Tue, Mar 25 2025, 4:02 PM
One of the key principles of mortgage rate movement has to do with the frequency of mortgage rate changes. Specifically, mortgage lenders prefer to u...
Tue, Mar 25 2025, 11:45 AM
This week I head to San Diego for MCT Exchange 2025, and my email has been heating up. “Rob, are you hearing about a big jump in lock volume last week...
Tue, Mar 25 2025, 10:25 AM
Bonds came into the domestic session in weaker territory after steady selling in Europe. The resulting yields were ultimately a few bps higher than t...
Mon, Mar 24 2025, 3:59 PM
Yields Pushing Range Boundaries After Tariff Updates and Econ Data
Bonds lost ground over the weekend as new...
Mon, Mar 24 2025, 3:41 PM
The average mortgage lender raised rates modestly on Monday morning--a logical move considering the weakness in the bond market over the weekend. Rat...
Mon, Mar 24 2025, 12:26 PM
Bonds are starting the week in weaker shape. If you had to reduce that movement to one motivation, it would be the "risk-on" vibes following more news...
Mon, Mar 24 2025, 11:58 AM
“A government survey has shown that 91 percent of illegal immigrants come to this country so that they can see their own doctor.” On a more serious no...
Fri, Mar 21 2025, 4:45 PM
Small Scale Weakness Leaves Bigger Picture Unchanged
Bonds began the day in stronger territory after tracing...
Fri, Mar 21 2025, 4:04 PM
As is the case with a majority of housing and mortgage market data these days, the Existing Home Sales data from NAR is heavily dependent on context. ...
Fri, Mar 21 2025, 3:49 PM
The Mortgage Bankers Association conducts a weekly survey on the level of mortgage applications, both for purchases and refinances. Both data series ...
Fri, Mar 21 2025, 3:25 PM
The Census Bureau released its New Residential Construction report this week, frequently referred to by its principal component "housing starts" (a te...
Fri, Mar 21 2025, 3:03 PM
The National Association of Homebuilders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (aka "builder confidence") hasn't been in a purgatory of sorts, ever since t...
Fri, Mar 21 2025, 2:44 PM
In terms of the market movement that underlies and dictates mortgage rate movement, today looked a lot like yesterday. Things started strong and fade...
Fri, Mar 21 2025, 11:53 AM
“Elon is firing Twitter employees with bad posture. I have a hunch I might be next.” If I have a sprained finger, I don’t need a heart and lung transp...
Fri, Mar 21 2025, 11:49 AM
Heading into this week's Fed announcement, we noted the consolidation pattern in bonds (the convergence of intraday highs and lows in an increasingly ...
Thu, Mar 20 2025, 5:06 PM
Uneventful Trading Day, But That's a Win
There's not much to say about today's trading session. MBS and Tre...
Thu, Mar 20 2025, 4:32 PM
It was actually a rather uneventful day for the bond market. That means it should have been an uneventful day for mortgage rates (because they're driv...
Thu, Mar 20 2025, 11:43 AM
“My wife just left me. She says life revolves around baseball and she's sick of it. I'm quite upset. We were together for 7 seasons.” Say hello to the...
Thu, Mar 20 2025, 11:07 AM
The eternal disclaimer: we should never flat-out expect a particular correlation between stocks and bonds, with limited exceptions. Yesterday's Fed an...
Wed, Mar 19 2025, 4:21 PM
Post-Fed Rally is "Nice" But Not Quite Exciting
In a small vacuum, today's Fed announcement had a noticeably...
Wed, Mar 19 2025, 3:52 PM
Heading into today, we knew the afternoon's Fed announcement was biggest potential flashpoint for interest rate movement, and that the movement probab...
Wed, Mar 19 2025, 2:00 PM
Recent indicators suggest that economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace. The unemployment rate has stabilized at a low level in recen...
Wed, Mar 19 2025, 12:34 PM
Today's only big ticket calendar event is the Fed announcement, but that is more like 3 separate events over the course of roughly 2 hours. The announ...
Wed, Mar 19 2025, 11:40 AM
Tired of writing those pesky checks? Wait no longer: If you don’t want to send a check through the U.S. Mail, for whatever reason, there’s Deluxe Paym...
Tue, Mar 18 2025, 3:37 PM
Low Volatility Session Ahead of Fed Day
4 out of the year's 8 Fed announcements include an updated dot plot ...
