The most important ingredient in the mortgage market is the presence of homeowners--prospective or otherwise--with the means and desire to make monthly payments. That fact invites investors to earn solid, predictable returns with almost no risk.&...
The Jobless Claims Report and the Employment Situation Report and were both pretty devastating last week with more than 6 million new unemployment claims filed on top of 3 million the prior week and 701,000 jobs lost. The unemployment rate jumped nearl...
Black Knight has taken what will probably prove to be only their first in-depth analysis of the potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy and specifically on the U.S. housing and mortgage markets. The paper looks at the current state of...
Home building might be the answer to more than just the housing shortage according to some information provided by Paul Emrath, economist for the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). He maintains that it can also be a significant factor in reb...
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced how it will be allocating its initial portion of funds from the massive Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed by Congress last week. Over $3 billion will be...
Nationwide outlays for construction slipped slightly in February. The Census Bureau said public and private sources spent at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.367 trillion on all forms of construction, down 1.3 percent from the rate in January. T...
In an earlier article, (before more pressing issues shelved the topic) we summarized highlights from a recent New York Times Magazine article about the ownership of a large share of the nation's single-family rental stock by institutional investors. Pa...
Well this was a surprise. In a week when unemployment claims soared to the highest level in probably ever and several large states went into a COVID-19 induced lockdown, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) announced a significant increase in mortgag...
There are too many counter-intuitive and frustrating developments in the mortgage market to comprehend all at one time, let alone discuss. That's not a cop-out as much as it is a favor I'm doing for you. If we tried to cover all of the nons...
