ARM Index Bulletin See the latest ARM indexes here Occasional news & changes about adjustable rate mortgage indexes and other financial indicators

Friday, January 2, 2009

FREDDIE MAC IS LATE posting its RNYs, so we will delay sending the reports for a short time.

UPDATE; Freddie's Cash Desk tells me they're 'updating' the system, and that the RNYs won't be on the website for a while. So, our reports are going out without Freddie's first RNYs of the new year,

UPDATE II: Pretty much the same thing happened exactly one year ago.

UPDATE III: Freddie also didn't update its PMMS spreadsheet for the week...

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year, almost. HSH is closed on January 1, as is the BBA, which won't publish its daily Libor values that day.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Looking for the daily H.15 updates from us? You'll have to wait until Monday:

No Update on December 26
The Federal Reserve Board will be closed on Friday, December 26. The H.15 daily update will not be posted on that day. The weekly H.15 release will be available at the normally scheduled time on Monday, December 29.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

HSH will be closed on Wed, December 24 and Thu, December 25; we'll be in the office on Fri, December 26.

Index reports will be sent out, since the markets will be open. No reports will be sent on Dec. 25, though.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

THE APOR RATE: In response to subscriber inquiries, HSH will track the upcoming Average Prime Offer Rate when it becomes available in early January. If you want it included on your report, contact us.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Wachovia Savings has let it be known that it won't be releasing its Cost of Savings Index (COSI) to the public. Instead, the COSI values will only be published on the statements of its mortgage borrowers.

Wachovia is in the process of merging with Wells Fargo. Will WF make the index public? Perhaps.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Fannie Mae hasn't updated its CMDIs since Nov. 28. That is all.

UPDATE: Per Fannie's website, the CMDI series has been discontinued, effective November 28. No addiional information is available.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

HOLIDAY SKED: HSH's offices will be closed on Thursday & Friday, Nov. 27 & 28, for Thanksgiving. Index reports will be sent out.

Fannie and Freddie RNYs are down again this morning, as you've no doubt read in the Wall Street Journal. The chart features our statistics.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

In an unusual intraday update, Fannie Mae slashed its Required Net Yields at 9:15AM. The FRM RNYs fell by about 70 basis points. We can thank the Fed's new ABS program for this...

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

CLOSED: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are closed, as is HSH, observing Veterans Day.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

THE PRIME DIDN'T CHANGE: Normally (over the past decade or so), the Prime Rate changes immediately when the Fed cuts rates.

But not this time. Today's edition of The Wall Street Journal -- the official and cited source of the US Prime Rate -- still shows the Prime at 4.50%. The reason, as per the Journal:

As of 6 p.m. Eastern time on October 29, not enough banks had announced a change in their base rate to lower the U.S. prime rate.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

NMCR is late: Although the National Mortgage Contract Interest rate is slated to be released today, it hasn't been, yet.

UPDATE: Finally out - you can find it here.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

NO SURPRISE HERE: The Fed cut both the discount rate and the Federal Funds rate today. For details, I'll turn you over to the HSH finance blog.

Monday, October 6, 2008

NEW TABLE: By request, we're adding a table of daily US and international interest rates. You'll be able to find it on this page as well as here.

Friday, October 3, 2008

LATE RATES, REDUX: Fannie Mae's RNYs for today have not been posted yet, though they have updated their CMDIs. The ND banking department hasn't yet released the October usury rate.

We're holding publication for a while to see what happens.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

LATE RATES: North Dakota and Missouri have yet to publish their usury rates for this month and this quarter (respectively).

Update: Missouri's banking department helpfully responded to my email and enclosed the memo with the 4Q usury rate. Thanks, Ramona!

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The August value of the 11th District COF is 2.693% -- shaved a bit off the July value of 2.698%. Still the lowest since June 2005. (And speaking of low rates, how about those T-bills?)

Friday, August 29, 2008

THE 11TH DISTRICT COF for July is out. At 2.698%, it's at its lowest point since June 2005's 2.676%.

