Economy

"I do believe you'll begin to see some improvement, or increases, in new housing as we head into the back half of the year," Chief Financial Officer Jim Peters said in an interview. "We're hearing optimistic stuff from the builders we deal with."

It's a toss-up between a recession or a soft landing, though some, including Fannie Mae's Doug Duncan, still believe a downturn is more likely than not.

The 30-year fixed, which was threatening going above 7% again according to Freddie Mac data, was 18 basis points lower this week.

Residential starts fell 8% last month to a 1.43 million annualized rate, according to government data released Wednesday.

Despite the improvement in sentiment, the homebuilder index remains below end-of-2021 levels, when mortgage rates were lower

The U.S. economy has a better chance of avoiding a recession in the next 12 months following recent positive data on economic activity and inflation, according to Jan Hatzius, the chief economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. 

The share of homeowners late by 30-59 days got slightly higher but remained below 1%, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

However, both Zillow's and Optimal Blue put the 30-year fixed mortgage lower than where it was seven days prior.

Democratic senators including Banking Chair Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren want to restrict tax breaks for large corporate investors that buy local homes and often drive up costs.

A resilient U.S. economy, lingering inflation and comments from the Federal Reserve contributed to a 10-basis-point hike in the 30-year fixed rate, Freddie Mac said.

The new review requirements are set to go into effect in mid-September and will replace temporary guidance put in place following a 2021 building collapse.

The Home Loan banks are failing to serve huge numbers of Americans because of their reliance on outdated credit scoring models.

A vast majority of the pool, 86.35%, consists of primary homes. Investment properties and secondary homes, meanwhile, account for 11.29% and 2.36% of the collateral.

But the 30-year fixed remained in a tight range as investors digest mixed economic signals, including on inflation.

Over one-third of the struggling borrowers who received recast loan terms in the first quarter cut their monthly obligation by 20% or more.

With new construction activity at the highest level in more than a year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's GDPNow tracker is projecting residential investment added 0.1% to growth in gross domestic product in the second quarter.

The legislation has support among Republicans, who hold a slim majority in the chamber.

Gross domestic product is now forecast to only contract in the final three months of the year, and it's projected to merely stagnate in the third quarter instead of shrink, a June survey showed. 

The markets had a muted reaction to the Federal Open Market Committee pause on raising short-term rates a week ago, Freddie Mac found.

But the Mortgage Bankers Association also raised the dollar volume that it predicts the purchase market will originate this year.