4.305
Bonds Making a Stronger Case For Buying The News After Selling The Rumor
“Buy the rumor, sell the news” is an age-old aphorism in financial markets for a reason. It accurately speaks to the real and repeatable phenomenon whereby traders trade all the information and indications about a specific event well before the event itself. The most obvious and and reliable example is that of Fed rate cuts/hikes which even have their own futures contracts. The most relevant example at the moment is that of the pre-election trade whereby bonds priced-in greater odds of a Trump victory and full republican control of congress. Traders knew rates needed to move higher but the perfect amount of selling was/is a moving target. It continues to be sorted out, but the past 2 days tell us that the market did a very good job of selling almost exactly the correct amount of the rumor. Traders are now buying the proverbial news.
All of the above can be loosely visualized in the following chart, which shows 10yr yields hitting closing levels at or near 4.27 on 6 of the 7 days ending on election day. As expected in our base case, there as an obligatory bout of additional selling after the election and we’ve since returned almost perfectly to the 4.27 baseline.
This is actually NOT YET a great example of buy the rumor sell the news. 4.27 is a very high yield as recently as the beginning of last week. A true example would involve a return of yields back toward 4%–something that doesn’t seem to be in today’s most immediate cards. Indeed, the moment 10yr yields hit 4.27 this morning, they bounced higher and are now back over 4.31%.
HELOC, Broker, Appraisal, DPA Products; Why Credit Costs Matter; Variance in Q3 Earnings
Many believe, and with good reason, that there will be some turnover at the CFPB coming up. Here are the pay grades if you’re interested in a job. (I can’t attest to the accuracy of Rohit Chopra’s comp.) The MBA’s latest prediction for 2025 is that residential volume will be up nearly 30 percent, and the industry hopes the MBA is right. According to Curinos’ new proprietary application index, refinances decreased 38% in October; the purchase index decreased 32% for October as a whole. But October 2024 funded mortgage volume increased 50% YoY and increased 15% MoM. (Curinos sources a statistically significant data set directly from lenders to produce these benchmark figures.) At the other end of the mortgage digestive system, in the capital markets, the Fed’s MBS holdings have been running off, often through refinancing, so someone out there is doing them! (Today’s podcast can be found here, and this week’s is Sponsored by Calque. Partner with Calque to offer better loan solutions. Scale your business with a partner that puts your brand first and empower your clients to buy before they sell. Hear an interview with Prajna AI’s Ramesh Sarukkai on how mortgage companies can utilize the various types of AI to maximize enterprise value.) Lender and Broker Software, Services, and Products Major announcement from Byte Software. The enterprise-class features in BytePro are now available in ByteWeb, a new browser-based LOS platform featuring a fresh, modern user interface. With unlimited custom screens and fields, validation rules, macro automation, TRID warning lights, and much more, ByteWeb is available with the same affordable pricing structure that has allowed Byte clients to lower their costs while other lenders are stuck paying minimums based on 2021 production. You don’t have to choose between LOS functionality and affordability. It’s time to stop settling and start doing things your way. Designed to be both powerful and flexible, Byte gives you total control over your loan process and the freedom to do business the way you want. Maximize efficiency with a new browser-based UI, unlimited custom screens & fields, powerful data governance, flexible API, and workflow automation you can deploy with your in-house team. Request a demo to see why 97% of mortgage bankers say they would recommend Byte to their peers or visit here to learn more.
‘Minimal’ threat of housing crash, Realtor group says
The amount of income needed to make monthly mortgage payments are declining and approaching a key affordability benchmark, the National Association of Realtors found.
CFPB sanctions Navy Federal for improper overdraft fees
The Vienna, Virginia-based credit union will pay tens of millions of dollars in penalties over what the agency said was “junk fees” charged to Navy Federal’s customers.