THIS ARTICLE ON Calculated Risk discusses the FDIC's plan for modifying IndyMac loans. Read the whole thing, but this part is worth mentioning:

the FDIC approach is to arrive at a total housing-payment-to-income ratio or HTI, which they confusingly call a "DTI," of 38%. This can be achieved by using one or more of the following restructuring approaches.

First, the interest rate is lowered to the current Freddie Mac survey rate for fixed rate mortgages, and fully amortized as a fixed rate loan. As far as I can tell, at this initial step, the loan is amortized over its remaining term, whatever that is.

Evidently this refers to the national PMMS average. As a reminder, HSH tracks that each week (along with certain regionals).

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

We have added the PMMS Northeast region figures to the reports of all who have requested it. If we missed you, or you belatedly discover you need these for NY subprime lending, let us know.

Monday, August 25, 2008

No USD BBA Libor rates will be issued for August 25 (which would normally be reported tomorrow as per the traditional one day delay) as British bankers enjoy their Summer Bank Holiday.

Monday, August 18, 2008

FREDDIE MAC IS LATE posting its RNYs, so we will delay sending the reports for a short time.

NY SUBPRIME: Lenders and servicers who do business in New York State are already aware of that state's Mortgage Lending Reform Bill; various provisions have already taken effect. One provision defines a "subprime home loan" as

a home loan with a fully-indexed annual percentage rate (APR) that exceeds by more than 175 basis points for a first-lien loan, or by more than 375 basis points for a subordinate-lien loan, the average commitment rate for loans in the northeast region with a comparable duration as published in the weekly Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) in the week prior to the week in which the lender received a completed loan application.

(Emphasis added.) HSH will be adding the NE averages for 15- and 30-year fixed rate mortgages and 5/1 and 1/1 adjustable rate mortgages to its ARM index database. Clients who will need them on their daily ARM index reports should contact us to have them included on their reports.

We expect that other states will follow this trend.HSH will add additional indicators to our ARM index database.

Friday, August 1, 2008

MONTHLY LIBOR: The monthly HSH Libor values for August are now available. If you're unfamiliar, the HSH Libor replaced the old FNMA Libor which was discontinued over a year ago. A 2000-2006long-term history of the replacement series is also available.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES - reports are slightly delayed today.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Fannie Mae hasn't yet updated its RNYs for today, as was the case yesterday. The reports will be delayed for a while longer.

UPDATE: Quotes arrived somewhere about 2 PM, give or take.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Fannie Mae hasn't yet updated its RNYs for today, so the reports will be held back for a while longer.

UPDATE: Their cash desk says they're aware of the problem but has no ETA for posting today's quotes.

UPDATE: Quotes arrived... not too long before 5 PM, along with the day's CMDI figures.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

A subscriber asks: Why did we receive an Update on July 4? I thought you didn't send out updates on US Federal holidays."

We may do this according to the needs of our non-US-based clients who do not (necessarily) observe US holidays; otherwise, they'd have a hole in their data stream.

June 2008

A new first-mortgage statistical series on expanded conforming, also known as conforming-jumbo, agency jumbo, and other names, has national averages for GSE loans over $417K. We're making the series available along with conforming and jumbo stats. Click here for more.

Friday, June 27, 008

H.15 CHANGE ALERT: the following values were changed in the 27-Jun-2008 Daily H.15.

• 06/25/2008 1-Month CD (Secondary Market) (daily) old: 2.55000 new: 2.53000
• 06/25/2008 6-Month CD (Secondary Market) (daily): old: 3.12000 new: 3.14000

Monday, June 9, 2008

H.15 CHANGE ALERT: the following values were changed in the 09-Jun-2008 Weekly H.15.

