|
|
|
||
| Pricing Products; Non-Agency Changes; NAMB Interview on the Broker Biz; Happy New Year | ||
| 12/31/2025 10:40 AM | ||
| Lender and Broker Services, Products, and Software “At Optimal Blue, we’d like to take a moment to say THANK YOU to the incredible clients and partners who made this year unforgettable. Your trust and collaboration fuel our mission to deliver solutions that tackle the real-world challenges mortgage lenders face every day. As we look ahead, we’re ...Read More | ||
| A Bit of Actual Data-Driven Selling Thanks to Jobless Claims and Wonky Seasonal Adjustments | ||
| 12/31/2025 7:56 AM | ||
| Human traders may be extremely underrepresented on today"s half-day trading session, but the robots/algos know what to do with a sub-200k Jobless Claims print. Robots are also not smart enough to know that the sub-200k print is likely distorted.....Read More | ||
| Modest Recovery From Morning Weakness | ||
| 12/30/2025 2:23 PM | ||
| Modest Recovery From Morning Weakness Bonds were slightly weaker this morning in a move that looked like it might have been significant when compared to yesterday"s narrow range. But in a just-barely-wider context, today"s volatility was just as inconsequential as almost any of the days in December so...Read More | ||
| Mortgage Rates Microscopically Higher | ||
| 12/30/2025 2:11 PM | ||
| Mortgage rates continue operating in an excruciatingly narrow range near their lowest levels of the past few years. Yesterday was the 6th best day of 2025. Today is tied for 7th place after rates moved 0.01% higher on average. While the underlying bond market is fully open today, it"s a slow time of year in terms of volume and volatility. Bigger m...Read More | ||
| Capital Markets Tools; Mortgages with Millennials Today; LOs and 2025 Trends | ||
| 12/30/2025 10:41 AM | ||
| Loan originators are acutely aware of demographics (“know your borrower,” right?). Naming generations is relatively recent, and then-People Magazine Editor Landon Y. Jones coined the term Baby Boomer. (He died last year.) The oldest Baby Boomers turn 80 in 2026. By the end of this decade, all baby boomers will be 65 and older, and the number of peo...Read More | ||
| Meaningless Year-End Volatility | ||
| 12/30/2025 9:58 AM | ||
| If we turn up the magnification on our market-watching microscopes, it may seem like something important happened in the bond market overnight. 10yr yields were up by more than 3bps at one point and MBS fell just over an eighth of a point. These may seem like big swings relative to yesterday"s narrow range, but this is actually a rather tame expres...Read More | ||
| Uneventful And Slightly Stronger | ||
| 12/29/2025 3:26 PM | ||
| Uneventful And Slightly Stronger Although volumes picked up a bit versus Friday, no one would confuse the late December bond market from exhibiting any unexpected signs of life. A stronger open in Europe made for a modest improvement overnight and almost all of the domestic session was spent treading water ...Read More | ||
| New 2-Month Lows, Just Barely | ||
| 12/29/2025 2:31 PM | ||
| With another holiday closure on deck and light calendar of events, the rate market is off to another uneventful start this week. In fact, the average lender barely budged from last Friday. But it was enough for MND"s 30yr fixed rate index to tick down by 0.01%. This is the lowest level since October 28th--just barely edging out the lows seen on No...Read More | ||
| Pricing Product; 2026 In-Person Events Kick Off Soon; Fraud Continues, Take Your Own Exams! | ||
| 12/29/2025 10:48 AM | ||
| Some percentage of readers reading today’s Commentary are doing so from an airport in the Northeast, waiting for their delayed flight to depart. Whether manmade or natural, climate change and weather “occurrences” are a fact of life, and can’t be corrected with technology, but data is certainly used in predicting weather. Vendors and lenders think ...Read More | ||
| Mostly Sideways Despite Some Help From Europe | ||
| 12/29/2025 9:26 AM | ||
| In addition to this week"s holiday closure (early close Wednesday, fully closed Thursday), the econ calendar is also lacking in terms of potential sources of volatility. A majority of any meaningful momentum is most likely to come from month/quarter/year-end trading today and tomorrow, but think of that more like a caveat for any inciden...Read More | ||