Posted To: Pipeline Press

London plans to use a painfully “High-Pitched Sound Generator” to disperse large crowds at the Olympics. Observers note that it will be Cindy Lauper’s first paying gig since ’86. Speaking of high-pitched noises (and no, this is not a lead in to a Taylor Swift joke), the constructive clamoring about the CFPB’s flat fee continues . “The CFPB for consumer finance, in my opinion, is the same thing as the CFTC for commodity trading overseeing Future Commission Merchants and the SEC for stock broker/dealers. Both the futures and stock brokerage industries have formed self-regulating entities. The National Futures Association for commodities and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for stocks. The mortgage industry would be well served if the industry itself through the MBA or other…(read more)

Posted To: MBS Commentary

MBS Live : MBS Afternoon Market Summary 104-16 Turned out to be an important level for Fannie 3.5′s today. There’s more than the usual amount of content in the ‘alerts and updates’ section below if you’re looking to get caught up on how it played out. Long story short, bond markets held up quite well on a Friday that mostly saw money flowing OUT of both sides of the market (i.e. equities and fixed-income both lower in price today). But even the late day volatility left the 104-16 technical level intact through 4pm. From now until MBS go out for the day, it’s not out of the realm of possibility to see illiquidity take things a bit lower, but whether or not lenders react to that depends on the lender in question. If it were us, we’d call it a week. MBS Pricing Snapshot Pricing shown below is…(read more)

Posted To: Mortgage Rate Watch

Mortgage Rates improved marginally from yesterday’s new all-time lows. Without any major scheduled events to digest, bond markets were left to their own devices and paid a decent amount of attention to a sell-off in stocks. When yields in the broader bond markets move lower, MBS (the “mortgage-backed securities” that most directly influence lenders’ rates) tend to move lower in yield as well, allowing lenders to off lower costs, lower rates, or a combination of the two. With the recent move lower to a 3.75% Best-Execution level for 30yr Fixed Conventional loans, today’s improvements were seen more in the form of decreased borrowing costs, or increased lender credit, as the case may be. If you’re a first-time or even frequent reader looking for a bit more clarity on “best-execution,” we just…(read more)

Posted To: MND NewsWire

The State Regulatory Registry, LLC (SRR) and the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS) have issued an Annual Report for 2011. The report notes that 2011 was the first year that all state mortgage regulatory agencies utilized NMLS to manage mortgage loan originator (MLO) licenses on the system. In addition, in January the NMLS Federal Registry became fully operational. By the end of the year the Federal Registry contained active registrations for 11,081 institutions and 375,654 registered MLOs. According to the report, for the first time almost all of the nearly half-million individual mortgage loan originators (MLOs) along with their license or registration status and other information are now available to the general public on-line through NMLS Consumer Access. By the end of 2011 NMLS…(read more)

Real-time mortgage market updates for May 18, 2012. Updates provided by MBSQuoteline, an MBS subscription provider for loan officers.

Click for the complete post : Mortgage Rates In Motion : Weekly MBS Prices At 5-Minute Intervals.

Posted To: MBS Commentary

MBS Live : MBS Morning Market Summary As the trading day progresses, things are shaping up to be increasingly uneventful even though MBS are down 6/32nds. Reason being: everything has been well contained, and what little weakness we’ve seen has occurred in a rather orderly fashion and without major volume spikes. Bond markets are staying reasonably connected to stocks, given the lack of market-moving data and European headlines. In short, today looks like the “wind down” that we thought yesterday might have been. We’re not completely out of the woods as far as potential volatility is concerned. But as far as coasting into the weekend with minimal losses, it’s “so far so good.” MBS Pricing Snapshot Pricing shown below is delayed, please note the timestamp at the bottom. Real time pricing is…(read more)

Posted To: MND NewsWire

Realtors® massed on the Washington Mall on Thursday to show their strength in a year in which their trade organization, The National Association of Realtors (NAR) seems anxious on several levels. An estimated 15,000 Realtors gathered at the foot of the Washington Monument to, in the words of NAR President Moe Veissi “protect the American Dream of homeownership.” According to a press release regarding the Rally to Protect the American Dream as the event was characterized, “Realtors® are working to ensure that people who want to own a home or invest in real estate and can responsibly afford to do so will continue to have the opportunity to do that.” NAR is currently concerned about discussions to include a requirement for a 20 percent downpayment in the proposed definition of Qualified…(read more)

Posted To: Pipeline Press

Facebook…Facebook…Facebook…I guess the financial press is tired of discussing things like Europe’s woes. ( Even today’s closing paragraph at the bottom is about Facebook. ) Say what you want, but it is influencing real estate down in San Francisco . To help keep things in perspective, I received this note about small improvements in the price of real estate in various markets: “If I reduce your wages by $1,000 a month for 5 years but finally, in one month, give you a raise of 0.2% in February … would you really consider that positive overall? It does not address the overreach of price declines that the banks fire sales have caused. That little problem will take decades to resolve at 0.2% a month increase.” I agree, and good point. We’d all agree, however, that at least the .2% improvement…(read more)

The Federal Reserve stands ready for more stimulus. Mortgage rates react.

Click for the complete post : Federal Reserve Comments Set Mortgage Rates On Downward Trajectory.

Quietly, the FHA has been formulating changes to its condo mortgage guidelines.

Click for the complete post : FHA Mortgages For Condos : Guidelines About To Loosen?.