The FHFA announced that Fannie and Freddie will remove ‘certain’ homeowners insurance requirements which may reduce costs. But what are people saying about where their industry-facing priorities are? Both are focused on leveraging technology and reminding lenders of their existing products. For example, Fannie offers a construction to perm program, as does Freddie Mac, and […]

At almost any moment in March 2026, a glance at the “10yr vs oil price” chart has revealed sufficient correlation to blame the bond rout on the energy price spiral. But the correlation is spotty at times and today is one of the starkest examples. Oil is essentially flat while bonds surged to higher yields

Mortgage rates got hit 3 times on Wednesday, with the net effect being a move back up to the highest levels in several months. The average lender isn’t quite as high as they were last Friday, but after late-day “reprices” many are fairly close.  The least of the bond market’s concerns (bonds dictate rates) was

Bonds Weren’t Prepared For Fed’s Inflation Fears If anything, you’d think the market would have been pricing in a hawkish Fed day, given the run up in energy prices. But Powell threw reporters a curve ball during the press conference and instead placed the focus on other categories of inflation that were under the microscope

Available indicators suggest that economic activity has been expanding at a solid pace. Job gains have remained low, and the unemployment rate has shown some signs of stabilization. been little changed in recent months. Inflation remains somewhat elevated. The Committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2 percent over the

Among the hot topics in the hallways of the ICE Experience is the evolution in data contained in each lien, along with massive appraisal change hitting our biz. I was chatting with Class Valuation’s Mark Walser yesterday about UAD 3.6. (If you’d like a primer on it, and you should, see this write up by

The Producer Price Index (PPI) was this morning’s only big ticket econ data and calling it “big ticket” is a bit of a stretch. PPI often passes without a trace, but can occasionally get an obvious response even if it’s not a huge response. Today’s installment is bigger than normal. If there’s a reason, it

Sleepy Pre-Fed Day, But Slightly Stronger Bonds did something they haven’t done in almost 3 weeks today. They closed at stronger levels for the second consecutive day. The last time that happened was February 27th at the end of the impressive month-long rally. While today was stronger, it wasn’t exactly impressive (or event that interesting). The

It was a fairly uneventful day for mortgage rates, but also a fairly decent one. The underlying bond market made modest gains even without meaningful cues from oil prices. Lately, oil price volatility has been the most visible motivation for bonds and, thus, interest rates. After cresting 6.40% last week, the MND 30yr fixed rate