Daily Dose

Delivering comments to a group of REO brokers and agents, Ed Delgado, president and CEO of the Five Star Institute, offered his take on how the stage is set for the mortgage sector in 2015. "There are several embedded risks in the mortgage market that pose future risk of performance that have yet to be expressed," Delgado remarked. "In effect, the market may not be recovering at the rate that we think it is."

In its Primary Mortgage Market Survey, Freddie Mac recorded the average 30-year fixed interest rate at 3.99 percent (0.5 point) for the week ending November 20, just down from an average of 4.01 percent last week. Last year at this time, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.22 percent.

In its latest Origination Insight Report, released Thursday, mortgage technology provider Ellie Mae reported that refinancing activity accounted for 40 percent of overall mortgage volume in October, marking the highest level since March. Despite the increase in demand, lenders were able to improve their closing time on refinance loans.

Total existing-home sales in October, including single-family houses, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops, came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.26 million, up 1.5 percent from an upwardly revised estimate of 5.18 million in September, according to transaction data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

Home flipping sales, or those in which a home is purchased and sold within 12 months, represented 4 percent of all single-family home sales in the United States in the third quarter, a decline from 4.6 percent in Q2 2014 and from 5.6 percent in the third quarter of 2013, according to RealtyTrac.

According to a report from Bloomberg, lawyers for both sides told a judge on Tuesday they’re doubtful about the chances of reaching an agreement on a suit alleging the bank fraudulently submitted loans for insurance through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported a seasonally adjusted increase of 4.9 percent in mortgage applications for the week ending November 14. The figure also includes an adjustment for the Veterans Day bank holiday. The jump accompanied a slight dip in interest rates, which fell to an average 4.18 percent for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage.

Looking at economic and housing market indicators in the second quarter, Arch Mortgage Insurance Company (Arch MI) says the odds of a decline in home prices in the next two years on the national level are 13 percent, down from 15 percent in the company's summer estimate.

According to a report released by the Commerce Department, groundbreaking on new housing projects was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.01 million last month, a drop of 2.8 percent from September's upwardly revised estimate of 1.04 million. Meanwhile, permit issuance for new housing units was at a rate of 1.08 million, a six-year high for that figure.

In Freddie Mac's latest Economic and Housing Market Outlook for the United States, the company's economists turn their attention away from 2014—a mixed year for housing, especially compared to 2013—and toward 2015, which they say will see continued strengthening in the market for home purchase mortgages as the economy improves on a broad basis.