Maryland Mortgage Loans

The Employment Cost Index (ECI) is an economic report that was never on our radar as a top tier market mover in the past.  Then in early 2022, Fed Chair Powell began to point it out as one of the most important indicators of potential wage pressures.  He's gone on to mention it several more times throughout the past 13 months.  It has thus become a consistent and obvious market mover.  Today's release is the latest example with a modest beat (1.0 vs 1.1) producing an instant rally with the highest single minute of volume in more than 2 weeks.  In fact, the only other reports with more of a volume response in January have been NFP and CPI. The chart above doesn't exactly mean that ECI is the second or 3rd most important market mover after CPI. But it does mean that this is officially one of the most tradeable flashpoints because it's not extraordinarily nuanced data.  In other words, the headline is the meat, and it's easy to understand.  That lends itself to an o

Does technology always trump personal skills? Sometimes. But not all the time. Good LOs use the technology that best suits them in combination with their personal attributes to help borrowers every day. “In space, no one can hear you scream. In cyberspace, no one can shut you up.” How ‘bout some IT-related stuff? Here’s a softball: did you know that “Bluetooth” was named after Harald Bluetooth? The Bluetooth wireless specification design was named after the king in 1997, based on an analogy that the technology would unite devices the way Harald Bluetooth united the tribes of Denmark into a single kingdom. Another good use of technology is exhibited by Tim Lucas who writes, “There are more than 5 million Native Americans in the U.S. but only about 140 approved lenders. I created a Section 184 calculator that shows the required down payment, MI costs, and more. There's also a flowchart and a ton of info about the program.” Thank you, Tim! Here’s some more good news: Ransomware victim

As mortgage rates rose last year, activity in the housing market slowed down. And as a result, homes started seeing fewer offers and stayed on the market longer. That meant some homeowners decided to press pause on selling. http://dlvr.it/ShjZw4

There are plenty of good reasons you might be ready to move. No matter your motivations, before you list your current house, you need to consider where you’ll go next. http://dlvr.it/ShfgPf

Spring is usually the busiest season in the housing market. Many buyers wait until then to make their move, believing it’s the best time to find a home. However, that isn’t always the case when you factor in the competition you could face with other buyers at that time of year. If you’re ready to buy a home, here’s why it makes sense to move before the spring market picks up. http://dlvr.it/ShSzrX

There are a lot of topics being covered here at the MBA’s IMB conference. One of them is hedging, and if you want a primer on how lenders are protecting themselves from interest rate risk, here you go. Yesterday the MBA’s Marina Walsh observed what lenders are doing now to survive. In no order: reducing the cost of sales, revisiting existing office leases, taking advantage of predictive analytics, critically examining their business lines, ramping up new products or looking at geographic expansion, retaining servicing, further staffing adjustments, and reducing middle management. Take your pick, or do them all, but every lender is doing something as the days of raising margins to slow volume are long gone. In fact, many lenders who have retained servicing are selling it to maintain their cash flows, despite servicing income being a huge part of whatever profits were to be had in 2022. The mortgage servicing rights (MSR) market has opened 2023 with billions of dollars on the market, and

Mortgage loan activity posted a third straight gain during the week ended January 20 . The Mortgage Brokers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 7.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier and rose 1 percent on an unadjusted basis. The week’s results included an adjustment to account for the observance of Martin Luther King Day. The Refinance Index moved 15 percent higher but was 77 percent below activity during the same week one year ago. That share of the week’s applications increased to 31.9 percent from 31.2 percent the previous week. [refiappschart] The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index gained 3 percent and was 1 percent higher on an unadjusted basis. Activity was 39 percent lower than the same week one year ago. [purchaseappschart] “Mortgage rates declined for the third straight week, which is good news for potential homebuyers looking ahead to the spring homebuying season. Mortgage rates