Hey, NAR, Why Don't You Get Real, Huh?

When it comes to the stock market, a day is just a snapshot, but what a snapshot it can be. On Tuesday morning stocks were down by almost 200 points, but the bigger concern is the rising yield on the 10-year Treasury bond: 2.94% as I write this. As we all know, mortgages are priced off the 10-year government bond, which means the robust refi business could get nicked a bit. Or maybe not. But there is a huge black cloud of an alien spaceship hovering over the U.S. housing and mortgage markets: the lack of home buyers for both new and existing homes. Last week, leaders of the National Association of Realtors told mortgage lenders to "get real" about their loan standards and fees. But lenders could easily have shot back: Hey, Realtors, why don't you tell your sellers to drop their prices some more? Realtors, of course, get paid a commission based on the selling price of a house, which means the lower the sales price, the less money a Realtor makes. (Ever notice how Realtors all seem to drive around in Mercedes or Cadillac SUVs?) Mortgages are all about math. But so is the Realty business, which may not always be based in 'reality'…