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This morning brought the release of the much-anticipated Consumer Price Index (CPI). This is one of the two biggest inflation reports from the U.S. government, and the only government inflation report that’s coming out during the shutdown.  With big government data being a key consideration for interest rates, this special release got extra attention. Core […]

Mortgage rates were effectively unchanged on Thursday with the average lender very close to the best levels in over a year. But when it comes to the underlying bond market and the rates available to consumers, there are some dislocations that suggest risk is increasing. Specifically, bonds lost ground today. This normally implies higher mortgage

Mortgage rates were perfectly unchanged today, on average.  With that, they remain in line with the lowest levels in more than a year and very close to the lowest levels in more than 3 years.  Recent momentum has been moderate and favorable. In the absence of big economic reports that are on hold due to

The bonds that underly mortgage rates were only slightly stronger today, but that’s never a bad thing when they closed near the best levels in a year the previous day. Additionally, those bonds improved by the end of the day yesterday, meaning that mortgage lenders were going into today with a bit of a cushion.

Mortgage rates ended last week at the lowest levels in just over a month. It was the 3rd best day in over a year and the 24th best day in over 3 years. The other 23 days weren’t too much lower either. The only difference today is a microscopic improvement that makes it the 2nd

The average top tier 30yr fixed rate was unchanged on Friday despite the bond market being slightly weaker. Normally, weaker bonds mean higher rates, but the timing of intraday market movement matters. In today’s case, bonds are still much stronger than the first half of yesterday, and only weaker when compared to closing levels. Because

Despite a stark absence of any truly inspiring events, interest rates have managed to put in two fairly serious days of movement. In today’s case specifically, there was an obvious intraday surge in the underlying bond market. While that surge wasn’t readily attributable to any data or news headline, it prompted many mortgage lenders to

Mortgage rates are based on bonds and bonds are trading at their best levels since September 17th.  Of course there are different kinds of bonds, so we should specify that we’re talking about the bonds that are specifically tied to mortgages (MBS or mortgage backed securities).  With this in mind, it’s no surprise to see

Last week ended with mortgage rates dropping to their best levels since September 17th. Over the weekend, the underlying bond market maintained the gains seen on Friday afternoon, thus allowing most lenders to set rates at least as low as they were at that time. The average lender is actually just slightly lower today, thus

Mortgage rates saw their biggest day-over-day decline of the past several weeks today in response to unexpected news regarding additional tariffs on China. Trump had previously been scheduled to meet with China’s President Xi in 2 weeks, but  today said there was no reason to do so and that the administration is currently calculating a