Mortgage applications are relevant to a number of industries—from banks to non-banks, to mortgage REITs like Annaly (NLY) and American Capital (AGNC), to homebuilders like KB Home (KBH), Lennar (LEN), and Toll Brothers (TOL). This series will break down the different indices and help you learn what insight you can glean from them. If you’re a bank, you’re looking at these indices and trying to determine whether you’re competitive in all the segments you want to be competitive in. If you’re a non-bank, you might be looking to see if you’re gaining share or losing share. If you’re a mortgage REIT, you’re focusing on the refinance index and what it might mean for prepayments going forward. And if you’re a homebuilder, you’re watching the purchase index as a way to gauge future demand.

Mortgage rates fall slightly as bonds yields increase

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose 6 basis points, from 4.31% to 4.37%, while the ten-year bond yield rose 15 basis points as Ukrainian fears began to fade into the background. The Fed decided to start tapering at the December FOMC meeting and reduced its pace of purchases by $5 billion a month. It made a similar move at the January FOMC meeting. Given how much issuance has fallen, the Fed’s footprint was getting bigger even though it wasn’t increasing purchases. It made sense for the Fed to reduce purchases. The fear, of course, is that the absence of Fed activity will make mortgage rates rise even if the ten-year stays the same.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-mortgage-business-now-hyper-194503535.html