Mortgage News Daily

1 week ago | mortgagenewsdaily.com | Matthew Graham

Don't Sweat The Modest Weakness Bonds began the day roughly unchanged and very flat for most of the morning. MBS began falling as we moved into the PM hours, ultimately resulting in a handful of negative reprices, about a quarter point of weakness, and a 4+bp jump in Treasury yields. If the frame of reference is limited to the domestic session, this is a moderate sell-off at best, but in the bigger picture, it was not even worth mentioning, let alone considering as a cause of concern.

1 week ago | mortgagenewsdaily.com | Matthew Graham

The National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) and Wells Fargo publish the Housing Market Index (HMI) each month, otherwise known simply as "builder confidence."  This month's index came out at the 2nd lowest level since late 2023. While that might sound dramatic, it's very much in line with the prevailing trend for this report. And while the chart above may make it seem like confidence is in the gutter, it's really only about halfway in the gutter in the bigger picture.

1 week ago | mortgagenewsdaily.com | Matthew Graham

One would think that the pace of new residential construction largely mirrors the pace of filings for building permits. And while that is generally true in the bigger picture, there can be noticeable discrepancies month to month. This week's data from the Census Bureau is the latest example. Building permits were slightly higher at 1.482 million units (annual pace) versus 1.459 million previously.

1 week ago | mortgagenewsdaily.com | Matthew Graham

Mortgage rates managed to make a nice amount of progress this week after hitting the highest levels in roughly 2 months last Friday. The first 2 days of the week brought the most meaningful improvement and it's been slow going since then. In fact, today ended up going slowly in the other direction with the average lender moving slightly higher in rate compared to yesterday. The pace of movement is nothing like we saw last week, thankfully.

1 week ago | mortgagenewsdaily.com | Matthew Graham

The Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) mortgage application survey was at the highest combined level since October in last week's data--a move largely driven by the a sharp drop in interest rates (incidentally, also to the best levels since October). The rate drop was part of the initial market reaction to the April 2nd tariff announcement, but it didn't last. Panic and uncertainty can be good for rates. In fact, it usually is.