All Things in Moderation

Vital Statistics:

Stocks are higher this morning on strong numbers out of WalMart and the Home Despot. Bonds and MBS are up small.

It looks like we are getting bipartisan push-back against the 50 basis point adverse market fee. Trump criticized the fee, and we have a chorus of Democrats opposed to it as well. It seems like no one is actually supporting this move. This is as just about every industry group lines up against it as well.

Housing starts increased to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 1.5 million in July, which is a 23% increase from a year ago. Building permits came in at 1.5 million as well, which is a 9% increase from last year. Certainly the COVID-related pause is over, and we are approaching the highs of earlier this year.

Mortgage delinquencies increased to 8.2% in the second quarter, compared to 4.4% in the first quarter and 4.5% a year ago.

The COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on some homeowners’ ability to make their mortgage payments could not be more apparent,” said Marina Walsh, MBA Vice President of Industry Analysis. “The nearly 4 percentage point jump in the delinquency rate was the biggest quarterly rise in the history of MBA’s survey. The second quarter results also mark the highest overall delinquency rate in nine years, and a survey-high delinquency rate for FHA loans.

The conventional delinquency rate rose to 6.7% while the FHA delinquency rate rose to 15.7%, the highest rate since the survey began in the late 70s. DQs spiked in NY, NJ, FL, NV, and HI.

The number of loans in forbearance decreased to 7.2% last week, according to the MBA. Interesting data point on non-QM: big NQM investor MFA Financial said that roughly a third of its non-QM portfolio was in forbearance (though many were still paying). Ginnie remains a rough spot, with 9.5% in forbearance, and that doesn’t include the Ginnie loans which have been bought out of pools.

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