Author: Lending Agent

Mortgage rates didn’t move last week, but demand for new home loans continued to weaken. Both homebuyers and current homeowners are hampered by today’s higher interest rates.Total mortgage application volume decreased 2% from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index.  The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($766,550 or less) remained unchanged at 7.02%, with points increasing to 0.63 from 0.62 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment. Applications to refinance a home loan dropped 7% for the week and were 5% higher than the same week…

The average mortgage lender remained right in line with yesterday’s levels despite a bit of weakness in the bond market.  Lenders who improved their rates yesterday afternoon were slightly higher.  Others were slightly lower.  This is a solid outcome considering the market motivations over the past 2 days.  Specifically, rates moved in concert with stocks yesterday as NVDA led a substantial sell-off.  Stocks bounced back today, and have now recovered most of the damage from yesterday morning.  Rates, meanwhile, haven’t followed the correction today. The 2nd half of the week bring a higher concentration of calendar events with the potential…

There are two distinct patterns of behavior when it comes to rates interacting with stocks.  The first could be called the “conventional wisdom” pattern, which holds that investors move money between stocks and bonds, thus creating a correlation between stock prices and rates (as investors buy more bonds, rates move lower). The second pattern is more commonly seen when there is some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the Fed Funds Rate.  In this pattern, both stocks and bonds benefit from a friendlier Federal Reserve, thus creating an inverse relationship between stock prices and rates. Even though there is some…

While there were only 4 business days instead of the customary 5, it’s been an intensely boring week for mortgage rates.  Tuesday started out right where Friday left off. From there, Thursday brought the only noticeable change with the average lender moving up to the highest levels in just over a week. Friday saw a return to the boring trend with an almost imperceptible improvement, splitting the difference between yesterday’s highs and Tue/Wed lows.   The day began with rates almost perfectly in line with Thursday’s, but a favorable reception to today’s economic data fueled an improvement in the bond market.…

After several consecutive days without any noticeable changes, mortgage rates finally made a move today.  Unfortunately, that move was higher. Thankfully, it was neither extreme nor sufficient to challenge last week’s highs.  Nonetheless, it keeps the average lender uncomfortably close to the highest levels in 8 months with the most prevalent top tier conventional 30yr fixed rate being 7.125%. A common and accurate refrain is that rates will take cues from economic data.  This is especially true in the wake of the small handful of the most consequential reports.  But none of those reports were on tap for this week,…

The housing market isn’t as easy to navigate as it was a decade ago. With rising interest rates, constrained inventory, and fierce competition, today’s real estate investors need to be sharper, faster, and more strategic than ever before. But here’s the good news—opportunities still exist for those willing to adapt.The Challenge: A Mature MarketThe post-COVID housing boom has cooled, and while demand remains steady, supply constraints limit how much growth the market can sustain. Homebuilders are doing everything they can to produce more inventory, but zoning hurdles, labor shortages, and material costs make rapid expansion difficult. For investors, this means…

When you think of the build-to-rent (BTR) market, your mind might wander to the sprawling suburbs of Texas, Florida, or Arizona—the Sunbelt havens where BTR has exploded in popularity. But the next big opportunity in single-family rentals might just be in an unexpected place: the Midwest. With its combination of affordability, strong demand, and a unique investment profile, the Midwest is becoming a hotbed for build-to-rent growth.Why the Midwest?While coastal and Sunbelt markets have long dominated the build-to-rent conversation, the Midwest offers distinct advantages that are attracting attention from investors and developers alike:Affordability Advantage: Midwest housing prices remain significantly lower…

Scores of restaurants, shops and community landmarks are among the 12,300 structures destroyed in the blazes still raging in Los Angeles. Many of their owners are already filing insurance claims — joining a growing number of entrepreneurs across the country who are finding out how far their coverage goes after weather-related disasters.“We’re just kind of in this limbo until the adjusters can go and see what’s not there anymore,” said Paul Rosenbluh, co-owner and operator of Fox’s Restaurant, an Altadena diner that was consumed in the Eaton Fire.There will be a lot of businesses that thought they had more [coverage]…

We knew that today’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) was a hotly anticipated economic report that at least had the potential to give rates a big push, and it didn’t disappoint. Any time we’re dealing with an important economic report that gives rates a big push, there’s generally an equal chance of getting pushed in either direction.  We can know this with confidence because rates are based on financial markets and traders wouldn’t wait to make their move if they already knew what that move would look like. All that having been said, there are occasionally situations where these pushes end…

Mortgage rates officially hit the highest levels since May 2024 yesterday, even though the average was almost imperceptibly higher than last Friday’s.  We saw a similarly small move today, but in the opposite direction. In other words, the average rate moved lower by an amount that won’t even have an impact on many of yesterday’s rate quotes. As always, keep in mind that our rate index is an average of multiple lenders and on days with very small changes, some lenders can be noticeably better or worse compared to the previous day. This morning’s economic data featured the Producer Price…