Key charts from December MBA report on consumers’ housing mood.

Bank risk retention rules mired in bureaucracy.

Jobs -ADP Private jobs for October +110,000 -Previous was +91,000 vs. consensus of 100,000 -Full report Challenger Job-Cut Report -Announced layoffs for October were 42,759. -Down sharply from the previous month’s 115,730 which saw a large number of jobs lost in the U.S. Army. -Together ADP and Challenger paint a picture of modest jobs growth [...]

Last week I received this interesting note about the Mortgage Bankers Conference in Chicago: “I was at the MBA conference, and I loved it b/c it was fascinating to see the different perspectives you get from Mortgage Bankers versus those you get from the Realtors or Mortgage Brokers (the people who frequent the conferences I [...]

One of the questions that folks in the mortgage conference hallways were asking was, “With BofA leaving correspondent, is someone like Chase going to be next?” There is a big difference between hallway chatter and Bloomberg headlines like “MetLife May Sell Mortgage Business.” Here’s the gist: Chief Executive Officer Steven Kandarian, who took the job [...]

A bill has been introduced to allow struggling homeowners to withdraw funds from their retirement accounts tax-free to make mortgage payments. The Home Act (news | actual bill) would allow borrowers to withdraw up to $50,000 from a retirement account or one-half of the current value of that account, whichever is smaller. The limit is [...]

[Critical Loan Limit Update on 11/18/2011] We appear to be marching toward a reduction in the temporary loan limits, although there are numerous attempts to extend it. HUD weighed in last week with its FHA single-family loan limits which are effective on or after October 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011. Here are the FHA [...]

Wholesale Inflation -PPI Month/Month: +0.2% -PPI Year/Year: 7.2% -Core PPI Month/Month (less food & energy): +0.4% -Core PPI Year/Year (less food & energy):+2.5% -Core inflation is too high considering depressed economy. -Let’s not judge effect until we see CPI tomorrow. -Business has displayed a tendency to absorb wholesale costs and, with corporate profits so high, [...]

MBA Mortgage Applications for week ending 8/5 -Purchase Index Week/Week: -0.9% -Refinance Index Week/Week: +30.4% -Composite Index Week/Week: +21.7 -Refinance index driven up by very low rates. -Purchase index indicates that housing is still quite soft. Yesterday’s FOMC statement that interest rates would remain low for the next two years was a reaction to the [...]

Jobs ADP private jobs for July +114,000. It is hard to get an accurate estimate for Friday’s BLS jobs report from the ADP report, and BLS is what counts. Last month BLS private jobs was 100,000 less than ADP. Also, it is likely that there will be a continuing loss of public jobs at the [...]