Good Morning! Today is Wednesday, April 20. Wimbledon is planning to bar tennis players from Russia and Belarus from this year’s tournament. President Biden said Americans should decide for themselves whether to wear masks on public transportation. Netflix lost subscribers for the first time in more than a decade, and its stock fell.
The Mortgage Note Reports
A Customer For Life: Editor Kimberley Haas reports that Guild Mortgage’s success is the result of their long-term dedication to customers.
Application Freefall: Mortgage loan application volume plummeted by 5% last week as rates reached 5.20%, their highest level since 2010.
Rent Record: Rent prices continued their double-digit gains in February, rising 13.1% YOY to hit another new record as the highest in the history of CoreLogic’s index.
And in other mortgage and housing news…
Rent Growth: The median monthly asking rent in the U.S. increased 17% YOY to a record high of $1,940 in March, the largest annual jump since at least February 2020.
Housing Starts: U.S. single-family homebuilding and permits dropped in March as soaring mortgage rates increased costs, but residential construction remains underpinned by a severe shortage of houses.
“Soft Landing” Unlikely: The Fannie Mae ESR Group’s latest forecast includes downgrades of 0.2 and 2.4 percentage points to 2022 and 2023 real GDP growth, including an expectation of a period of modest contraction in the second half of 2023.
Investor News: As more of the Q1 2022 earnings results come out, investors should expect “large drop” to be the standard for the quarter among the agency mortgage REITs.
Better Round 3: Better.com has conducted its third mass layoff in less than five months, citing a declining mortgage market.
Forbearance News: The total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 13 basis points from 1.18% of servicers’ portfolio volume last month to 1.05%.
Staying Put: Many homeowners may decide not to sell because selling their homes could mean giving up an ultra-low mortgage rate and increasing their monthly bills.