evan@evanhitch.com

Today’s mortgage rates are lower when compared to yesterday’s average prior to 4pm ET. Later in the afternoon, multiple lenders announced improvements as the bond market rallied in response to geopolitical headlines. If we use those later, lower rates as a baseline, today’s average is roughly unchanged. There were no major economic reports today–not that […]

Products, Services, and Software for Brokers and Lenders What if the biggest driver of servicing costs isn’t your volume, staffing, or vendor stack… but the gaps between them? Clarifire’s new blog, “What’s Really Driving Cost Per Loan in Servicing?” explores a hidden operational challenge many servicing leaders face: systems that are technically connected but operationally

One major milestone in anyone’s market-watching journey is when they learn that “the close” (close of business, closing bell, etc.) means different things to different people. If we consider electronic futures trading or cash trading in overseas markets, bonds are only really closed for 2 hours a day anyway.  But the market needs a standardized

Big Round Trip in Oil Prices and Bond Yields There was no denying the spillover from oil price volatility to the bond market this morning, even if it took quite a lot of the former to move the latter. At its apex, the oil surge was the largest daily move on record at over $26/bbl

Mortgage rates began the day at the highest levels in a month. The move up versus Friday was only moderate, but Friday’s levels were already fairly close to early Feb’s highs. Oil prices continue putting upward pressure on rates, but with several caveats. It takes quite a big move in oil to motivate enough movement

One of the conversation topics late last week in Deer Valley is the weather and climate, and more specifically that Salt Lake City had received virtually no snow this winter, which means that places like Atlanta and Charlotte have received more snow than a city at 4,300 feet elevation. Syracuse, New York has received nearly

Since the outbreak of the military operation in Iran, there have been varying levels of spillover from rising oil prices to the bond market. There have been notable pockets of time where the correlation broke down, but when viewed in less granular detail, oil prices and bond yields have moved higher together over the past week.

Oil Impact Ultimately Shunned in Favor of Jobs Report Implications It was a super interesting day for the bond market. Yields rose to the week’s highs overnight as oil prices continued to surge. We knew we’d get at least some sort of reaction to any big beat/miss in the jobs report and today’s miss was

Before this morning’s jobs report was released, mortgage rates were on track to end the week at their highest levels in several weeks. This was due to an ongoing mega-spike in oil prices spilling over to the bond market (higher oil = higher inflation implications, and bonds hate inflation). The jobs report saved the day,

Mortgage application activity surged last week in response to headlines of mortgage rates stably holding multi-year lows. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported an increase of 11.0% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending February 27. Refi applications once again led the charge, jumping 14.3% from the previous week and 109% higher vs