Strong Economic Growth Despite Weaker Housing Market Activity

The U.S. economy accelerated in the second quarter of 2018, with real GDP growth at 4.1 percent, which was the strongest quarterly growth rate since the third quarter of 2014. More

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http://www.freddiemac.com/research/outlook/20180827_strong_economic_growth.html?attr=rssEHR

Jumbo Loans Back in Style?; Homeready vs FHA

Taking out a mortgage with an origination balance higher than whatever the conventional loan limit was at the time used to be an expensive proposition. Home buyers and refinancers had an incentive to do whatever they could - higher down payments, piggy back second mortgages - to get their loan under that conventional limit in order to reap the benefits of lower borrowing costs. However, as Archana Prahan writes in the CoreLogic Insights Blog, since mid-2013 a jumbo loan has had lower borrower costs than a conforming loan, currently defined as one with a balance at or under $453,100. In the first quarter of 2018 that differential averaged 33 basis points (bps). As Figure 1 shows, conforming loans were cheaper during the period from the second quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2013, (blue

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http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/reports/newsletter/2018/8/31/3526

Freddie Mac Updates Selling Guide, Introduces New Product; Boring Mortgage Rates; The Range!

Freddie Mac will be consolidating two of its mortgage products into a single offering effective October 29, 2018. The company announced this and other changes to its Selling Guide in a Bulletin on Wednesday. The affected products are Freddie Mac's Home Possible and Home Possible Advantage Mortgages. The company said it is making the change in response to seller feedback and to provide those sellers with improved operational efficiencies and ease of use. The new product will offer the same loan-to-value (LTV) and total LTV (TLTV) ratios as in the Home Possible Advantage program although certain requirements and loan attributes will continue to vary depending on those ratios. The new product, to be called Home Possible Mortgages , will permit non-owner occupant borrowers on loans secured by one

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http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/reports/newsletter/2018/8/30/3524

Realtors See Housing Starting to Cool; Lenders Back in Black; "Young" Housing in Sun Belt

Expectations weren't particularly high for a solid July report on home purchase contracts, but today's report from the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) didn't meet even those . NAR's Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) came in at 106.2, down from an upwardly revised (from 106.9) 107.0 in June, a decline of 0.7 percent. The decrease put the PHSI 2.3 percent behind its level in July 2017. It was the seventh straight month the NAR's leading indicator for existing home sales has trailed on an annual basis. It would have been difficult for the results to fall outside of the wide range of estimates from analysts polled by Econoday. They ranged from a loss of 1.1 percent to a positive 1.0 percent change. However, the July index was well off the consensus which was for the index to remain unchanged

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http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/reports/newsletter/2018/8/29/3522

2 Big Problems For Housing; Consumers Want Online Mortgage Options; Vegas Dethrones Seattle Home Prices

Freddie Mac analysts see a two-pronged threat to housing sales for the remainder of the year, especially in the previously high-flying western part of the country. The company's economic outlook for August notes that the ongoing lack of housing supply and the not unrelated affordability issues will probably keep a lid on the growth of home sales going forward. "The housing market hit some speed bumps this summer, with many prospective homebuyers slowed by not enough moderately-priced homes for sale and higher home prices and mortgage rates," said Freddie Mac Chief Economist Sam Khater. "These challenges were predominantly seen in expensive markets out West, where demand and sales are beginning to dampen because of weakening affordability." The cooling of the housing market was manifested in

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http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/reports/newsletter/2018/8/28/3520

Mortgage Rates Higher (or Lower) Depending on Lender; Wells Layoffs; Last Week of Bond Market Summer

Mortgage rates moved higher for some lenders and lower for others, depending on how that particular lender adjusted their rate sheets on Friday afternoon. While the bonds that underlie mortgage rates are moving constantly throughout the day, lenders want to see a certain amount of movement in any given direction before they go to the trouble of adjusting their mortgage rate offerings. Friday began with weaker bonds. Consequently the first mortgage rate sheets of the day were worse than Thursday's (i.e. rates were higher). But bonds improved throughout the day--just enough for a handful of lenders to adjust rates lower. Lenders in that "handful" had to move rates back up a bit today. Lenders not in that handful were able to drop rates just a hair from Friday morning's levels. All this having

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http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/reports/newsletter/2018/8/27/3518

Jumbo Loans Back in Style?; Homeready vs FHA

Taking out a mortgage with an origination balance higher than whatever the conventional loan limit was at the time used to be an expensive proposition. Home buyers and refinancers had an incentive to do whatever they could - higher down payments, piggy back second mortgages - to get their loan under that conventional limit in order to reap the benefits of lower borrowing costs. However, as Archana Prahan writes in the CoreLogic Insights Blog, since mid-2013 a jumbo loan has had lower borrower costs than a conforming loan, currently defined as one with a balance at or under $453,100. In the first quarter of 2018 that differential averaged 33 basis points (bps). As Figure 1 shows, conforming loans were cheaper during the period from the second quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2013, (blue

from
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/reports/newsletter/2018/8/31/3526