It finally happened today: We got mortgage rates under 6% for a short time. Can we get some traction for that level? Well, one aspect of the mortgage-rate story really improved today; we had a monster day in mortgage spreads, improving overnight to push rates down over 20 basis points without much help from the […]
Mortgage rates drop below 6% following Trump’s MBS announcement Read More »
Homes remained less affordable than historic norms in nearly every U.S. county at the end of 2025, despite modest improvements late in the year, according to ATTOM’s latest U.S. Home Affordability Report, released Thursday. In 586 of the 594 counties analyzed (or 99%), median-priced single-family homes and condominiums were less affordable than historic averages in
ATTOM: Home affordability stays strained across the country Read More »
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac quietly increased their purchases of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in 2025, helping push mortgage spreads lower toward the year’s end. Most analysts, however, were not expecting further meaningful tightening in the near term — at least until this week. That changed Thursday after President Donald Trump posted on social media that
Trump directs GSEs to purchase $200B in mortgage bonds in 2025 Read More »
Housing professionals across the country raised their eyebrows earlier this week when President Donald Trump said he would look to stop large institutional investors from buying homes, citing increased affordability pressures on the typical American consumer. Cotality principal economist Thom Malone has long studied the impacts that real estate investors of all sizes have on
Will banning institutional investors make homes more affordable? Read More »
On a week where the mortgage market was most likely to experience volatility due to Friday’s jobs report, Thursday afternoon’s surprise announcement of $200bln in GSE MBS (mortgage-backed securities) buying stole the show. This was already juicing the underlying MBS market yesterday afternoon, but traders took the surge to the next level this morning. This
Rates Plummet to 3 Year Lows, But There Are Caveats Read More »
If it comes to fruition, President Trump’s call for a $200 billion purchase of mortgage-backed securities could further tighten MBS spreads in the near term. But with few details available, many market participants are skeptical about the longer-term impact. Processing Content In response to the president directing his representatives to purchase an equal amount of
Trump’s $200B MBS idea tightens spreads, raises doubts Read More »
Americans can now get involved in the housing market without actually purchasing a home. Processing Content The market prediction platform Polymarket partnered with Parcl, a real-time housing data and on-chain real estate platform, to launch a set of markets that allow users to bet on future home prices, the companies announced in a press release
Polymarket, Parcl launch real estate prediction market Read More »
Bloomberg News Processing Content What’s at Stake: Russell Vought, who also leads the Office of Management and Budget, has publicly stated his intent to shut down the CFPB, and recently refused to request funding for the agency. Supporting Data: Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, the lapse enables Russell Vought to remain as the acting
With CFPB nominee lapse, Vought continues as acting director Read More »
Compass has completed its acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate, merging hundreds of thousands of real estate agents, and familiar brokerages, under one roof. Processing Content The deal will also combine retail lender Guaranteed Rate’s separate joint ventures with each company into one, the businesses previously confirmed. The combined industry giant will cover over 200,000 real
Compass wraps acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate Read More »
A mostly flat December jobs report points to more of the same for housing and mortgage markets. Processing Content The U.S. added 50,000 non-farm payroll jobs last month, while the unemployment rate came in at 4.4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The numbers edged down from 64,000 new jobs in November and a
Latest jobs report quashes rate cut expectations Read More »