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Warsh Speech at Jackson Hole Prompts Heavy Selling

8/28/2026 4:22 PM

Hawkish Read on Warsh Prompts Heavy Selling Jackson Hole speeches are hit and miss when it comes to bond market volatility. Today"s Warsh speech was something of a direct hit--more than enough to sink the battleship of anyone hoping for lower rates to end the week. Warsh"s hawkishness was limited to tough t...Read More

Mortgage Rates Jump to 3-Week Highs After Jackson Hole Speech

8/28/2026 1:45 PM

Jackson Hole is a place in Wyoming, but it"s also shorthand for an annual event where various central bankers get together and talk about monetary policy. The Fed Chair almost always delivers a speech and that speech occasionally causes volatility in the bond market. This year was a classic example. Fed Chair Warsh"s speech focused on inflation re...Read More

Mortgage Demand Remains Stalled as Rates Move Higher

8/28/2026 1:38 PM

Mortgage application activity softened last week, with both purchase and refinance demand moving lower as mortgage rates climbed to their highest level in three weeks. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported a 1.0% decrease in total application volume on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending August 21. Purchase applications wer...Read More

New Home Sales Give Back June"s Gains

8/28/2026 1:35 PM

The new home market struggled to maintain the momentum seen in June, with sales falling sharply in July and inventory moving higher. The latest Census Bureau and HUD figures point to another month of uneven activity for builders, as buyers continue to contend with affordability constraints and elevated mortgage rates. Sales of new single-family ho...Read More

Home Price Appreciation Edges Higher Amid Growing Regional Divide

8/28/2026 1:25 PM

Home prices continued to edge higher in the latest readings from FHFA and the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller Home Price Indices , with both measures showing somewhat stronger annual gains than they did a month earlier. The improvement was still relatively modest, however, and inflation continued to run ahead of home values. At the same time, the ...Read More

Education, Underwriting, Processing Tools; Originators and Tech; Gov"t Program Changes; Tech Survey

8/28/2026 10:45 AM

STRATMOR’s 2026 Technology Insight® Study Lender Intelligence Survey is now open, giving mortgage lenders a chance to share their firsthand experience with the technology that powers their businesses, and to help shape a clearer picture of what’s working, what isn’t, and where the industry is headed. The study reflects actual lender experience, pro...Read More

Not The Payrolls You"re Looking For

8/28/2026 8:43 AM

In an attempt to not force another "Warsh" or "Jackson Hole" headline (because it"s a coin flip as to whether it will matter), the calendar offers up another event that is almost guaranteed not to matter. Despite the familiar name, today"s nonfarm payrolls data is not the NFP you"re looking for (that NFP will be out next Friday). Rather, this is th...Read More

Fairly Calm Despite Some Fuel Price Pressure; Warsh on Deck

8/27/2026 3:25 PM

Fairly Calm Despite Some Fuel Price Pressure; Warsh on Deck To reiterate a sentiment from this morning, there"s a decent amount of focus on Friday"s Warsh speech at Jackson Hole simply because it"s customary to focus on Fed Chair speeches at Jackson Hole. They"re hit and miss in terms of delivering on volat...Read More

Mortgage Rates Hold Fairly Steady

8/27/2026 2:45 PM

Mortgage rates barely budged again on Thursday, but there was far less data to digest compared to Wednesday. Bonds (which dictate rates) were steady to slightly weaker. The "weaker" part connotes higher rates, but the weakness was late in the day and too small for most mortgage lenders to do anything about it. What does that mean? Unlike the actu...Read More

Hedging, Accounting, Verification, Jumbo, Workflow Tools; In-Person Events

8/27/2026 10:45 AM

Thank you to the folks who wrote to me about their concerns with the Reno fire, knowing my ties there (my place is safe). On a broader scale, as of August 24, the United States has had nearly 51,000 wildfires, blazes that have burned over 7.8 million acres, a concern of everyone including lenders and servicers. It’s not your imagination that it’s a...Read More

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