Nashville Flood Video On a serious note, and besides a decent Johnny Cash soundtrack, here is a video to spend 1 minute and 50 seconds watching, and not only see what Nashville is dealing with, but also what lenders in that area are dealing with. Senate Rejects GOP Dilution of Consumer Financial Protections In this
May 2010
The Economist’s cover story headline from last week—Acropolis Now— sounds all the more fitting today as Greece citizens and police clashed in the streets, and the Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq all erased most of their 2010 gains, and safer bond investments rallied: mortgage bonds are up 43bps, 10yr Treasury bonds up 115bps. When bonds rally
Greece fallout freaks markets: Dow down 681 Mortgage bonds up 74bps 10yr Note up 187bps to yield 3.4%
Greece’s Impact On U.S. Mortgage Rates Turning to Greece, since that situation is certainly impacting our markets, the fear that a) the problems will spread beyond Greece, b) Greece may leave the 11-yr old single currency “euro-zone, or c) this is the beginning of the entire euro experiment are causing a drop in the value
Today, ADP, a provider of payroll services to 22 million Americans employed in the private sector, released their monthly jobs data which showed that the economy gained 32k jobs in April; these numbers don’t include 2010 Census hiring. Expectations called for a gain of 30k jobs, and bond markets initially rallied on the news, pushing
Rates Benefit on Stock Weakness The drop in the equity markets yesterday, and possibly again today, certainly helped the flow of funds into “safer” investments – such as Treasuries and MBS’s. But we also had some economic news of note, the first being Pending Home Sales. The index was up 5.3% in March, with sales
The National Association of Realtors said that March pending home sales—as measured by single family homes and condos that went into contract for the month—increased 5.3%. This 21.1% above March 2009 and follows an 8.3% increase in February. NAR’s chief economist acknowledged that the increases in recent months were helped by the federal homebuyer tax
Mortgage Fraud Categories Mortgage Asset Research Institute (MARI) states that reported incidents of mortgage fraud and misrepresentation by professionals in the mortgage industry are continuing to climb and increased by 7% from 2008 to 2009. Is it more fraud or better reporting of previously undiscovered fraud? Either way, MARI believes that mortgage fraud is “significantly
In the past week, we’ve seen promising economic and home price data, but many homeowners are still strained to the point where foreclosure is inevitable—or perhaps “viable” for those deeply underwater homeowners considering strategic defaults. So the often repeated question is: what do late mortgage payments, foreclosures and bankruptcies do to your credit score? A
Overall Personal Consumption Expenditures, the Fed’s favorite measure of consumer inflation, were 0.1% in March and 2% year-over-year through March. Excluding volatile oil and food costs from the readings, “Core” PCE price index for March was 0.1% and 1.3% YOY through March. The Fed looks closely at Core PCE excluding food and energy prices because
Overall Personal Consumption Expenditures, the Fed’s favorite measure of consumer inflation, were 0.1% in March and 2% year-over-year through March. Excluding volatile oil and food costs from the readings, “Core” PCE price index for March was 0.1% and 1.3% YOY through March. The Fed looks closely at Core PCE excluding food and energy prices because
7 More Bank Failures The FDIC, seemingly in the news more and more, sent out an announcement with a listing of its recent enforcement decisions, including final orders or cease and desist orders. No one likes to see their employer on the list. The FDIC also announced the “shuttering” of seven banks on Friday, with
Rates dropped last Tuesday when S&P downgraded Greece and Portugal debt, which caused bond investors to reallocate to safer mortgage (and Treasury) bonds—when bond prices rise on buying, rates drop. This positive mortgage sentiment generally held throughout the week, and zero-point rates on loans up to $729k ended the week at record lows. GOOD JUMBO