• 05/30/2008 3-month TCM, weekly: old: 1.90000 new: 1.89000
• 05/30/2008 1-year TCM, weekly: old: 2.16000 new: 2.19000
• 05/01/2008 1-year TCM, monthly: old: 2.05000 new: 2.06000
• 05/30/2008 2-year TCM, weekly: old: 2.56000 new: 2.63000
• 05/01/2008 2-year TCM, monthly: old: 2.43000 new: 2.45000
• 05/30/2008 5-year TCM, weekly: old: 3.31000 new: 3.36000
• 05/01/2008 5-year TCM, monthly: old: 3.14000 new: 3.15000
• 05/30/2008 7-year TCM, weekly: old: 3.60000 new: 3.63000
• 05/01/2008 7-year TCM, monthly: old: 3.45000 new: 3.46000

Thursday, May 29, 2008

A study by The Wall Street Journal suggests that some "banks may have reported flawed interest data for Libor" by "reporting significantly lower borrowing costs for the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, than what another market measure suggests they should be."

The WSJ article can be read here.

Monday, May 26, 2008

No USD BBA Libor rates will be issued for May 26 (which would normally be reported tomorrow as per the traditional one day delay) as British bankers enjoy their Spring Bank Holiday.

Monday, May 5, 2008

No USD BBA Libor rates for May 5 (which would normally be reported tomorrow as per the traditional one day delay) as British bankers enjoy their Early May Bank Holiday.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

This may be the last of the Fed rate cuts for a while.

The Prime Rate will, as usual, follow.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Remember: no daily Libor values were released Friday, and there won't be any today, so Thursday's numbers are still in effect.

Friday, March 21, 2008

IT'S GOOD FRIDAY, which means no daily Libor values will be issued today or on Monday; thus, the values for yesterday are in effect until Wednesday.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are open for business, but Fannie's RNYs are not up yet (10 AM ET).

UPDATE: It's 11 AM, and the reports are going out without the Fannie RNYs.

UPDATE 2: They're closed, contrary to the assurances of the front desk.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

As expected in the wake of yesterday's 3/4% cut in the Fed Funds rate, the Prime Rate is down to 5.25%. The GSE RNYs have been pogo-sticking around for several days; I'm glad I'm not a lender in these times.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Much news today: First, another emergency discount rate cut by the Fed, from 3.5% to 3.25%. Second, the Fed has established the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, which allows primary dealers (like Bearn Stearns) to borrow directly from the Fed window. In essence, it's a discount window for financial firms, like the one banks use.

In related news, RNYs and daily Libor values are falling again.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

AND AGAIN: Freddie Mac's quotes are showing up late.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

FREDDIE MAC is still having difficulties posting RNYs to its website.

UPDATE: The first posting is time-stamped 9:43. Reports going out.

Monday, February 25, 2008

FREDDIE MAC IS LATE posting its RNYs, so we will delay sending the reports for a short time.

UPDATE: 11 am and no RNYs - shipping the reports.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Rates and RNYs are, predictably, falling in the wake of yesterday's emergency Fed action to cut short-term rates. The Prime now stands at 6.50%; it was last at this level on 09-Aug-2005... but on the way up.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

THE FED'S EMERGENCY RATE CUTS are in the online headines, including ours, so you already know that the Federal Funds rate is falling to 3.5% and that the the Discount Rate is falling to 4% (not that far below what the 30-year Treasury was trading at recently).

This prompted an email from a subscriber who'd heard that the WSJ Prime had fallen, and when we would report that. My reply:

We also hadn't heard that the Prime was falling, though we've no doubt it will (if grudgingly).

Monday, January 14, 2008

LIBOR RATES STILL FALLING: Libor yields continue to plummet - the short-term USD values are hovering around 4%, while the longer values are well under 4%.

All the cheaper money being made available by the Term Auction Facility is also having an effect (indirect as it may be) on home mortgage rates; the conforming national average has fallen to 5.87%, the lowest point since late September 2005. The average 5/1 ARM hit its lowest point in nearly two years.

Friday, January 11, 2008

We're doing some server maintenance - the reports will be delayed a bit longer this morning.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Freddie Mac's Required Net Yields page isn't updating. The Cash Desk is aware of the issue, so we're delaying the DIUS reports for a little while (but no later than 11 am ET) in hopes of getting them.

UPDATE: It's after 11 AM - the reports are going out w/out today's Freddie RNYs.

UPDATE II: First appearance at 1:25 PM ET.

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