fed

The Fed Just Raised Interest Rates Again—Here’s Why That’s Bad News for Both Homebuyers and Sellers

The Federal Reserve’s latest rate hike may be like a late frost imperiling the burgeoning spring housing market.

Housing Market Tracker: Still no spring inventory lift

Last week’s housing inventory data shows we still haven’t seen the traditional spring increase in inventory.

25 Big Movies With Production Nightmares Most People Don’t Know

Several big movies with significant nightmare productions have some seriously delicious tea. After a recent polling on the internet, here are twenty-five films with disasters that made filming difficult. 1. The Eagle (2011) The movie The Eagle stars Channing Tatum. There’s a scene in a river shot in freezing temperatures. To keep the actors warm, … Read more

Go bust vs. resurgence for IMBs

For independent mortgage bankers who survive the ongoing culling, the new normal unfolding looks much brighter, industry experts say.

Barkin says he’s undecided on rate move at next Fed meeting

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin said he remains undecided on how Fed officials should adjust interest rates at the central bank’s next meeting, citing uncertainty in both inflation and consumer demand as well as additional fallout from the banking crisis. “I could imagine many different outcomes based on whether you can convince … [Read more…]

Oil Supply News is Just Noise; Actual Market Movers on The Way

The bond market is still in the process of reestablishing composure after the recent banking panic.  The bank episode sent Fed rate expectations plummeting at first, then into an extremely volatile sideways range for 2 weeks. As of last week, panic was nowhere to be seen on charts, but caution remained in terms of outright levels. In other words, the blue line in the chart below is still much lower than it was in early March (and lower than the current Fed Funds Rate!), but no longer showing the same level of volatility.  Caution, not panic. That caution is one of several reasons the overnight spike in oil prices has had limited impact on rates–especially longer-term rates like 10yr yields.  Due to their short-term inflation implications, oil prices have a logically larger impact on shorter-term rates and Fed Funds expectations.  Longer-term rates can consider the hit to the economy (either due to higher oil itself or central banks’ efforts to push back on the inflation implications).  The past few sentences are much ado about nothing considering the relative size of the move though.  Oil has merely done what the stock market had done more than a week ago and returned to early March levels.  Meanwhile, bonds are taking more cues from the aforementioned “caution.” We’ll get more legitimate market movers this week in the form of big ticket economic data.  Friday’s jobs report is the obvious headliner, but ISM PMIs (today and Wednesday) are no slouches.  Of the two, it’s Wednesday’s NON-Manufacturing index that carries more weight these days.

Will the Stock Market Rally Continue? 8 Experts Weigh In

We’re not out of the woods yet.

Today’s mortgage rates hold steady. 15-year rates are today’s lowest | March 31, 2023 – Fox Business

Today’s mortgage rates hold steady. 15-year rates are today’s lowest | March 31, 2023  Fox Business

Non-QM, Correspondent, Outsourcing, Income Verification Tools; Third Party Updates; $31 million Warehouse Settlement

“My landlord told me that she would like to have a chat with me about the house’s sky-high heating bills this winter. I told her, ‘Sure thing, whenever you want. My door is always open.’” A key selling point for originators, in talking to potential clients on the fence about buying a home, is rent. Rents have been increasing, and there’s no sense of permanency, but if you can’t pay your rent, qualifying for a home loan is going to tough. LendingTree found that more than 8 million U.S. adults live in a household not caught up on rent payments. About 3.6 million adults are also living in households that are not being charged rent, primarily in Mississippi, West Virginia, Alaska, Arkansas, and Alabama. There are plenty of rent disputes in the courts, just as there are disputes and cases involving mortgage bankers. I bring this up because convicted former MBA Chairman Ron McCord and his Oklahoma-based company settled CapLoc’s allegations that they put fraudulent loans on a funding line settled for $31 million. Brad Finkelstein did a write up. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week it’s sponsored by MGIC. Since 1957, MGIC has insured more than 13.5 million mortgage loans with innovative products, tools and strategies that help customers solve problems and fuel growth. Explore tools and solutions to boost your business here. Listen to an interview with Tallulah Le Merle, where she flips the script and asks Robbie questions about mortgages.) Lender and Broker Services and Software