Tuesday Bits and Pieces

Posted on May 29, 2013 by ScottC

This post is for Brent.

Classic commercials of the 60’s and 70’s. Talk about nostalgia and bringing back memories. Remember that crying Indian?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mkr3GureeA

I don’t know what made me think of this, but I remember seeing this game live on WPIX when I was a kid. I’d never seen anyone so crazed before.

Duke beat Syracuse for the NCAA lacrosse national championship yesterday. This a more palatable memory, from 2009 (OK…this is more for me than Brent):

For all you Star Wars and Star Trek geeks, the physics of space battles.

This one really is for Brent…America’s coolest houses. BTW, number 2 is actually in New Canaan, so Brent you can easily visit. (I don’t get why it is such a big tourist attraction, but then again I don’t get a lot of things.)

And finally, an old KW favorite…bad lip reading:

Filed under: Bits and Pieces, fun stuff | 10 Comments »

ATiM: Dead or Alive?

Posted on May 29, 2013 by ScottC

ATiM has been extremely quiet for some time now. Brent keeps up his morning post, and both jnc and McWing continue to post daily links, but apart from that there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of commentary. A lot of people seem to have checked out for good. At the moment ATiM is, at best, on life support, if not dead altogether. Can it be revived? Should it be? What needs to be done in order to revive it, or should it be put out of its misery altogether?

Anyone out there lurking who would care to offer up an opinion? Consider it an exit interview…brutal honesty is welcome.

Filed under: administrative | 21 Comments »

Morning Report – Foreclosures drop again 5/29/13

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Brent Nyitray

Vital Statistics:

  Last Change Percent
S&P Futures  1646.2 -8.4 -0.51%
Eurostoxx Index 2794.0 -41.9 -1.48%
Oil (WTI) 94.43 -0.6 -0.61%
LIBOR 0.276 0.003 1.10%
US Dollar Index (DXY) 83.58 -0.516 -0.61%
10 Year Govt Bond Yield 2.14% -0.03%  
Current Coupon Ginnie Mae TBA 101.7 0.3  
Current Coupon Fannie Mae TBA 100.6 0.3  
RPX Composite Real Estate Index 200.2 0.0  
BankRate 30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage 3.88    

 

Bond market volatility is the theme of the day (yet again). The 10-year bond yield jumped to 2.23% this morning in late Asian hours. No real news drove the decline, just the general fear that the Fed will start paring back QE sometime this fall.
 
Lender Processing Services reported that home prices are up 1.4% month-over-month and 7.6% year over year. It does appear that the rally is becoming more broad, as states other than the usual suspects are showing the biggest gains. This time around, Georgia leads the way as Atlanta prices increased 2.6% MOM. Arizona was actually in the bottom 10, indicating that perhaps the big professional-driven rally off the bottom has been played out.
 
CoreLogic reported that foreclosures are down 16% YOY and 1% MOM. 52,000 foreclosures were completed in April 2013. In states like Arizona and California, the year-over-year decline is over 50%. The shadow inventory of homes in some state of foreclosure is 1.1 million, compared to 1.5 million a year ago. The judicial states of FL, IL, NJ, NY, and CT still have some work to do, but the rest of the states have largely completed their foreclosures.
 
The sell-off in bonds has created a massive jump in mortgage rates. Now, as the mortgage REITs hedge their books, we are approaching another wave of selling in TBAs as MBS investors hedge their convexity and REITs de-lever. This is going to push mortgage rates even higher. If rates stay here, we should be best-exing into a 3.5% coupon pretty soon.
 

Filed under: Morning Report | 15 Comments »