There is a strange contradiction developing in the mortgage market right now, and I think we need to be careful about how we talk about it. By most broad measures, the mortgage system is still in pretty good shape. There is no national foreclosure crisis, there is no...
Every month, the housing industry gets another collection of national numbers. Home prices are up. Sales are down. Inventory is improving. Affordability is getting worse. Builder confidence moved. Mortgage applications changed. We report those numbers because they...
For most people in real estate and mortgage, closing day has always carried a sense of finality. The papers are signed, the keys change hands, commissions are paid, the loan funds and everybody moves on to the next transaction. The homeowner, of course, doesn’t...
There are borrowers in America who can responsibly repay a mortgage and still do not fit neatly into the underwriting box we built for them. Anyone who has spent time in mortgage lending has seen this. A self-employed business owner may have substantial cash flow but...
The late-summer housing market is giving buyers something they have spent much of the past several years waiting for: leverage. Whether enough buyers can afford to use it is another question. New listings rose 0.4% from the previous week during the four weeks ending...