Chase Mortgage Market Pulse: What is inflation and how does it affect mortgages?

Contributed by Tony Stevenson
What is Inflation?
There are three different terms used to describe situations of price movement: inflation, disinflation and deflation.
Inflation is a sustained increase in the price of goods and services that are produced and sold in the economy. During periods of increased inflation, money loses its power to purchase the same amount of […]

Chase Mortgage Market Pulse: New home construction lowest in 17 years

Contributed by Tony Stevenson
Industry-related News
Tuesday, April 15
The Labor Department’s Producer Price Index (PPI) increased by 1.1% from February, well above the 0.6% increase forecasted by economists. The March core PPI met market expectations, rising 0.2%.
Wednesday, April 16
The Labor Department reported the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 0.3% from February. The core CPI, which excludes […]

Chase Mortgage Market Pulse: Despite market volatility, Chase’s mortgage applications up 11%

Contributed by Tony Stevenson
During the last few weeks, the Market Pulse has provided you with insight into what moves mortgage markets, and more specifically, how investor demand influences the market place. This week the market has continued to be volatile.
Mortgage originators sold parts of their ARM portfolios and were met with investors demanding higher rates […]

Chase Mortgage Market Pulse: The Fed unveils program aimed to alleviate strains on credit markets

By Tony Stevenson
During the last two weeks, lenders have been selling parts of their ARM portfolios and have been challenged by investors who are demanding much higher rates of return for these assets than was anticipated previously.
This is causing spreads on ARM mortgage-backed securities to widen in order to meet investor demands. The overall response […]