To be fair, mortgage rates haven't been far from their long-term highs in over a week, but today's 30yr fixed index level of 6.83% is functionally equ...
I am no numerologist, but Freddie Mac’s announcement yesterday, that 30-year mortgage rates are averaging 6.66, caught my attention. Unlike rumors, li...
Mortgage application activity pulled back last week as higher borrowing costs weighed on both home purchase and refinance demand. The Mortgage Bankers...
Japan's Ministry of Finance (MOF) and central bank (BOJ) are a bit more closely linked than Treasury and the Fed. For example, the MOF can instruct th...
It's not at all uncommon for mortgage rates to experience microscopic movement in either direction on any given day. In fact, it's probably the most c...
I was recently doing some bike riding in the Napa Valley and spent some time speaking with a wine maker. She told me that because of the increase in t...
This morning could have been much worse. The bond market could have continued spiraling on fear that it is now responsible for conducting monetary pol...
Heading into today's Fed announcement, futures markets indicated roughly a 1 in 3 chance that the Fed would hike rates. They did not. This seems like ...
“Technology is dominated by two types of people: Those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.” Even...
The big news over the weekend was that the U.S. and Iran paused hostilities--something that led to 2 solid days of gains in the bond market. But in th...
Does innovation in lending always means building something new? MISMO’s President Brian Vieaux challenges that familiar assumption, instead, he argues...
Once again, bond yields dropped in the overnight session in concert with lower oil prices. Today's iteration is less swift than yesterday's, but after...
After bottoming out around 6.5% in late June, mortgage rates moved steadily higher this month, ultimately hitting 6.85% last Thursday--the highest lev...
In 2025, the IMF reported that, across the globe, companies, households, and countries had amassed $251 trillion in debt. Looking toward the end of 20...
It's a pretty simple morning for the bond market (and many other markets). While there's no formal ceasefire, both the U.S. and Iran have indicated a ...
If you're just tuning in, mortgage rates had a rough day yesterday on top of a rough week overall. The result was the highest 30yr fixed rate in over ...
New home sales rebounded modestly in June, recovering some of the previous month's decline, though activity remained below year-ago levels as elevated...
Mortgage application activity rebounded last week as stronger home purchase demand offset a modest decline in refinancing, even with borrowing costs c...
Odds are, anything you buy was transported using diesel fuel, the price of which has shot up after Russia banned exports of it, impacting farmers, tra...
It's a straightforward morning in the bond market. We're not seeing any of the sorts of "unseen hand" trading that accounted for the timing of yesterd...
Mortgage moved higher today, and while the jump was no larger than the one seen on Monday, both were 'above average' and both took rates in the wrong ...
There are only twelve (12) legislative days left until the November election, and today on The Big Picture attorney Mitch Kider and I will discuss wha...
Welcome to post-Iran-War 2026. The only real relief for bonds since then was seen in June when there was hope that the war was over or at least windin...
We have bad news and slightly less bad news. Starting with the latter, today's mortgage rates are only marginally higher than they were yesterday with...
There’s always something in the news, whether it is Jimothy the raccoon in the Northwest, or the Canadian wildfire smoke in the Northeast which coinci...
For those not interested in overcomplicating things, it's fair enough to simply observe the resurgence of hostilities in the Iran war prompting a resu...
In late July, 2025, 30yr fixed rates embarked on an excellent adventure, moving down from 6.75% on July 31st to 5.99% by late February, 2026. Since th...
People who say that residential lending and the state or federal governments aren’t intertwined have to look no further than the CFPB. Their new offi...
While last week's CPI and PPI reports were unabashedly great news, the bond market spent Friday and yesterday gradually unwinding most of the resultin...
Last week ended on a promising note with Friday's rates falling just barely below the previous Friday's levels. This was a relief after the top-tier 3...
Dang. I don’t know why I put my entire retirement plan into SpaceX stock… it has lost $1 trillion in book value since its post-IPO high. In 2026 Fanni...
You've seen the "good vibes only" t-shirt perhaps? Bond traders left theirs at home this morning. That's unfortunate as there isn't much beyond vibes ...
The good news is that mortgage rates ended the day at their lowest levels of the week. That's welcome news after Monday's rates matched the highest se...
Residential construction rebounded in June as housing starts and completions recovered from May's unusually weak levels, though building permits conti...
Pending home sales declined in June as elevated mortgage rates and record-high home prices continued to weigh on buyer demand. The National Associatio...
Builder sentiment weakened further in July as affordability challenges and ongoing economic uncertainty continued to weigh on the market for new singl...
Mortgage application volume declined again last week as higher borrowing costs weighed on home purchase demand. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA)...
Esoteric Forex Drama Blasts Bonds, Maybe
Friday was very much NOT on the beaten path of typical bond market considerations with most of the selling arguably stemming from Japanese currency intervention. We've...