Intermountain Mortgage Company

Posted To: MBS CommentaryRates staged an impressive rally in November and December before bottoming out on the first trading day of 2019. The bounce was fairly abrupt at the time and it roughly coincided with 2017's highs. It was as if the bond market was saying those days are behind us and we won't be going back any time soon. After the January 4th bounce, there was some concern that we'd zoom right back up to previous levels from the 2018 range. But support kicked in by the 18th at an interesting level (2.80%). Why interesting? Because it marked the boundary of the range that was intact for most of 2018, and remember, the bond rally that ended 2 weeks prior bounced right at the boundary for the 2017 range. Long story short , bonds were beginning to carve out a new range in no-mans-land, in between the...(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it. […]

Posted To: Pipeline PressAt roughly $8,500 per loan and continuing to defy gravity, scholars disagree on whether vendors lower the cost of originating a residential loan. But then again, scholars disagree on everything. (We can expect new cost figures from the MBA early next week but most expect it to increase somewhat on lower volume.) There are over 1,400 vendors that “touch” residential lending, and plenty of lenders are overwhelmed in deciding who is doing what, and which can best help their clients. (I wish that I had a dollar for every lender, vendor, or tech company that either capitalized some middle letter in their name or took the conventional spelling of a word and changed it.) A random sampling of vendor news below. Lender Products and Services The MBA Tech Conference is next week in Dallas...(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it. […]

Posted To: MBS CommentaryFor the bond market St Paddy's day was a 2 week celebration of "green" (as in the color of price gains or falling yields on trading terminals) beginning on March 4th. Eight of those 10 business days saw yields move lower with last Friday marking the 2nd lowest closing levels in well over a year. It's only natural for bonds to need a bit of a break after all that partying. They joined plenty of other revelers who may have had too much green recently in taking the day off today. Granted, there wasn't any sort of official market closure, but it would have been hard to notice if there was! Volume was in line with the lowest levels of the year for a full business day and volatility was nowhere to be found. The absence of volatility is a victory of sorts, considering yields...(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it. […]

Posted To: Mortgage Rate WatchMortgage rates didn't budge today--a logical result with no signs of life in underlying bond markets. In the current case, this is just fine with us considering the bond market has gone silent while remaining at the best levels in 14 months. Specifically, mortgage-backed-securities (MBS, the most important ingredient in determining mortgage rates) are at 14 month highs. When MBS are higher, rates are lower (14-month lows in this case). 10yr Treasury yields, on the other hand, spent a few hours at stronger levels on January 3rd, 2019. The only reason I bring up the modest discrepancy between Treasuries and MBS is to illustrate a point that we should keep in mind this week. Treasuries are capable of moving much more quickly than mortgage rates. That's why Treasuries made it to lower rates in...(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it. […]

Posted To: MND NewsWireThe National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) held steady in March , after partially recovering from substantial loses at the end of 2018. The Index, a measure of new-home builders' confidence in the market for newly constructed homes was unchanged at 62 on a 100-point scale. The index finished 2018 at 56, a more than three-year low, after dropping an aggregate of 12 points in November and December. NAHB says affordability still remains a key concern for builders. The skilled worker shortage, lack of buildable lots and stiff zoning restrictions in many major metro markets are among the challenges builders face as they strive to construct homes that can sell at affordable price points. Derived from a monthly survey that NAHB has been conducting for 30...(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it. […]