Better touted the company’s efficient operations, including an artificial intelligence voice assistant handling all of its inbound customer calls.

The Trump victory is considered a positive for changing the status of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but what would that do to interest rates?

The real estate investment trust reported a GAAP loss and thin earnings available for distribution as a result of market shifts that also affected some peers.

“When I was young man, I met a girl in Tennessee who turned out to be a moonshiner’s daughter. That was a long time ago. But I love her still.” The Commentary is going out this morning from a Buc-ee’s in Northern Georgia (on my way northward to Ohio), economic activity is active. Are high rates in my rear-view mirror, with lower rates down the road? Mortgage rates and U.S. Treasury yields have climbed further, with the 10-year bond reaching 4.36% and mortgage rates near 7%, as investors anticipate potentially inflationary policies from President-elect Donald Trump, such as tax cuts and tariffs. With better economic data, perhaps a too-dovish Fed, and more policy details from the Trump administration are higher Treasury yields and worse mortgage pricing a surprise? Today at 2PM ET/11AM PT “Mortgage Matters: The Weekly Roundup” presented by L1 has Jess Medema, who runs secondary marketing for Altra CU, discussing what happens behind the scenes in a secondary department and what originators should know about rates & pricing. (Today’s podcast can be found here. This week’s is sponsored by Floify. Floify is an easy-to-configure point-of-sale platform that allows each branch or loan officer to customize its look and feel to meet the needs of their lending team, homebuyers, and market. Today’s features an interview with Experian’s Joy Mina and Ivan Ahmed on how lenders can navigate a tight market, from rates to equity.) Lender and Broker Software, Services, and Products

It’s not entirely clear if it’s a can or the proverbial bucket.  All we know is that mortgage applications have been kicking it.  There’s no great way to make the news interesting now that loan volume has done what anyone would have expected it to do, given the the rapid rise in rates over the past 6 weeks. Up until that point, there had been a noticeable uptick in refinance applications.  That uptick has now been fully erased, although this week didn’t decline nearly as much as the past several. In the bigger picture, that uptick wasn’t anything special considering the starting point was as low as it’s been in decades. To whatever extent refi apps have been historically muted, purchase applications have been reliably boring.  Little changes on that front from week to week. The bigger picture is more interesting here, perhaps, as it shows the rapid shift from a longstanding trend of steady improvement to the new reality of exceptionally light purchase activity. Other highlights include:
Refis accounted for 39.9% of the total, same as last week
FHA accounted for 16.0%, up from 15.5%
VA accounted for 13.3%, up from 12.5%
Survey rates were up to 6.86 from 6.81 (30yr fixed)
origination/points decreased to 0.6 from 0.68
FHA rates fell to 6.69 from 6.75
Jumbo rates rose to 7.00% from 6.98%

While there’s been plenty of movement in the average mortgage rate on any given day recently, today was not one of them.  30yr fixed rates remained above 7%, but technically fell 0.01% (an amount so small that it may as well be considered an absence of change).   Despite the flat day-over-day result, there continues to be much more intraday movement than normal.  Mortgage lenders publish an initial rate in the morning and it only changes if the bond market moves enough in one direction or the other.  Over the decades, on any given day, the average lender is more likely to keep the same rate offerings all day.  Recently, however, that’s the exception.  Most lenders have faced multiple situations that have forced a mid-day reprice on any given week.  The past two days haven’t been as volatile in that regard, but many lenders ended up pushing rates a bit higher after starting the day in lower territory.   If there was a reason that rates were able to hold ground today, it was the bond market’s favorable reception to this morning’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), a key inflation report that showed a modest improvement versus last month.  Some market watchers were concerned that inflation would continue to trend higher–something that would push rates higher, all other things being equal.

Bonds managed a moderate rally in response to this morning’s inflation data.  While it has since been mostly erased, it was as strong of a showing as we could have possibly hoped for at the time, and one that speaks to the recent increase in underlying inflation anxiety.
The anxiety stemmed from the past 2 CPIs popping back near 0.3% (core, M/M) after averaging 0.13% in the 3 months before that.  Looked at another way, Core CPI increased every month starting in July, and that trend was finally defeated today. 
Without the shelter component, inflation is at or below the Fed’s 2% target (2.1% core and 1.3% overall). In early trading bonds moved back in line with yesterday morning’s levels–not a huge victory in the bigger picture, but a strong showing given the asymmetric risks.
The CPI reaction nearly garnered the same volume as the jobs report over the first 30 minutes of the reaction.

For those interested in more nuance, here are several charts from the CPI data. The first shows how goods and energy prices are contributing to deflation while housing and services continue accounting for almost all of the inflationary pressure.

The following chart focuses on housing inflation specifically.  It’s still elevated, and month-to-month readings can be volatile, but the broad, slow decline is the key reason that the Fed is confident in the eventual return to 2% (because, again, without housing, we’re already there).

The next chart shows actual rental rates mostly back to pre-pandemic levels and in a flatter trend compared to OER, which remains elevated.  That said, OER is also broadly trending lower.

The average home buyer spends almost $32,000 in home-buying expenses, a report by Clever Real Estate claims.

A steep mortgage servicing rights valuation change hurt earnings which included greater adjusted net income and total origination volume.

While the latest data indicates ongoing demand, changes in the share of locks by category show consumers trying to adapt to market conditions, according to a report from Optimal Blue.