Wed, Dec 17 2025, 4:17 PM
Slightly More Focus Than Normal on Thursday's CPI
Wednesday ended up being an uneventful trading day with bo...
Wed, Dec 17 2025, 3:51 PM
Mortgage rates were perfectly unchanged compared to yesterday's levels for the average lender. This wasn't a huge surprise considering the absence of ...
Wed, Dec 17 2025, 11:47 AM
Lender and Broker Services, Products, and Software Warehouse lending got a major upgrade in 2025. OptiFunder has transformed the industry with the f...
Wed, Dec 17 2025, 10:35 AM
Wednesday is largely a placeholder as 2025's relevant trading days evaporate. Apart from the year-end influences on the 29th-31st, Thursday's CPI argu...
Tue, Dec 16 2025, 2:42 PM
Unemployment Not High Enough For a Full-Fledged Rally
If the only metric from this morning's jobs report was...
Tue, Dec 16 2025, 2:08 PM
There was a decent chance that rates would have made a fairly big move today in response to the release of November's jobs report. This is the most im...
Tue, Dec 16 2025, 11:41 AM
Running a mortgage company, turns out, isn’t free, and lenders are trying to cut costs and increase efficiency everywhere. For example (and this is no...
Tue, Dec 16 2025, 9:05 AM
If there was one metric in this morning's data that should be helping the bond market, it's the uptick in the unemployment rate from 4.4% in September...
Mon, Dec 15 2025, 3:20 PM
Fairly Calm Monday. Jobs Report on Deck
Monday ended up being a forgettable December trading day with modest...
Mon, Dec 15 2025, 2:41 PM
Mortgage rates were just slightly lower to start the new week. This leaves the average lender's top tier 30yr fixed rate almost dead center in the nar...
Mon, Dec 15 2025, 11:46 AM
Lender and Broker Services, Products, and Software Home equity may have been the headline in 2025, but the real story is what comes next. With nearl...
Mon, Dec 15 2025, 10:00 AM
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is responsible for the two most important economic reports to the bond market: The Employment Situation (aka jobs...
Fri, Dec 12 2025, 4:18 PM
Friday saw mortgage rates move back up near the highest levels of the week, and thus the highest levels of the past 3 months. Thus ends another week w...
Fri, Dec 12 2025, 11:44 AM
“What happened with the DSCR appraisal issue in Baltimore earlier this year?” Good question. Baltimore is not alone: This week we have investors eithe...
Fri, Dec 12 2025, 9:41 AM
There's a noticeable divergence between long and short term bonds since the Fed announcement, and it's becoming more pronounced today. We can conside...
Thu, Dec 11 2025, 4:11 PM
Two-Way Trading But Not Much Day-Over-Day Movement
Bonds had a solid morning, adding moderately to yesterday...
Thu, Dec 11 2025, 3:20 PM
As is sometimes the case on the day following a Fed day, the bond market carried a bit more momentum in the same direction as yesterday afternoon. For...
Thu, Dec 11 2025, 11:46 AM
Lender and Broker Services, Products, and Software For some servicers, the idea of implementing workflow automation is both appealing and overwhelmi...
Thu, Dec 11 2025, 10:22 AM
Bonds are adding moderate to yesterday's post-Fed gains. Most of today's rally has followed this morning's jobless claims data, but we wouldn't necess...
Wed, Dec 10 2025, 4:41 PM
Powell Avoided Throwing Cold Water on Rate Outlook. Bonds Approved
Today's gains ended up being all about Po...
Wed, Dec 10 2025, 4:02 PM
The Fed cut its policy rate by 0.25% today and mortgage rates moved lower after the announcement. That said, those two developments are not related. ...
Wed, Dec 10 2025, 3:52 PM
Seasonally adjusted mortgage application activity rose 4.8% last week, according to MBA’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending Dece...
Wed, Dec 10 2025, 2:00 PM
Available indicators suggest that economic activity has been expanding at a moderate pace. Job gains have slowed this year, and the unemployment rate ...
Wed, Dec 10 2025, 11:55 AM
Somewhere, in a parallel universe, Mariah Carey is walking around some supermarket, sick of listening to me sing Christmas carols. This is, of course,...
Wed, Dec 10 2025, 10:14 AM
Bonds were modestly weaker overnight, but have moved back into positive territory after this morning's Employment Cost Index and NYSE. This means 10yr...
