Mortgage News Daily

• Solid Conclusion to a Solid Week. Has The Tide Turned? December 6, 2024
  Solid Conclusion to a Solid Week. Has The Tide Turned? After Thanksgiving week introduced a potential breakout from the recent uptrend in yields, this week kept hope alive.  It also kept us in suspense until today due to the jobs report.  Despite a decent facade (227k vs 200k f'cast), the closer one examined today's jobs data, […]
• Mortgage Rates Fall More Than Expected After Jobs Report December 6, 2024
  As of last week, rates were showing some signs of resilience, but they had to wait for the true test from this week's jobs report. Spoiler alert: they passed the test. It wasn't that the headline job count was particularly low, but it wasn't strong enough to argue against the fact that the labor market has […]
• Non-QM Jumbo, POS, Processing, AI U/W Tools; HUD/Rocket Suit, CFPB Unleashes; Curinos Volume Stats December 6, 2024
  “Today’s three-year-olds can switch on laptops and open their favorite apps. When I was three, I ate mud.” Times change. Remember when homeowner’s insurance was an after-thought? In some counties and states, being approved for insurance has become as big a concern as being approved for a loan. “Nonadmitted” insurance is becoming the new norm […]
• Why Are Bonds Rallying Despite a Seemingly Decent Jobs Report? December 6, 2024
  We all know that today's jobs report is the most important economic data on an given month. We also know that a higher payroll count tends to be bad for bonds/rates.  So why are bonds rallying despite payrolls coming in at 227k versus a 200k forecast?  First off, in the realm of nonfarm payrolls (NFP), […]
• Calm Week So Far, But All Bets Are Off After Jobs Report December 5, 2024
  Calm Week So Far, But All Bets Are Off After Jobs Report Bonds were slightly weaker overnight and did just a bit more selling after the Jobless Claims data, but the losses were erased by the early afternoon.  Even then, they were never that big in the first place.  The muted volatility fit nicely in a […]
• Mortgage Rates Little Changed Ahead of Big Jobs Report December 5, 2024
  It's been a remarkably calm week for mortgage rates, and a fairly decent one relative to several recent examples.  The average top tier 30yr fixed rate hovered just over 7% for most of November before breaking back into the high 6% range at the beginning of last week.  Since then, there haven't been any "bad […]
• Hedging, Wholesale, Correspondent, LO Survey; Top LO interview; STRATMOR and Appraisal Underwriting Study December 5, 2024
  Don’t steal packages off of porches… you never know what will be inside them… A very low-tech attempt at dissuading thieves. On the flip side, what do Signal, iMessage, and WhatsApp, used by some originators in communicating with borrowers, have in common? Apparently, per the FBI, they’re “encrypted” and have much more security than simple […]
• Jobless Claims Aren't as High as They Seem December 5, 2024
  Jobless Claims  224k vs 215k f'cast, 213k prev Continued Claims 1871k vs 1910k f'cast, 1896k prev At first glance, the 224k figure in jobless claims may seem like a moderately positive thing for bonds, but our ongoing chart of non-seasonally adjusted data shows that it's a bit misleading.  This was actually the lowest claims reading […]
• No Whammies From Powell as Rates Rally on ISM Data December 4, 2024
  No Whammies From Powell as Rates Rally on ISM Data Bonds came away from this morning's economic data with a tailwind that helped turn losses into gains.  The ISM Services PMI was the biggest contributor.  In addition to headline PMI being much weaker than expected, the employment index was also lower than last month, and the […]
• Mortgage Rates Start Higher, But End Lower December 4, 2024
  Mortgage lenders generally try to avoid setting rates more than once per day, but they will make changes if the underlying bond market is moving enough.  Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) are the bonds that directly dictate mortgage rate movement.  When they're stronger/higher, it implies downward pressure on rates and vice versa. MBS started the day […]