All Things in Moderation

Vital Statistics:

Stocks are higher as it looks like hostilities are cooling between the US and Iran. Bonds and MBS are down.

Jobs report data dump:

• Nonfarm payrolls + 145,000
• Unemployment rate 3.5%
• Labor force participation rate 63.2%
• Average hourly earnings up 0.1% / 2.9%

Overall a meh report. Nothing special. Manufacturing payrolls fell by 12,000 which sort of meshes with the weak ISM report. Wage growth remains positive but below the sort of levels we were seeing a few months ago.

Initial Jobless Claims fell to 214,000 last week. No other economic data today, but we do have a lot of Fed-speak.

Want to give a compliance officer a heart attack? Go after a negative review on Yelp by trashing the borrower’s credit profile. Mount Diablo Lending was fined $120,000 for doing just that – “Your credit report shows 4 late payments from the Capital One account, 1 late from Comenity Bank which is Pier 1, another late from Credit First Bank, 3 late payments from an account named SanMateo. Not to mention the mortgage lates. All of these late payments are having an enormous negative impact on your credit score.” Note: credit profiles are confidential information, and your company should have procedures to protect it. Getting into a tiff with a declined borrower on Yelp is not a good way of going about that.

Remember when Quicken and United Wholesale got into a pricing war about this time last year? Well, it looks like Quicken just signed a 4 year contract with the NFL to be its exclusive mortgage sponsor. “Over the years we’ve been a brand and a company that likes to do big epic things,” Casey Hurbis, chief marketing officer for Quicken, said in an interview.

Corporate CEOs and consumers have differing views on the economy. CEOs think a recession in 2020 is the biggest risk, while almost all CFOs see the economy slowing next year. If you look at the chart below, CEO confidence is about where it was going into 2009, which quite simply makes no sense.

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Vital Statistics:

Stocks are slightly higher this morning despite an Iranian rocket attack last night. Bonds traded as high as 1.7% overnight before falling back to more or less unchanged levels.

The ADP jobs report came in stronger than expected, at 202,000. November’s weak reading was also revised upward. Note nonfarm payrolls are expected to come in at 164,000 on Friday, so there may be some upside.

Mortgage applications were largely unchanged during the holiday period, with the composite index falling 1.5%. Refis fell by 8% while purchases increased by 5%. “Mortgage rates dropped last week, as investors sought safety in U.S. Treasury securities as a result of the events in the Middle East, with the 30-year fixed mortgage rate declining to its lowest level (3.91 percent) since early October,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. “Despite lower rates, refinance volume decreased these last two weeks, and we expect that it will slowly trail off in the first half of 2020 as long as mortgage rates remain in this same narrow range. Homeowners would need to see a sharp drop in rates to reinvigorate the refinance wave seen in 2019.”

While the ISM manufacturing index was weak in December, the non-manufacturing index definitely was not. One quote from a builder: “Weather and the holiday season have had an impact on residential new construction sales and production. While demand is outstripping supply in the housing market, business is down due to global trade insecurity causing affordability, labor and cost pressures.” (Construction). Given the weakness in lumber prices, I am not sure how trade is affecting construction. If anything, the issue is labor.

Speaking of homebuilding, Lennar reported 4th quarter earnings that surpassed analyst expectations. Rick Beckwitt, Chief Executive Officer of Lennar, said, “During the fourth quarter, the basic underlying housing market fundamentals of low unemployment, higher wages and low inventory levels remained favorable. Against this backdrop, our homebuilding gross margin in the fourth quarter was 21.5%, while our focus on making our homebuilding platform more efficient resulted in an SG&A percentage of 7.6%, an all-time, fourth quarter low. In addition, our financial services business performed extremely well with fourth quarter earnings of $81.2 million, an all-time, quarterly high.” Revenues increased 9% as deliveries rose 13% and average selling prices fell 3% (as Lennar focuses more on the entry-level market where the demand is strongest).

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Vital Statistics:

Stocks are flattish this morning as Iranian tensions ease. Bonds and MBS are flat as well.

The trade deficit fell to a 3 year low as imports fell and exports rose. The Trump Administration has said that a Phase 1 deal with China will be signed at the White House on January 15. Separately, the Senate is expected to vote on the new USMCA (the replacement for NAFTA) this month.

The Bernank is suggesting that the Fed not rule out the use of negative interest rates. “The Fed should also consider maintaining constructive ambiguity about the future use of negative short-term rates, both because situations could arise in which negative short-term rates would provide useful policy space; and because entirely ruling out negative short rates, by creating an effective floor for long-term rates as well, could limit the Fed’s future ability to reduce longer-term rates by QE or other means.” He also supported the Fed’s current “makeup” policy where the Fed will allow inflation to run above its intended target for an extended period to “make up” for the past decade where it had run below its target.

