Mortgage Rates

Wanna know the new buzz acronym? Residential Transition Loans (RTL): financing for properties in transition, including fix-and-flip, bridge, and rehab deals. Catch the wave… people always need to borrow money! Now, if only income guidelines by the Agencies matched how incomes have changed. Change is constant: “Rob, if you think inflation is bad, home insurance […]

Builder confidence improved modestly in May, though sentiment remained subdued as elevated mortgage rates, affordability pressures, and broader economic uncertainty continued to weigh on the housing market. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) increased three points to 37 . While the gain marks a slight rebound from April’s decline,

Mortgage applications pulled back last week as rising rates weighed on homebuyer demand, while refinance activity remained largely flat. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported a 2.3% decrease in total application volume on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending May 15. The decline was driven primarily by softer purchase activity. The seasonally adjusted

Residential construction activity was mixed again in April, as building permits rebounded while housing starts pulled back modestly from March’s stronger pace. The latest Census Bureau data continues to reflect a construction sector navigating uneven demand and affordability pressures. Privately owned housing starts fell 2.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.465 million ,

Bonds are starting the session at the best levels of the week with modest overnight gains getting a small boost from news that Pakistan’s army chief (a central figure in mediating US/Iran peace talks) is en route to Tehran. Trading ends at 2pm today instead of 5pm, as is usually the case for a Friday before

After posting a decent recovery from 9-month highs yesterday, it looked like mortgage rates were destined to bounce back toward slightly higher levels today. In fact, when lenders released their initial rates this morning, the average 30yr fixed rate was indeed moderately higher. But shortly after 1pm ET, news broke regarding additional progress in the

Peace Deal Rumors Make For Mid-Day Reversal Bonds started the day in fairly forgettable and slightly weaker fashion after overnight headlines suggested that the disposition of Iran’s nuclear material remains a sticking point. Bonds were flat at weaker levels all morning. Then, just after 1pm, a different headline suggested a “draft agreement” was expected to be

Bonds spent most of the overnight session moving sideways to slightly stronger, but everything changed at 6:20am. That’s when news broke regarding a statement from Iran’s Khamenei saying that Uranium should not leave the country. Given that this is a sticking point for peace negotiations, the response in bonds/oil/etc was immediate and clear. Yields rose

Lots of folks were leaving the MBA’s National Secondary yesterday, and many comments and questions were heard. “Did you hear that Jerry Seinfeld is doing a show at the MBA National in October?” (True) “Ginnie Mae began ratcheting up its cybersecurity efforts in 2024. Why aren’t others?” (Good question; I’m sure they are at some

Wednesday brought some much-needed relief for the mortgage market after rates surged to new 9 month highs of 6.75% yesterday. Whereas that rate spike was decoupled from the prevailing narrative of war-related headlines, today’s recovery was quite the opposite. Newswires came out shortly after 10am ET that suggested the U.S. and Iran are nearing a