Mortgage rates

A slight lift in the purchase market paired with a surprising reversal in the size of the average loan, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

With the pandemic’s radical disruption of the housing market, values grew at the highest rate in eight years, according to CoreLogic.

After several weeks of resistance, mortgage rates are now moving in lockstep with the recent increases in the 10-year Treasury yield.

Servicers could be dealing with approximately 1.8 million distressed properties when the latest forbearance extension ends in June, Black Knight said.

Severe winter weather and another hike in mortgage rates stifled loan volume for the week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Just because the Fed is staying put doesn’t mean that mortgage rates, and prices of MBS, are staying put as well, writes Vice Capital Markets Principal Chris Bennett.

“Sales could be even higher,” if more homes were put on the market, NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun said

Today, the mortgage players who most actively hedged — Fannie and Freddie, real estate investment trusts and large bank servicers — have significantly reduced their need to to do so, analysts said.

With the most recent stimulus aiding economic recovery, mortgage lending’s feeding frenzy could be coming to an end.

While sales shot up from the same time last year, inventory reached its lowest level since Remax started its National Housing Report in 2007.

Between the dip in refis and the approach of the spring buying season, mortgage lenders are likely to start paying a little more attention to the purchase market, which is less rate-sensitive.

With pandemic conditions in place for a second spring, lenders and brokers discuss the indicators that will reveal whether the market is shifting away from the traditional selling season to one that runs hot throughout the year.

The cost associated with borrowing money to finance homes now appears more likely to remain stable rather than continuing to decline, which should eventually slow refinance activity.

Home loans accounted for the bulk of the industry’s lending gains in 2020, but inventory shortages in some markets and an uneven economic recovery may dim prospects this year.

With low mortgage rates billowing demand as homebuying season approaches, consumer confidence for selling jumped in January, according to Fannie Mae.

Whether or not the cost of home loans go up may hinge on the labor market recovery, and right now bond yields suggest they are heading in one particular direction long term.

With the shift to a low-rate environment dominated by no cash-out refinancing, use of an alternative to traditional valuations has soared.

Investors were also reacting to the inauguration of Joe Biden and uncertainty over additional fiscal relief, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist Sam Khater said.

In a year beset with a pandemic, tornadoes and civil unrest, one bright spot that emerged in 2020 was a residential real estate market that enjoyed record-high sales and home prices in Chattanooga, Tenn.

After last week’s spike, mortgage rates dropped back to near historic lows, as broader worries about the pandemic and the economy came back to the fore for investors.