My Mind on Mortgages

It feels good to be reading for recreation again.  Although, I’ve had trouble finding time to review the books I’ve read.  I completed Michael Lewis’s classic “Liar’s Poker” earlier this summer and am just getting around to posting this. If you liked the movie “Wall Street” or like reading about the greedy scum on Wall [...]

On Friday Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke announced that he endorses the concept of the federal government guarantying mortgage-backed securities (MBS’s) issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  These comments should help mortgage rates move lower. The reason that a government guarantee helps mortgage rates move lower is because it reduces the risk of default on [...]

If you’ve been an avid reader of ‘rate update‘ then you know that I often refer to ‘technical trading patterns’ (TTPs) as a factor that can have a major influence mortgage rates.  Typically TTPs have the most impact when the markets lack new economic data and/ or significant stock market momentum. However, very few people [...]

I came across this blog yesterday and started sifting through the postings.  This site does an excellent job of providing educational postings covering various topics in the mortgage industry. Specifically, I really liked this posting which explains the factors that contributed to the development of the mortgage-backed bond market.  I also blogged about this topic [...]

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson made it public this morning (this news had leaked yesterday afternoon causing stocks to rally in late trading) that the government would intervene in the financial markets to shore up confidence in the financial system. According the Wall Street Journal the government’s intervention could become “the largest intervention in the financial [...]

Mortgage rates are essentially unchanged from yesterday although pricing on 30 year fixed loans are modestly worse. We still believe that over the next few weeks mortgage rates will improve. Now that the federal government has assumed the guarantees of Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac’s mortgage-backed bonds investors will view these securities on par with [...]

I often reference “mortgage-backed bonds” (AKA MBS’s) in my daily rate updates.  If you follow rate update consistently then you know that when MBS prices fall interest rates rise and vice versa.  The WSJ published a story today regarding investor confidence in high-quality MBS’s and how they remain attractive for bond investor guru Bill Gross [...]