Existing home sale plunged 17.8% in April to an annual rate of 4.33 million, roughly matching expectations for an annual rate of 4.325 million. The decline last month follows a sharp drop of 8.5% in March and an annual rate of 5.27 million. Sales are trending much lower because of pandemic restrictions and are nowRead more
The Federal Reserve’s efforts to stabilize the agency MBS market have been critically important. In its absence, mortgages would have been much more costly, perhaps unavailable altogether. However, given the scale of the intervention, it caused some unavoidable dislocation. On March 12 and 13, a Thursday and Friday, the mortgage-treasury spread widened to approximately 160Read more