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Mortgage News Daily News Feed

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The Day Ahead: Recent Volatility Might be Logical

Posted To: MBS Commentary

There continues to be little to do or say about the first two days of the week. For the most part, they merely serve as a sort of cruel waiting game (or torture rack) ahead of Wednesday's FOMC events. Those events include the Bernanke testimony to the Joint Economic Committee in the morning and of course the hotly anticipated FOMC Minutes at 2pm in the afternoon. In fact, ever since the Employment report on 5/3 set a negative trend adrift, there hasn't been one singular big-ticket event on the calendar that to inform or change the drift. The biggest swings have been tradeflow related, and we now find ourselves surprisingly in line with the original post-NFP trends from earlier in the month: Even the bigger picture trend has returned to it's mid-point. In fact, seeking out such a central zone...(read more)

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MBS RECAP: Another Hopeful Morning Dashed by Defensive Reality

Posted To: MBS Commentary

MBS Live : MBS Afternoon Market Summary Bond markets got in this morning and quickly began undoing some of the damage done by the overnight trading session. Treasuries and MBS both opened flat to slightly stronger and made further gains in the first few hours. This was soon revealed to be the same old set-up we've seen play out frequently since May 3rd. It usually ends with things starting to get slippery after 10am and drifting sideways-to-weaker in the afternoon. Today was no exception. 10yr yields ran into a floor that had been paved over on Friday after the Consumer Sentiment data. Before that, it had been a ceiling, providing a good bounce before the Friday afternoon drift took over. After bouncing there today, it was all over for 10's and MBS alike. The former moved quickly from 1.92...(read more)

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Mortgage Rates Near 2013 Highs to Start Week

Posted To: Mortgage Rate Watch

Mortgage rates continued May's nearly constant trend higher to begin the week, though the pace of increases is slower compared to that seen on Friday. Even so, it brings rates dangerously close to their highest levels of 2013 (which are also the highest levels in 1 year). Best-execution for Conventional, 30yr Fixed Loans is in transit between 3.625% and 3.75%. Best-ex is also more subjective from borrower's points of view at the moment due to the fact that the most efficient rate on most rate sheets is 3.625% yet it might leave some borrowers bringing more to the table in terms of closing costs than they'd otherwise like. In other words, we're now getting into rate territory where 3.625% won't necessarily be a "no point" quote for the best qualified borrowers (but as always, this can vary greatly...(read more)

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MBA Highlights Opportunity For Private Capital Risk-Sharing With GSEs

Posted To: MND NewsWire

Maintaining that the conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) have caused government involvement in the mortgage market to balloon to unhealthy proportions , the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Monday released the second in a planned series of five concept papers offering its solutions. Today's paper on risk sharing follows Key Steps on the Road to GSE Reform, which suggests that the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) direct the GSEs to modify the Freddie Mac PC to mirror the exact structure of the Fannie Mae MBS so that these securities would be considered fungible for TBA delivery. In Up-Front Risk Sharing: Ensuring Private Capital Delivers for Consumers MBA says a situation exists today where the government is crowding out private capital and blocking real competition...(read more)

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Fannie Forecast Serves up Feast for Housing Recovery Bulls

Posted To: MND NewsWire

Fannie Mae's economic and strategic research team today called the housing recovery "undeterred" after it contributed 0.3 percentages points to economic growth in the first quarter. Doug Duncan, Orawin T. Velz, and Brian Hughes-Cromwick said this was the eighth consecutive quarter that housing has added to growth and the company's Economic Summary for May said recent housing indicators point to continued recovery. The annualized rate of housing starts in March was over one million units for the first time since 2008 , driven solely by a surge in multi-family building which more than offset a decline in single-family construction. Multi-family housing starts are now back to the levels of the early 2000s, benefitting the report says from a continuing decline in homeownership which fell again...(read more)

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