Modest Friday Bounce Does Little to Alter Bigger Picture
Friday, June 27, 2025
Modest Friday Bounce Does Little to Alter Bigger Picture After a decent mid-day recover, bonds gave up their gains heading into the 3pm close. It's a level of weakness that demands no explanation in the bigger picture--especially on a Friday afternoon of a week with a rally on every single ... .. read more..
Mortgage Rates Not Too Far From 8 Month Lows
Friday, June 27, 2025
Friday's mortgage rates ended up being right in line with Thursday's on average. At 6.72%, the MND daily rate index is as low as it's been since early April when it hit 6.60%. If you're thinking that 6.72 doesn't sound much higher than 6.60, you're right! Mortgage lenders tend to offe... .. read more..
HELOC, Ops Tools; STRATMOR and Servicing; The Importance of Marketing; Freddi...
Friday, June 27, 2025
Does anyone pay with cash anymore, or actually have the money in their bank account? Credit card debt is now $1.1 trillion. There is even a credit card just for automotive repairs! With those “Buy Now Pay Later” arrangements being added to the FICO reports, MLOs are asking, “What are delinquencie... .. read more..
Pending Home Sales Data Scores Some Points, But Not Enough to Change The Game
Friday, June 27, 2025
The National Association of Realtors' Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI)—which tracks contract signings on existing homes—has remained rangebound for more than two years, constrained by affordability pressures and elevated mortgage rates. This week’s update showed a modest improvement, but the broad... .. read more..
New Home Sales Drop to Lower End of Range After Hitting The Highs Last Month
Friday, June 27, 2025
New Home Sales fell sharply in May according to the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau and HUD. After a brief surge in April, the seasonally adjusted annual pace dropped to 623,000—down 13.7% from April's revised reading of 722,000 and 6.3% lower than the same month last year. When last mo... .. read more..
Mortgage Applications Buoyed by FHA Refis
Friday, June 27, 2025
Mortgage application activity moved slightly higher last week despite a modest uptick in rates, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest survey. The Composite Index rose 1.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending June 20, with a small gain in refis offsetting a mi... .. read more..
Existing Home Sales Tick Up Slightly, but Remain Near 6-Month Lows
Friday, June 27, 2025
Two months ago, existing home sales reached the highest levels in a year according to the National Association of Realtors. Last month’s report showed a noticeable dip to 5‑month lows. The latest data, released June 23, is more subdued. Sales held near 6‑month lows in May, with a seasonally adjus... .. read more..
Minimal Impact From PCE Data
Friday, June 27, 2025
Bonds are slightly weaker to start the final trading day of the week, but that has nothing to do with this morning's PCE data. Despite being the Fed's favorite inflation index and despite causing some notable drama in the past, PCE hasn't caused much of a stir recently and today's is no exc... .. read more..
The Trend is Friendly For Now
Thursday, June 26, 2025
The Trend is Friendly For Now A common financial market quip is that the "trend is your friend." We like to add the addendum: "until it's not anymore." All we can know for sure is that bonds have shifted from range-bound to trending lower in yield over the past 3-4 days and today was ... .. read more..
Mortgage Rate Winning Streak Continues
Thursday, June 26, 2025
After topping out on May 21st, the average day for mortgage rates has been a good one. This has been especially true since June 6th with our 30yr fixed index moving down almost 0.25% through this afternoon. Today's gains contributed nicely with a drop of 0.07%. Normally, we'd point to the e... .. read more..
Hedging, Processing, Community Lending, Servicing, Mortgage Intelligence Tools
Thursday, June 26, 2025
“I've been experimenting with breeding racing deer. People have accused me of just trying to make a fast buck.” There are no fast bucks to be made in residential lending, and the correct compensation is a continuing topic. (A recent STRATMOR blog was titled, “Compensation is Still Lender’s Larges... .. read more..
Tons of Data, But Not a Ton of Movement
Thursday, June 26, 2025
Visually, the number of line items in this morning's economic calendar may seem daunting. In fact, several of the reports sound like they should matter to the seasoned bond watcher (Durable Goods, GDP, etc). But as it stands, the biggest hour of trading volume this morning fell short of comparabl... .. read more..
Mid Day Reversal Leaves Bonds Slightly Stronger
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Mid Day Reversal Leaves Bonds Slightly Stronger This morning, we noted the lightness of the selling pressure that took bonds into modestly weaker territory. It turns out it was so light that it was easy for bond buyers to get back on top un the afternoon hours. There was a bit of help from the Fe... .. read more..
Lowest Rates in Over 2 Months
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
The average top tier 30yr fixed mortgage rate had already dipped to the lowest levels since May 1st at the start of the week. Two additional days of modest improvement brings us to the lowest levels since April 4th as of today. April 4th is probably a day that's worth rememberin... .. read more..
TBA Trading, Servicing Compliance, Digital Marketing, DPA Products; Bank M&A ...
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
AI doesn’t have an NMLS number. (Zillow has never, ever set foot in a house for that matter.) Do you own a computer? Most in lending do. Elon Musk? I guess not. A courtroom twist in Musk's war with OpenAI has revealed a stunningly bizarre detail about the self-described Techno King: His lawyers s... .. read more..