Lower
Mortgage Rates Start Lower, But Could See Some Volatility This Week
Mortgage rates have been fairly flat in the bigger picture, but each passing day continues to bring small scale movements. This is almost always the case, even if rate quotes don’t seem to be changing. One key reason for this is the difference between “note rate” and “effective rate.” The former is the rate that […]
Rates Move Swiftly Lower Due to New Covid Variant; Delinquencies Remain Elevated
Just when it looked like the current week would fizzle out on a negative note for rates, our least favorite market mover is back in the news. B.1.1.529 (designated now as “Omicron”), a new covid variant hit the market like a ton of bricks on Friday morning. 48 hours earlier, Google had never heard of […]
Fannie/Freddie Report Lower Quarterly Revenues, Profits
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) reported their respective third quarter 2021 financial results on Friday. Both posted significant increases in net income from the same period in 2020 but results for each were lower than reported in Quarter Two. Fannie Mae says it had $ 4.8 billion net income for the third quarter of […]
COVID Concerns Drive Rates Lower, Refi Volume Rises
Refinancing continues to support mortgage application activity while purchase applications continued to weaken during the week ended July 23. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) says its Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 5.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the prior week and the unadjusted index was up 6 […]
Mortgage Rates Are Actually LOWER This Week
Mortgage rates hit their lowest levels in a week yesterday and are sideways to slightly lower today, depending on the lender. These facts are not well represented in the news today, where you’re more likely to see stories about rates being much higher this week. What’s up with the discrepancy? As is often the case […]
Biden Appoints New FHFA Director; Rates Are Actually Lower This Week
The White House didn’t waste any time after a Supreme Court ruling allowed it to do so, removing Mark Calabria as Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) late Wednesday. Earlier that day the Court had released their 7-2 ruling that the inability to remove the agency director during a five year term except […]
Mortgage Rates Modestly Lower, But Hoping For More
At this point, no one should be surprised to hear that mortgage rates have moved significantly higher in 2021–especially in the past few weeks. There are several reasons for this, but the easiest way to make sense of it all is to say “rates were ultra low when covid was at its worst and they’ve […]
Mortgage Rates Move Lower Today, But Don’t Count on a Repeat Tomorrow
Mortgage rates were little-changed yesterday–a fact that was ultimately at odds with underlying market movement by the end of the day. What does that mean? Simply put, mortgage rates are primarily determined by the trading prices of certain bonds (MBS, in this case). MBS change every second of the trading day though, so mortgage lenders […]
Forbearances Ending at a Faster Pace; Rates Drift Lower; Refi Market Still Hot
Black Knight said its weekly forbearance survey found the number of mortgages in active forbearance decreasing at an accelerated rate. Those mortgages fell by 2.6 percent or 95,000 loans over the last week, bring the decline over the last month to 357,000 loans. It was the fifth straight week of improvement and Black Knight noted […]
Still Reeling From Last Week, Mortgage Rates Tiptoe Lower
Mortgage rates managed to improve modestly for the average lender today, but they remain significantly higher than they were before last week’s regulatory drama . By the time we consider the size, scope, and the precipitous imposition of the new refi fee, we’ve never seen anything remotely similar. Lenders were definitely taken by surprise and […]