Mortgage Rates

Mortgage rates dip under 6% for first time since ’22

Mortgage rates for the 30-year fixed loan finally broke below the 6% mark this past week, Freddie Mac reported, as the spread with the 10-year Treasury got below 200 basis points. Processing Content However, the 15-year fixed rate mortgage rose by a relatively large 9 basis points from the week of Feb. 19. “For the […]

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Home prices are up… depending on where you look

Home prices increased nationwide on a seasonally adjusted basis, a pair of widely followed metrics agree, although they vary on the size of the increase. Processing Content The Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index hit another high in December at 440.36, up from 439.72 in November, a change of 0.1. Price rose 0.8% on

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Spreads play the superhero as mortgage rates move below 6% again

After a weekend of crazy headlines and a stock sell-off on Monday morning, bond yields are close to hitting 4% again, but mortgage rates are back under 6% once again, which is the multiyear low in recent history. The biggest reason rates are under 6% isn’t just that the 2025 labor market produced the lowest

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Homebuying power hits highest level in nearly 4 years

Homebuying power hits highest level in nearly 4 years

Sam Hall/Bloomberg Homebuying power is at its highest level in nearly four years, as lower mortgage rates and slowed demand has improved affordability, a new industry report found. Processing Content A median-income household in the United States could comfortably afford a $331,483 home with a 20% down payment in January, $30,000 more than a year

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Weekly pending home sales back to year-over-year growth as we head into spring

Weekly pending home sales, which had shown year-over-year growth up until the late-January snowstorm, got back on track with year-over-year growth again last week. One thing to remember about our weekly pending sales data: it takes about 30-60 days to be reflected in the existing home sales data, so not only did the snowstorm delay

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Dropping tri-merge reports hikes mortgage risk, paper claims

A paper from Andrew Davidson & Co. reportedly supports the notion that dropping the tri-merge credit report standard would result in greater risk to mortgage industry participants. Processing Content The paper was brought to media attention by the Consumer Data Industry Association. Others stand by their views that a single pull is sufficient to use

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New home mortgage applications up as starts end 2025 strong

Loan applications for newly constructed homes increased 19% between December and January, benefitting from how housing starts performed at the end of 2025, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Processing Content Year-over-year, however, volume increased by just 2%, the MBA’s Builder Application Survey reported. Rates for the 30-year fixed reached a three-year low at 6.09%

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Mortgage rates settle above 6%, lowest in over three years

Mortgage rates ended the week just above 6%, the lowest point since September 2022, although one other indicator had the 30-year fixed under that level for a couple of days. Processing Content The 30-year fixed rate mortgage fell 8 basis points this week to 6.01% as of Feb. 19, the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market

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CEA analysis weighs CFPB’s economic impact

A new report from the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) estimates that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has imposed $237 billion to $369 billion in cumulative costs on U.S. consumers since its creation in 2011, largely through higher borrowing costs. For 2024 alone, the report estimates $24 billion to $38 billion in costs. The

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Refi shift drives latest increase in mortgage defect rates

Plummeting mortgage rates during the third quarter last year started a shift in originators’ business mix towards refinance, and this, more than a lessening emphasis on loan manufacture quality, resulted in a huge jump in defect rates, Aces Quality Management said. Processing Content For the last week of June, the 30-year conforming fixed rate mortgage

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