Mortgage rates rose again over the past week, reaching 3.14%, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. Freddie’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) found that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.14%, up from last week’s 3.09%. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 2.81% “The yield on the 10-year Treasury note has been trending up due to the decline in new COVID cases, increasing consumer optimism, as well as broadening inflation and persistent shortages,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist. “Mortgage rates are also rising, but purchase demand remains firm, showing that latent purchase demand exists among consumers.” Industry experts have noted minor decreases in home prices and other factors that would point to a cool-down, but the market remains hot. The…
Houses are going from listing to contract faster, at a time in the selling cycle when they are usually slowing down. According to Redfin’s newest Housing Market Update, one-third of homes that sold in the past four weeks went under contract within seven days of hitting the market. The time it takes for a home to go under contract has been dropping for the past six weeks, despite the fact that the market usually begins to slow in the fall. Thirty-three percent of homes sold had an accepted offer within one week of listing, a 30% increase year-over-year (YOY) and up 20% from 2019. Forty-five percent of homes sold had an accepted offer within two weeks, up 3% from the…
Good Morning! Today is Wednesday, October 27. The nor’easter battering the East Coast has left 400,000 without power in Massachusetts. Progressive Democrats proposed a plan to tax the unrealized capital gains of the super-wealthy. Atlanta beat Houston 6-2 in the first game of the World Series. And in mortgage and housing news… MBA: Mortgage applications rose slightly from last week, but refis dropped to their lowest point since January 2020. FHFA Housing Index: FHFA’s House Price Index reported a 1% increase in house prices from last month and an 18.5% increase year-over-year. Maxwell Makes More: Digital mortgage platform Maxwell has raised another $52.5 million in funding, backed by Wells Fargo. First American RHPI: First American’s Real House Price Index shows…
Denver-based startup Maxwell, an online platform for mortgage loan officers and small lenders, raised $52.5 million in funding. The cash injection includes $28.5 million in equity funding from Wells Fargo and venture firm Fin VC. Maxwell announced the funding on their Facebook page. The additional funding comes on top of the $16 million it raised in its Series B round seven months ago. The money will be used to advance their tech, as well as hire sales, marketing, engineering, and product staff. The company’s goal is to change “lender operations and borrower expectations” by making mortgage applications, processing, and underwriting more efficient. “We’re really focused on modernizing the mortgage market, particularly for small and mid-sized lenders serving America’s communities,” Maxwell…
House prices rose 1% in August and are now 18.5% higher than a year ago, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s House Price Index (FHFA HPI). “Annual house price gains remained extremely high in August but the pace of month-over-month gains continues to decelerate,” said Dr. Lynn Fisher, FHFA’s Deputy Director of the Division of Research and Statistics. “This does not mean house prices are at risk of declining—far from it, they continue to climb at a double-digit pace in all regions—but it does suggest we may have seen the peak in annual gains for the time being.” At the same time, First American released its Real House Price Index (RHPI), which showed similar results: Real house prices rose…
Mortgage loan application volume rose by just 0.3% last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly survey reports. The Market Composite Index, which measures application volume, rose 0.3% on an adjusted basis. The Refinance Index fell 2% and was 26% lower than a year ago. It’s the Refinance Index’s lowest level since January 2020. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index rose 4%, while the unadjusted Purchase Index rose 3% compared to the week before, down 9% from the previous year. “Mortgage rates increased again last week, as the 30-year fixed rate reached 3.30% and the 15-year fixed rate rose to 2.59%- the highest for both in eight months. The increase in rates triggered the fifth straight decrease in refinance activity to…
Good Morning! Today is Tuesday, October 26. Two were killed and five injured in a mall shooting in Boise, Idaho. Minneapolis residents will vote on whether to replace their police department with an agency focused on “public health.” A record-breaking storm hit California ahead of the Northeast’s first nor’easter, which is expected to cause flooding. And in mortgage and housing news… Forbearance Exits Slow: The number of loans in forbearance fell to 2.21% this week, cooling after two weeks of high exit rates, MBA reports. Summers Storms: Larry Summers warns “housing inflation is almost certain to soar,” says Biden admin underestimating inflation risks. CRA In NY: New York State may approve a bill that expands the requirements of the state community…
Forbearances continued to drop last week, though not as dramatically as the week before. The total number of loans in forbearance dropped to 2.21% of servicers’ portfolio volume, down from 2.28% the week before, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest survey. The estimated number of homeowners in forbearance plans remains around 1.1 million. This week’s drop of seven basis points is a significant cooling compared to the prior week’s drop of 34 basis points. Black Knight reported that forbearances have entered a mid-month slowdown which they said to be unremarkable, mimicking “the same mid-month lull in removal activity that we’ve been reporting on for many months now.” MBA Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni acknowledged the…
Good Morning! Today is Monday, October 25. FDA regulators said vaccine benefits outweigh risks in children aged 5 through 11, and an emergency authorization could come next week. Set workers on “Rust” warned of unsafe working conditions days before the film’s cinematographer was fatally shot. The Houston Astros will play the Atlanta Braves in the World Series. And in mortgage and housing news… “If You Haven’t Re-fi’d, Do So Now”: A growing consensus among housing and banking analysts is that the real force impacting mortgage rates in the coming months will be inflation. Black Knight First Look: Delinquencies, active foreclosures, and foreclosure starts all dropped to serious lows in September, Black Knight’s “first look” report shows. DOJ To Address Redlining: Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a DOJ…
A new poll from Fox News shows 9 in 10 Americans are worried about inflation, and they aren’t alone. A growing consensus among housing and banking analysts is that, while the Federal Reserve gets most of the attention, the real force impacting mortgage rates in the coming months is inflation. And that’s a factor much harder for policymakers to impact than the Fed. “If you haven’t yet refinanced, do so now,” says Greg McBride, chief financial analyst for Bankrate. “The likelihood is that we see higher rates, not lower rates in the months ahead.” While an entire industry has grown up around ‘Fed watching’ — tracking every hint dropped by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and his counterparts — inflation…
