Five Minute Maturity – 04/12/2021

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome back for another week! We do not have any housing news this morning, but we do have trouble brewing in the sub-prime auto market. Prior to COVID-19, getting a car loan was about as easy as walking up to a lender and...

Five Minute Maturity – 04/09/2021

Good morning! Last month, the MBA’s Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) increased 0.6% to 125.4. The onset of the pandemic resulted in a significant pullback in mortgage credit, so the rise in the MCAI shows relaxation on the part of lenders. The most notable...

Five Minute Maturity – 04/07/2021

Good morning and happy hump day. We finally got back to scheduled housing releases this morning, as Mortgage Applications for the week ended April 2nd were released at 6.00 a.m. central time and extended the recent weather slowed trend to -5.1%. The last two prior...

Five Minute Maturity – 04/05/2021

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome back! Over the last year, we have been tracking the rapid rise in home prices, often citing low inventory, high buyer demand, and expensive building materials as the primary causes. However, there is another contributing...

Five Minute Maturity – 04/02/2021

Good morning and happy Friday! Yesterday afternoon, Ward’s total vehicle sales for the month of March came in at an annualized rate of 17.75 million units, a significant jump from February’s 15.67 million units. The street was expecting a much more moderate increase...

Five Minute Maturity – 03/31/2021

Good morning and happy hump day. We’re back on the scheduled housing news train this morning, with Mortgage Applications for the week ending March 26 at 6:00 a.m. central time and Pending Home Sales for Feb. at 9:00. The surveys are calling for -3.00% on PHS on the...

Five Minute Maturity – 03/29/2021

Good morning! When are the housing and rental markets finally going to normalize following the continual extension of pandemic protection measures? The moratorium on foreclosures supposedly expires June 1, and the moratorium on evictions is set to expire this...

Five Minute Maturity – 03/26/2021

Good morning and happy Friday! Once again, we have nothing scheduled in the way of housing or mortgage news. The biggest headline news of the morning centers around the continuing grind higher in mortgage rates. With over 60% of mortgage originations in the refi...

Five Minute Maturity – 03/24/2021

Good morning all and happy hump day! We had news today, as Mortgage Applications for the week ending March 19 was released at 6:00 central. We continued to see weak numbers at -2.5%. This followed the prior weeks’ -2.2%. Many of the housing headlines this morning...

Five Minute Maturity – 03/22/2021

Happy Monday, folks! Existing home sales for the month of February saw a significant decline of 6.6% compared with January to a seasonally-adjusted annualized rate of 6.22 million units. Typically around this time of year, we may expect a ramp-up in properties being...