We spend a lot of time in mortgage lending talking about income. How much does the borrower earn? What is the debt-to-income ratio? How much of a monthly payment can the household reasonably carry? What happens to purchasing power when the mortgage rate moves another...
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...
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...
Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh delivered a difficult message for the housing industry Friday: The Fed sees the strain in housing, but that weakness is not enough to shift its attention away from inflation. Speaking at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s...
Pending Home Sales Slide to Nearly Three-Year Low as Buyers Pull Back
