BLUELINE Blog

Great News!...? FHA Will Start Taking Loans in Forbearance, but Not All of the Risk

15 June, 2020 / by Michael Clark, Ph.D.

Published June 15, 2020

Loans that were originated according to FHA guidelines – that went into forbearance before they were able to be move them over to FHA – are now able to be insured by the FHA. There are, of course, some restrictions and stipulations that are associated [...]

Time to Start Thinking About Getting Conventional Loans Out of Forbearance

29 May, 2020 / by Michael Clark, Ph.D.

Published May 29, 2020

As we head into June, it feels like the eye of the storm in the mortgage industry. Forbearances are still increasing but at a greatly diminished rate, rates are still low, volume is still high, many states have begun to reopen, and the secondary market has [...]

Mortgage Volumes Still Strong Despite Economic Uncertainty

23 April, 2020 / by Michael Clark, Ph.D.

Published April 23, 2020

During these unprecedented times, we are all trying to stay safe and healthy. Among other measures, this means a lot of social distancing and time spent in your current place of residence. The purchase market is slowing as both supply and demand are [...]

Downside Risks in the Mortgage Market

07 April, 2020 / by Michael Clark, Ph.D.

Published April 7, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic is not a housing crisis in its nature, but there are several places throughout the industry where the pandemic or policy response to it has hit at some vulnerabilities in the market. For the most part, these vulnerabilities tend to [...]

Is the Virus-related Mortgage Market Turmoil Abating?

06 April, 2020 / by Jim Glennon

Published April 6, 2020

The COVID-19 crisis continues, and the mortgage industry is still reeling from its effects. Margin calls almost went too high for the industry to stomach, investor and agency cash pricing is awful, and March mark-to-market (MTM) results are ugly, though [...]

The CARES Act and its Impact on the Economy and the Mortgage Market

03 April, 2020 / by Michael Clark, Ph.D.

Published April 3, 2020

There are two primary concerns for the mortgage industry in regard to the pandemic: one is the secondary market losing liquidity and the primary market drying up; the other is the possibility that the pandemic will cause a wave of unemployment and lack of [...]

Recent Actions Taken in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

25 March, 2020 / by Michael Clark, Ph.D.

The Federal Reserve (FED) has had a busy past few weeks. Since lowering the Fed Funds Rate1 and announcing their first Quantitative Easing (QE)2 actions of this crisis, they have taken several other actions to maintain liquidity and confidence in the economy. Many of these [...]

COVID-19 and its Impact on Today's Mortgage Pipelines

25 March, 2020 / by Jim Glennon

The COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) pandemic throughout the world continues to become more critical by the day and most experts predict things will get worse before they get better. The impact on society, the world economy, and our industry remain to be seen, but the [...]

Emergency Actions in Response to COVID-19 & the Implications of the Policy Actions

19 March, 2020 / by Michael Clark, Ph.D.

In response to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) pandemic, global economic conditions, and the economic uncertainty that social isolation protocols have induced, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) just made its second emergency rate cut over the past two [...]

Market Volatility and the Anatomy of Mortgage Rates

18 March, 2020 / by Brennan O’Connell

Published March 18, 2020

Optimal Blue recently co-authored an article with Andrew Davidson & Co., Inc. (AD&Co), a leading provider of risk analytics and consulting for residential lending and MBS, titled Market Volatility and the Anatomy of Mortgage Rates. This timely article [...]