Rates
Forbearances Tick Up; Relief Extended; Brutal Week For Rates But There’s Hope (Hopefully)
Rising rates have been on the menu for months, but the drama kicked into a higher gear this week. Maybe you heard about this? We’ve certainly been discussing it in recent newsletters ( especially last week’s ). The rising rate narrative hit the mainstream this week as it was widely credited for doing damage to […]
Brutal Week For Rates But There’s Hope (Hopefully)
Rising rates have been on the menu for months, but the drama kicked into a higher gear this week. Maybe you heard about this? We’ve certainly been discussing it in recent newsletters ( especially last week’s ). The rising rate narrative hit the mainstream this week as it was widely credited for doing damage to […]
February Easily The Worst Month For Rates in Long Time
Posted To: Mortgage Rate Watch There are still 4 business days left in the month of February and thus still 4 days for the bond market to undergo an epic recovery that helps mortgage rates come back down. But traders and market-watchers alike have pined for–if not outright expected–such a recovery several times in the […]
Existing Sales Rise, But Inventory is a Drag; Rates Surging, How Bad Could it Get?
There’s no precedent for the winning streak enjoyed by mortgage rates in the 2nd half of 2020. We’ve never seen so many new record lows in the same year, and we never spent as much time at those lows (not even close). All of the above makes it easy to get lulled into a false […]
Expirations Help Forbearance Numbers; Rates Under Pressure Despite Weak Jobs Report
Economic data is traditionally one of the key contributors to interest rate movement. Of the regularly-scheduled reports, none has more market-moving street cred than The Employment Situation–otherwise known as “the jobs report” or simply NFP (due to its headline component: Non-Farm Payrolls). The relationship between econ data and rates can wax and wane. Covid definitely […]
Why Mortgage Rates Should Care About Bond Market Warning
After spiking in early January, interest rates returned to near-all-time-low levels by the middle of the week. By the end, however, the market began to flash a warning about more volatility ahead. The warning is fairly simple. It has to do with a pattern that’s been repeating in the bond market (the key ingredient in […]
Mortgage Rates Start Strong But End Higher
Mortgage rates have had a great couple of weeks after jumping to multi-month highs at the beginning of January. By yesterday, they’d made it almost all the way back to their best recent levels. The same was true this morning, but things have changed since then. The bond market (which dictates rates) had its worst […]
Mortgage Rates Making Steady Progress Over The Past Week
Mortgage rates are off to a decent start this week with the average lender offering slightly better terms compared to last Friday. The progress actually began earlier last week. On Tuesday morning, rates were at their highest levels in exactly 2 months after jumping at a relatively quick pace in response to the Georgia senate […]
Still Cheaper to Own; Forbearance Improvement Slows; No More Record Low Rates?
In most parts of the country owning a home is more affordable than renting one according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ 2021 Rental Affordability Report . The company looked at the median price of a three-bedroom home in 915 U.S. counties and the rent for a comparable home and found owning more affordable 572 or 63 […]
Mortgage Rates Surge After Powell Comments
Posted To: Mortgage Rate Watch Mortgage rates jumped quickly today after Q&A session with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. What did he say to cause such drama? Actually, it’s more about what he didn’t say. For some reason, market participants were expecting (or at least hoping) that Powell would say something to address the recent […]