
New Home Sales Remain Near Recent Highs
If there's one housing market metric that paints a brighter picture than the rest, it's New Home Sales data from the Census Bureau. At 745,000, it eased slightly from an upwardly-revised annual rate of 758,000 , but was higher then the pre-revision reading of 737k, and 3.8% above December 2024’s 718
Read More

Pending Sales Dip as Affordability Gains Fail to Spark Demand
The National Association of Realtors’ Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) slipped modestly in January, easily prolonging its stay in a narrow range near all-time lows. Pending home sales decreased 0.8% month over month and were down 0.4% compared with the same time last year. While affordability conditi
Read More

Fraud, Retention, Marketing Tools; Assessing Income; STRATMOR on Org. Structure; Non-Agency Updates
Mail-related check fraud never seems to go away, and the FBI reminds us that blue gel pens certainly help in reducing check fraud. “Rob, are you hearing that the increase in the popularity of artificial intelligence has led to an increase in mortgage fraud?” Yes, I have. It can be insidious… it may
Read More

Opening Salvo of Data Fails to Inspire
At the time of this writing, there are still a few econ reports left on deck, but the big ones are out. GDP missed big (1.4 vs 3.0), but largely for non-economic reasons. For instance, the BEA noted an entire 1% of the decline from the 4.4% reading in Q3 was due to the way it counts federal worker l
Read More
Categories
Recent Posts















