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Mortgage Rates Set to End Week Much Lower

5/29/2026 12:34 PM

While there are still a few hours left in the trading day, it"s a near certainty that this week will end with mortgage rates at meaningfully lower levels compared to last Friday. Today is only adding modestly to that trend, but that makes it the 8th straight business day where rates have either held steady or moved lower. On that note, it"s possib...Read More

Inventory Builds as New Home Sales Cool in April

5/29/2026 12:27 PM

New home sales pulled back in April after stronger readings in the prior two months. According to the latest Census Bureau and HUD data, sales of new single-family homes fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 622,000 , down 6.2% from March and 11.3% from a year earlier. Inventory moved slightly higher, with the number of new homes for...Read More

No Surprise: Last Week"s Higher Rates Hit Refinance Demand

5/29/2026 12:20 PM

Mortgage applications fell sharply last week as higher borrowing costs continued to pressure refinance demand, while purchase activity showed a bit more resilience. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported an 8.5% decrease in total application volume on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending May 22. The decline was driven largely...Read More

Annual Home Price Appreciation Staying Positive, But Just Barely

5/29/2026 11:25 AM

Home price appreciation slowed further in March and through the first quarter of 2026, according to the latest data from both FHFA and the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. While national prices continued to edge higher on a nominal basis, both reports pointed to a housing market struggling to maintain momentum as affordability ...Read More

Hedging, Non-QM, FCRA Credit Reports, PreQual, Non-Agency Product News; Capital Markets

5/29/2026 11:07 AM

U.S. home foreclosures are accelerating: filings rose 26 percent year-over-year in Q1 2026, to roughly 119k, the highest in six years. It’s expensive to own a home! The last time they hit this level (early 2020), government relief programs and pandemic stimulus caused them to decline. As everyone in our biz knows, the increase has been driven by so...Read More

Flat Overnight And Slow Start

5/29/2026 9:03 AM

Bonds were flat overnight for a change, with just a bit of 2-way volatility but no notable directional movement. Without any new or interesting war-related headlines, what else can we even discuss in May, 2026? There"s some econ data in the form of the highest Chicago PMI reading since 2022.  At 62.7 vs a 50.5 forecast, it absolutely obliterat...Read More

Spoiler Alert: Yes, It Was War Headlines

5/28/2026 2:46 PM

Spoiler Alert: Yes, It Was War Headlines Need a way to explain overnight weakness in the bond market? War headlines. Need to know why bonds rallied sharply just after 10am ET to hit the best levels in 2 weeks? Yep, more war headlines. Granted, the 8:30am econ data was not completely ignored. A slightly soft...Read More

Mortgage Rates Officially Hit 2 Week Lows

5/28/2026 2:08 PM

We were close yesterday and we officially arrived today. Mortgage rates may still be elevated compared to almost all of the past 10 months, but they"re the lowest they"ve been since May 14th.  This was accomplished with a modest drop versus yesterday"s levels after another round of news on a potential U.S./Iran peace deal. This morning"s infl...Read More

Hedging, Verification, CRM, AI, Automated Pricing, Fraud Detection Tools; STRATMOR on AI

5/28/2026 10:55 AM

What is something that small and mid-sized lenders can’t offer? Chase rolled out a program for borrowers to earn 100,000 Chase Points. (Bilt and UWM rolled out something similar a while back.) But, nearly every lender can help borrowers with the cost of a mortgage, and STRATMOR’s current blog is “Pricing That Can Help Borrowers.” In addition, in th...Read More

Not The Supertanker Bonds Were Looking For... But We"ll Take It

5/28/2026 8:31 AM

There"s a supertanker load of data this morning with some apparently interesting results, but the market remains focused primarily on supertankers being able to transport oil. Those prospects were dealt a fresh blow overnight as both sides reported renewed attacks. Bond yields and oil prices jumped clearly in response, but not in an overly aggressi...Read More

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