Tue, Mar 18 2025, 3:07 PM
As we often discuss, mortgage lenders prefer to set their rates once per day. They only make changes when the underlying bond market makes a big enoug...
Tue, Mar 18 2025, 11:37 AM
Recall 2 weeks ago that news of the incoming German Chancellor's ambitions to massively increase debt/spending led to the end of the bond rally in the...
Tue, Mar 18 2025, 11:00 AM
The calendar pages flip. We’re in mortgage conference season again in hotels around the nation, and why not have a little fun leaving your quarters (e...
Mon, Mar 17 2025, 4:12 PM
Mixed Reaction to Retail Sales Makes For a Boring Monday
Despite coming in much weaker than expected, Retail...
Mon, Mar 17 2025, 3:50 PM
Mortgage rates are based on movement in the bond market, and the bond market is closed for most of the weekend. As such, one might assume that Monday...
Mon, Mar 17 2025, 11:57 AM
After improving modestly in the overnight session, bonds contended with the Retail Sales data at 8:30am ET. At first glance, it should have been help...
Mon, Mar 17 2025, 11:25 AM
“My friend showed me a photo of a famous meteor crater in Arizona. It's amazing how close it landed to the Visitor's Center!” Here in Tucson, the weat...
Fri, Mar 14 2025, 6:22 PM
Uneventful Friday, Even if Slightly Weaker
Friday's trading session was the most uneventful of the week. It...
Fri, Mar 14 2025, 3:38 PM
Despite some ups and downs on a small scale, mortgage rates have been sideways in the bigger picture. That's a good thing if the latest refi applicat...
Fri, Mar 14 2025, 12:05 PM
Time flies. We’re at “pi day” (3.14), two weeks until the end of the quarter, one month before our taxes are due. Tax returns for individuals are priv...
Fri, Mar 14 2025, 9:29 AM
It's been an on-again, off-again week for bonds and several of their trading motivations. Economic data has played its part at times, but not in any ...
Thu, Mar 13 2025, 4:25 PM
Stocks Save Bonds From Modest Losses
You won't always be able to count on the market dynamics we've seen ove...
Thu, Mar 13 2025, 3:38 PM
Mortgage rates hit their highest levels in just over 2 weeks yesterday and they were on track to remain unchanged today. In fact, the average lender o...
Thu, Mar 13 2025, 11:47 AM
Teddy Roosevelt thought that lawyers are trained to serve clients and not justice. An interesting discussion topic. Residential lending certainly has ...
Thu, Mar 13 2025, 10:40 AM
Seemingly overnight (i.e. over the past 30 days when it comes to markets reacting to economic data), the CPI and PPI inflation numbers that normally i...
Wed, Mar 12 2025, 4:09 PM
Why Aren't Bonds Happier About CPI?
For the 2nd month in a row, the market's reaction to a CPI/PPI report en...
Wed, Mar 12 2025, 3:18 PM
Mortgage rates have moved up over the past 2 days, ultimately hitting the highest levels since February 24th today. While that sounds somewhat unplea...
Wed, Mar 12 2025, 11:48 AM
Today's CPI came in lower than expected. That would normally help bonds rally, but they didn't seem too eager to do that. One explanation is that the ...
Tue, Mar 11 2025, 3:56 PM
Consolidation Continues Ahead of CPI
February 19th through March 3rd marked an exceptionally directional ral...
Tue, Mar 11 2025, 3:15 PM
With fiscal and geopolitical developments dominating the news cycle, it would be easy to forget that interest rates prefer to take their primary cues ...
Tue, Mar 11 2025, 12:52 PM
Bonds were initially stronger at the start of overnight trading in Asia, but began selling off at a fairly steady clip almost immediately. By the sta...
Tue, Mar 11 2025, 11:42 AM
“Buying eggs on the street and weed in the stores: the times they are changing.” Borrowers are certainly reacting to changes in rates as capital marke...
Mon, Mar 10 2025, 3:44 PM
More Help From Stocks, But More Reluctance From Bonds
Up until just after 3pm ET, the stock market was on pa...
Mon, Mar 10 2025, 3:02 PM
Conventional 30yr fixed mortgage rates hit their lowest levels in months last Tuesday morning, with the average lender right in line with levels from ...
Mon, Mar 10 2025, 11:53 AM
“Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.” People flying around the nation have probably observed, or have heard, a change in the mood of airpor...
