Whether it's today vs yesterday, or today vs the end of last week, the average top tier 30yr fixed mortgage rate is just a hair lower. Today's improv...
A glance at today's economic calendar quickly reveals that Fed speeches are the only game in town in terms of scheduled events. But what can the Fed ...
Here’s something that our Fed can’t do anything about, inflation-wise: coconut prices have doubled due to extreme weather events. (More on weather and...
Mortgage rates moved back up to the higher levels seen earlier this week after the official announcement of a trade deal between the U.S. and the U.K....
Bonds mostly lost ground in the overnight session, and then lost just a bit more ground after the 8:30am econ data. This consisted of Jobless Claims ...
“Why did the homeowner take so long in remodeling his home? He had trouble with da siding.” There are LOs, or correspondent investors, who have spent ...
There's nothing like a Fed announcement day to get almost every media outlet to run headlines that attempt to tie the day's market movement to the Fed...
Recent Although swings in net exports have affected the data, recent indicators suggest that economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pa...
Wednesday begins with bonds battling back from modest overnight weakness (now moving into modestly stronger territory), but not for any particular rea...
Most good loan originators are keenly aware of demographics in their area. Aren’t you tired of talking about a lack of inventory and builders’ supply ...
Mortgage rates were unchanged for the average lender this morning, thanks to a modest improvement in the bond market overnight. Rates were on course ...
This is the month of the MBA’s National Secondary in Manhattan. For some trivia, the nickname "The Big Apple" originated in the 1920s in reference to ...
Bonds have been on both sides of unchanged so far today. The overnight session began with slightly higher yields followed by a gradual rally. By 9am ...
Mortgage rates faced a slight headwind on Monday as economic data caused weakness in the bond market. This would typically result in higher mortgage r...
Today celebrates Mexico’s victory over France in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. (In this country, Hispanic home ownership rates continue toward ...
The ISM Services PMI is this morning's key data, and arguably, the most relevant economic report of the week. Last week's ISM Manufacturing data wasn'...
Mortgage rates had a nice little run, moving down from last Monday's highs of 6.98% (average, top tier 30yr fixed) to a mid-week low just over 6.80%. ...
Both of the major purveyors of home price indices have been in agreement for the better part of a year that the average home is appreciating between 4...
Mortgage rates were in the process of falling by the end of last week, but they made additional headway during the first half of the present week. Th...
Fortunately for the readers of this Commentary, we don’t receive federal funding, so it won’t be cut… Unlike groups like NPR and PBS which the Trump A...
It is shaping up to be a straightforward morning for the bond market. There was a justified and logical amount of anticipation for today's numbers and...
After enjoying a calm, steady winning streak so far this week, mortgage rates finally experienced a bump back toward slightly higher levels on Thursda...
2 weeks ago, we got our first hint that the market was once again ready to respond to economic data after a few weeks of tariff headlines being the on...
May Day… whether you celebrate today as “about” halfway between the Northern Hemisphere's Spring equinox and Midsummer solstice associated with maypol...
Mortgage rates continue enjoying a completely different volatility regime compared to just a few weeks ago. Back then, it wasn't a surprise to see th...
In terms of line items, Wednesday morning is the week's most active morning for economic reports. Several of them were potentially important, but the ...
I don’t know where April went, but we’re at the end of it, and 2025 is 1/3 over. The future sure quickly becomes the past. In the book “1984” George O...
It's now been more than a week since mortgage rates ended the day higher than the previous day. And we haven't recovered quite as much lost ground as...
Once again, bonds were modestly weaker overnight and once again, that weakness is being reversed in early trading. Whereas scapegoats were nowhere to ...
My cat Myrtle was always interested in both the primary and secondary markets… for line-caught halibut. In residential lending, the secondary markets ...
Mortgage rates ended last week at the lowest levels since April 7th. The average lender remained at those same levels at the start of business today,...
When getting a sense of what's happening in the bond market, it's frequently safe to ignore the last 2 hours of trading on Friday and the first 2 on M...
The news on mortgage rates has been frustratingly mixed recently, depending on the source. This is a factor of the various time frames and methodologi...
As is the case for the monthly data on New Home Sales from the Census Bureau, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Existing Home Sales report do...
The Census Bureau released March New Home Sales data this week, and it was near the best levels seen since early 2022. Before you get too excited abo...
What if your client called the CFPB about a servicing issue, or any issue, and no one answered? Things are changing, but for a thorough write up on th...
Today's only scheduled economic report is Consumer Sentiment. Nonetheless, we would classify today as being "data free" because this is simply the fin...
Flat Friday, But Volatility Risks Remain
Bonds started weaker, flipped stronger mid-day, and then slowly moved back to unchanged levels by the close. Most of the day's volatility surrounded comments from a Sw...