Category: Newsletters

After hitting the highest levels in decades last week, mortgage rates dropped sharply at the beginning of this week. At first glance, this was a classic flight to safety following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas Conflict, but at the same time, markets were possibly just as interested in a change in tone from the Fed.…
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It’s nearly impossible to consume any news these days without coming across the government shutdown. As of Friday afternoon, the shutdown looks like it will be a thing.  Even if it’s miraculously avoided in the 11th hour, we can still discuss some objective questions and conclusions about shutdowns in general.  As always, we’re not interested…
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In and of itself, this week wasn’t too bad for mortgage rates. Things got a bit worse overall, but the change from last week was minimal with the average lender moving up 0.07% from last Friday.   There’s a decent cushion between current levels and the long-term highs last month. Even the late 2022 highs were a…
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While it’s impossible to predict the future when it comes to financial markets, it’s usually possible to identify the events that have higher potential to cause bigger swings. Other times, volatility strikes on days when it wasn’t entirely expected. That’s how this past week began.  After Monday’s holiday closure, rates jumped higher on Tuesday morning…
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Depending on the company you keep over this Labor Day weekend, you might hear that rates are high, housing in the verge of collapse, and the economy is headed for a hard, recessionary landing. Or you might hear that rates are coming down, housing has turned a corner, and the economy remains surprisingly resilient. No…
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As the week began, the bond market continued heading toward higher rates at the same pace seen in the previous week.  This made for the highest mortgage rates in more than 2 decades on both Monday and Tuesday (albeit not much higher than those seen in late 2022).  Things calmed down on Wednesday as multiple…
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At this point “high rates” are old news. We were already close to hitting the highest levels in more than 20 years last week, so it wasn’t a huge surprise to achieve that dubious distinction this Thursday. Some sources see the record-breaking rate at 7.09% for a 30yr fixed while others are over 7.5%. Both…
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This was supposed to be the week where a key inflation report would cast a vote on the fate of interest rate momentum. The vote was ostensibly friendly but rates surged higher anyway. What gives? First off, let’s revisit why rates would care so much about an inflation report.  CPI (the Consumer Price Index) is…
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Interest rates of all types have been under immense pressure since the beginning of 2022. That’s when the Fed began raising rates at the fastest pace in decades to the highest levels in decades in order to combat a similarly fast-paced spike in inflation. This particular era of Fed rate hikes is particularly aggressive because…
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It’s no mystery that the housing and mortgage markets are facing their fair share of headwinds in 2023, but some blow harder than others.  One of the most complicated headwinds is that of Federal Reserve. At first glance, the Fed’s decisions to hike or cut rates are extremely important.  In addition to being prominent in the…
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