Interesting new model for home ownership. Fleq is a Los Angeles based startup that buys homes on behalf of a buyer and rents it back them while offering them the chance to buy it from Fleq bit by bit. It is different than the “rent-to-own” model. The buyer (really a tenant) will pay market rent, which is then reduced as the tenant buys more of the property. If the tenant has 5% equity, they 5% of all taxes and maintenance costs. They also get to treat the property as if they own it, meaning they can paint it how they want, etc. I guess it makes sense for someone who falls in love with a house but can’t get a mortgage at the moment. It allows them to move into the home without having to get a mortgage and lets them repair their credit / income / whatever and then go the traditional mortgage route. Don’t know how much interest there will be in this, but it is a novel concept.

Some predictions for the 2020 housing market. “In 2020, more home-building activity and consequent growth in supply should tame down home price gains,” said Lawrence Yun, the NAR’s chief economist. “That’s a healthy development for potential home buyers. Southern cities should once again do better than most other markets.”. Another: “Real estate fundamentals remain entangled in a lattice of continuing demand, tight supply and disciplined financial underwriting,” said George Ratiu, senior economist at Realtor.com. “Accordingly, 2020 will prove to be the most challenging year for buyers, not because of what they can afford but rather what they can find.” Punch line: rates will stay around 3.8%, and existing home sales will fall as fewer properties will be available for sale. Of course, that assumes builders will remain cautious. The NAHB expects single family starts to grow 4% to 920,000, which is still below the number we need to keep up with population and obsolescence. The chart below shows population-adjusted starts by decade:

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Vital Statistics:

Stocks are lower as the markets continue to digest the Iranian strike last week. Bonds and MBS are up.

Friday’s rally in the bond markets left some LOs disappointed, as mortgage backed securities barely moved. This is typical behavior to big shocks in the bond markets – mortgage backed securities (and therefore mortgage rates) invariably lag. We are seeing the same effect again this morning with bond yields falling and MBS barely moving.

Senior central bankers saw a possibility that interest rates could go even lower in the future, driven by changing demographics (in other words, an aging population). This is precisely the issue that has been dogging Japan for the past 30 years.

There was nothing earth-shattering in the FOMC minutes which were released on Friday. The Fed did nothing at the December meeting, so no new revelations were really expected. Officials “discussed how maintaining the current stance of policy for a time could be helpful for cushioning the economy from the global developments that have been weighing on economic activity.” Note that the latest NY Fed forecast has Q4 GDP coming in at 1.1%, which seems far below the other forecasts out there. This was largely due to the weak December ISM survey which showed manufacturing continue to decline. New orders, production, and employment all were contracting. The report was actually the weakest since 2007. It is probably too early to tell if this is a temporary blip or the new Phase 1 deal with China will make a difference. Punch line: No rate hikes for a while

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Vital Statistics:

Stocks are lower this morning on tensions in the Middle East. Bonds and MBS are up.

The US killed an Iranian military commander in Iraq last night, which has sent oil prices up a few bucks, and the 10 year bond yield down to 1.83. The risk-off trade is in  full swing with equity markets falling and S&P futures down a percent. It is too early to tell if the market is overreacting (hint – it usually is) but you might get a window here to pull in some loans.  Might be a good time to review any refis that missed the boat last month.

We will get the minutes from the December FOMC meeting around 2:00 pm. Probably wouldn’t be market-moving on a normal day, but with the volatility from the Middle East situation all bets are off. Be careful locking around that time.

Foreclosure starts hit a 14 year low, according to Black Knight Financial. In November, 33,500 foreclosures were started, which was a 26% decline on a YOY basis. IIRC, there were weather-related issues that boosted the number last year, so that may be partially driving the drop. We did see a tick up in delinquencies, but they are still down 5% YOY. Prepays are more than double last year, which means the refi boom may still have some legs.

The Spring Selling season has historically kicked off right about Super Bowl Sunday. This year, it seems to be accelerating. In fact, some of the homebuilders are noting that traffic remains strong (Toll Brothers noted an acceleration through November and early December). “As shoppers modify their strategies for navigating a housing market that has become more competitive due to rising prices and low inventory, the search for a home is beginning earlier and earlier,” said George Ratiu, senior economist at realtor.com. “With housing inventory across the U.S. expected to reach record lows in 2020, we expect to see this trend continue into the new year.”

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