There was a problem returning the RSS feed.
There was a problem returning the RSS feed.
:
 
Mortgage Rates End Week at Lows
7/17/2026 1:41 PM
The good news is that mortgage rates ended the day at their lowest levels of the week. That"s welcome news after Monday"s rates matched the highest seen since July 2025. Today"s improvement came courtesy of weakness in the stock market, which is not necessarily a common or reliable source of inspiration for rates these days. But a majority of this ...Read More
 
Housing Starts Snap Back as May"s Multifamily Drop Proves Short-Lived
7/17/2026 12:59 PM
Residential construction rebounded in June as housing starts and completions recovered from May"s unusually weak levels, though building permits continued to trend lower. The latest Census Bureau data suggests that while builders remain cautious about future projects, construction activity itself regained momentum after last month"s sharp pullback....Read More
 
Pending Home Sales Decline But Remain Broadly Range-Bound
7/17/2026 12:51 PM
Pending home sales declined in June as elevated mortgage rates and record-high home prices continued to weigh on buyer demand. The National Association of Realtors" Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI), which tracks signed contracts on existing homes, fell 5.4% from May and was down 0.3% compared with a year earlier. The latest report suggests affo...Read More
 
Builder Confidence Remains Stuck Near Post-Recession Lows
7/17/2026 12:40 PM
Builder sentiment weakened further in July as affordability challenges and ongoing economic uncertainty continued to weigh on the market for new single-family homes. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) slipped two points to 34 , marking the 15th consecutive month the index has remained below 40...Read More
 
Higher Refi Demand Despite Higher Rates
7/17/2026 12:31 PM
Mortgage application volume declined again last week as higher borrowing costs weighed on home purchase demand. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported a 2.7% decrease in total application volume on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending July 10, even as refinance activity posted a modest rebound. Purchase applications fell 7% ...Read More
 
Broker and Corresp. Products; Verification, POS, Flood Cert. Tools; AI Governance; Vacancy Stats
7/17/2026 10:44 AM
I was speaking with a friend recently, and I asked her what she does for lunch. She replied, “Zentangle.” Yup, it’s a thing, something that wasn’t around when I was a kid. When I was a kid, people living on the street were known as homeless. Now the term is the “unhoused.” When I was a kid, any vacant house was usually creepy and rumored to have so...Read More
 
Bonds Picking Up Some Safe-Haven Demand
7/17/2026 8:35 AM
In a month where bonds have made a visible reconnection with fuel prices thanks to the Iran war resurgence, there have been several notable departures in the correlation. Today is the latest example. If we"re splitting hairs, we can still observe yields and fuel prices generally moving in the same direction overnight, but when fuel prices surged be...Read More
 
Ultimately Uneventful Despite Modest Weakness
7/16/2026 3:46 PM
Ultimately Uneventful Despite Modest Weakness Bonds lost ground modestly today with the ultimate damage being roughly an eighth of a point for MBS and less than a bp for 10yr yields. The selling was led by the short end of the curve (i.e. 2yr yields were up 1.5bps). There wasn"t any obvious catalyst apart f...Read More
 
Mortgage Rates Move Slightly Higher
7/16/2026 2:27 PM
While some news stories suggest that rates are the highest in 11 months today, that"s not quite true. The highest rates of the year were seen on July 13th and May 19th when our 30yr fixed index hit 6.75%. The index was at 6.68% today, up from 6.64% yesterday. Any news regarding "highest rates since August 2025" is almost certainly citing Freddie M...Read More
 
Hedging, Data Mapping, BER Letter, PPE Tools; AI Ramifications; Atty. Mitch Kider Joins Big Picture
7/16/2026 10:54 AM
Nearly every lender is at least learning about AI, but on the flip side there are things like New York’s ban on data centers. Lenders and vendors are not the only ones riding the tech wave, and no LO wants to be behind their client in tech knowledge. Consumers are now researching affordability, neighborhoods, and monthly payments long before contac...Read More




Small Business Stories from New York Times:
 
America’s Enterprising Spirit Is Booming After Decades-Long Slump
7/17/2026 11:51 AM
Hundreds of thousands of people are creating companies each year, ending a decades-long drought...Read More
 
The Women Running Businesses Under Taliban Rules
6/22/2026 10:06 AM
With secondary education and most jobs out of reach, thousands of Afghan women have turned to entrepreneurship as the only path to make money and maintain a social life...Read More
 
Danny Simmons, Painter and Activist From a Creative Family, Dies at 72
6/18/2026 2:17 PM
The older brother of the music mogul Russell Simmons and the rapper Joseph Simmons, he made his own way as an artistic and entrepreneurial force in Brooklyn...Read More
 
Who Is the Baklava Guy at the Knicks Games?
6/2/2026 10:01 AM
In city parks, at Phish shows and outside Madison Square Garden, a nomadic salesman builds his brand, one pistachio-laden wedge at a time...Read More
 
Inside the Elon Musk-OpenAI Trial Courtroom
5/11/2026 1:22 PM
The tech leaders, with combined net worths exceeding $670 billion, have brought props to court and traded icy stares as their legal dispute reaches a denouement...Read More



These articles are property of New York Times and protected by copyright.