Mortgage rates

The potential for negative long-term mortgage rates is surfacing around the world, and with global tensions building in the U.S. market, there's a small but growing chance it could happen here, too.

Positive views on job security and mortgage rates pushed consumer sentiment on housing to an all-time high in July, according to Fannie Mae.

The U.S. government's trade war with China is pushing down yields on 10-year and 30-year Treasury notes.

In Denmark's $495 billion mortgage-backed covered bond market, another milestone was reached on Wednesday as Nordea Bank said it will start offering 20-year fixed-rate loans that charge no interest.

Discover Bank is approaching $1 billion in home equity-related receivables, a milestone for the six-year-old home-loan division that aims to rework the lending process for both its customers and loan officers.

Lower mortgage rates are giving homebuyer affordability a serious boost as it reaches an 18-month high, helping purchasers afford $45,000 more house for the same monthly payment compared to last fall.

Yields on the 10-year Treasury note fell 11 basis points on the morning of Aug. 5 as the trade dispute between the U.S. and China escalated.

Before signing a home purchase contract, the vast majority of potential homebuyers already selected their mortgage lender in order to compete with investors, a Fannie Mae survey found.

June employment by nondepository mortgage bankers and brokers was little changed from the previous month, but later numbers could prove stronger given some influential lenders' interest in staffing up.

Mortgage rates were unchanged from last week, but going forward, they are likely to decline following investors' reaction to the Federal Open Market Committee's July 31 short-term rate cut announcement.