Tue, Dec 9 2025, 4:18 PM
Wednesday is All About Dot Plot and Powell
Bonds lost ground moderately and logically on Tuesday in response...
Tue, Dec 9 2025, 3:59 PM
Mortgage rates were surprisingly steady on Tuesday with most lenders roughly in line with Monday's levels. Why surprising? Because the bond market wa...
Tue, Dec 9 2025, 11:43 AM
“Seminar ‘How to avoid frauds’ is canceled. Tickets are non-refundable.” Collectively, we don’t want mortgage fraud, right? It’s a non-partisan issue....
Tue, Dec 9 2025, 11:36 AM
Tuesday is a fairly straightforward session for the bond market. By now, we assume most of the pre-Fed positioning would be out of the way, and we kn...
Mon, Dec 8 2025, 4:26 PM
Pre Fed Jitters? Not Exactly
Both stocks and bonds began to swoon moments after this morning's 9:30am NYSE o...
Mon, Dec 8 2025, 4:02 PM
Both stocks and bonds lost ground on Monday. This pushed mortgage rates up near their highest levels in just over 3 months (because mortgages are base...
Mon, Dec 8 2025, 11:26 AM
“Blimps are one of the only forms of advertisement people are actually excited to see.” “Rob, we see all kinds of companies advertising at conferences...
Mon, Dec 8 2025, 10:07 AM
Bonds are under pressure yet again at the start of the new week--insult added to injury coming off of the worst week of selling since the late October...
Fri, Dec 5 2025, 4:40 PM
Technicals Help Reconcile Selling Pressure
In the realm of market commentary, technicals are a vastly overus...
Fri, Dec 5 2025, 4:06 PM
Average mortgage rates drifted slightly higher to end the week, though they remained under the levels seen on Monday and Tuesday. Even then, none of t...
Fri, Dec 5 2025, 1:43 PM
Seasonally adjusted mortgage application activity edged 1.4% lower last week according to MBA’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week endin...
Fri, Dec 5 2025, 11:45 AM
Recently I paid over $10 for a simple Oscar Mayer 12-ounce package of bacon. Jerome Powell, help me! Well, the U.S. Federal Reserve doesn’t set bacon ...
Fri, Dec 5 2025, 10:33 AM
If there's one resounding theme in the bond market this week, it's that trading momentum marched to its own beat with almost zero regard for the avail...
Thu, Dec 4 2025, 4:21 PM
Bond Momentum Continues Ignoring Data
On multiple recent occasions, we've seen bonds make a moderate move on...
Thu, Dec 4 2025, 3:46 PM
Today's mortgage rates a just a hair higher than yesterday's and although yesterday's rates were reasonably close to last Friday's, they were still de...
Thu, Dec 4 2025, 11:39 AM
“No plan survives contact with the enemy.” While Freddie rolled out its AI plans, for some lenders, mortgage companies owned by builders, and the buil...
Thu, Dec 4 2025, 8:53 AM
Bonds were already slightly weaker in the overnight session, but the Jobless Claims data won't be any help. Initial claims fell to 191k--the lowest t...
Wed, Dec 3 2025, 4:33 PM
Weaker Data Endorses the In-Progress Rally
Who knows how today would have ended up if the relevant econ data...
Wed, Dec 3 2025, 4:02 PM
Mortgage rates improved more noticeably today, and while the average rate isn't quite as low as it was last week, it's fairly close. Rates are based...
Wed, Dec 3 2025, 11:42 AM
Both Dick Van Dyke and Mel Brooks turn 100, Dick in less than two weeks and Mel next summer. 100 years is a long time, and it’s a big number. Despite ...
Wed, Dec 3 2025, 8:37 AM
10yr yields are almost 4bps lower in early trading and the ADP employment report came in at -32k vs a +10k forecast. The logical conclusion would be t...
Tue, Dec 2 2025, 4:02 PM
Steady Gains Throughout The Day
Bonds began the day in modestly weaker territory although MBS were fairly qu...
Tue, Dec 2 2025, 3:33 PM
Unlike Monday, which saw a fairly brisk move toward higher rates, Tuesday barely budged. Additionally, the budging occurred in a friendly direction wi...
Tue, Dec 2 2025, 11:44 AM
I don’t know about you, but a hot shower or bath always sounds good. Tech wizards, however, have created a human washing machine. I’ll pass. At this p...
Tue, Dec 2 2025, 10:49 AM
The early days of a new trading month and the positioning ahead of next week's Fed announcement have resulted in clear curve trading biases. In Engli...
