Mortgage News Daily

Mortgage application activity declined for a second consecutive week as higher borrowing costs continued to weigh on both purchase and refinance demand. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported a 2.9% decrease in total application volume on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending July 31. Purchase applications decreased 4% from the previous week on a seasonally adjusted basis and were 3% lower than the same week one year ago. Elevated mortgage rates continue to challenge affordability, dampening buyer demand despite improved housing inventory in some markets. Refinance activity also softened, with the Refinance Index falling 2% from the prior week and remaining 9% below year-ago levels. As rates moved higher, fewer homeowners had an incentive to refinance. "In the wake of the July FOMC meeting, longer-term rates increased, pushing the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to 6.81 percent, its highest level in more than a year,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s SVP and Chief Economist. Next week's data will likely bounce back higher given that rates have dropped noticeably so far in August. Per MND's daily rate tracking, 30yr fixed rates hit 2 week lows on Wednesday and moved even lower on Friday. Mortgage Rate Summary: 30yr Fixed: 6.81% (from 6.76%)

Mortgage rates dropped moderately today after the latest jobs report showed much lower jobs created than expected. The monthly jobs report is one of the most--if not THE most--important pieces of economic data to the rate market on any given month. If the numbers are close to forecasts, there isn't always a big reaction. Today's numbers were quite far from forecasts for some parts of the report, but slightly offset by others. The net effect was a decent improvement in the underlying bond market. Because mortgage rates are based on bonds, rates dropped accordingly. The average top-tier 30yr fixed rate moved down from 6.77 to 6.74--the lowest since July 20th.

Today's vitals might be a bit confusing at first glance. Payrolls came in at -23k versus forecasts of 80k. At most moments in history, that would be worth a substantial rally. Today it was only worth 3bps in the 10yr and a quarter point in MBS. To be fair, it was worth even less without a late day drop in oil prices for unrelated reasons. But at this moment in history, low payroll counts are far more common and they're doing far less to influence the unemployment rate (case in point, today's FELL to 4.1% from 4.2%). This went a long way toward offsetting the drop in payrolls. Nonetheless, payrolls remain very important to traders even if economists have shifted more of their focus to other metrics.

Recent experience suggests the safest assumption about oil prices and bond yields is that they will pop and drop with reasonable regularity. In other words, lower prices/yields for a few days following friendly war-related headlines tend to give way to unfriendly headlines and a market reversal. Wash, rinse, repeat. The new week is starting off with unfriendly news and higher oil/yields. There's not much sense in attempting to dig any deeper on market analysis so far today.

Here in the hallways at the Western Secondary in L.A., there isn’t a lot of talk about GSE reform, although this short clip from Sam Valverde, ex-acting president of Ginnie Mae, revisits the subject: The GSE reform trigger nobody's watching closely enough. More of the talk is about 2nd quarter earnings, and I received this note: “Rob, I am a broker in Missouri. Last week there was a lot of news about UWM. All I try to do is help my clients. Why should I care about UWM’s earnings, or write downs on the value of their servicing, or losses on hedges?” Thank you for the note: see below for some perspective originators and others should have on earnings and counterparty relationships. Meanwhile, the California MBA, and national MBA, has a patient strategy: absorb shocks and respond to consumer demand, advocate for continuation of programs and policies, and promote competition in the $2 trillion ’26 market. There is needed regulatory reform to be discussed (“we need better, not more”), as well as seeing the rate lock affect easing. “For sale” inventories are recovering. First time home buyers & low-income borrowers have been disproportionately affected. The MBA has avoided spats with Agency officials. Consumers are safe from abusive trigger leads. (Today’s podcast can be found here. This week’s ‘casts are sponsored by Optimal Blue. Optimal Blue’s Profitability Center unifies pricing, hedge performance, pipeline activity, profitability, and market intelligence into one personalized dashboard, giving mortgage lenders faster, more complete insights to make better capital markets decisions. Today’s has an interview with California MBA’s Paul Gigliotti on the Western Secondary Conference, and cohesive advocacy efforts.)

As of last Friday, average top-tier mortgage rates hit their lowest levels since July 20th. If they'd managed to drop even 0.01% today, it would have been a new 3-week low. As it stands, rates moved modestly higher in response to higher oil prices. Throughout the Iran war, oil and rates have had a broadly strong correlation because oil informs inflation expectations and inflation is a key input for the rate market. Even after today's rise, rates remain much closer to the lower end of the range over the past 3 weeks. Logically, any positive developments in the war or diplomacy should result in lower rates. Beyond that, there's separate volatility potential related to inflation reports that come out later this week, but as always, that could be for better or worse depending on the outcome of the reports.

Oil prices continue to ebb and flow in concert with the Iran war news cycle. There's no set schedule for such things, but there have been several Mondays where that narrative shifts in the opposite direction from wherever we left off at the end of the previous week. Last Wednesday was a recent low for oil and prices have risen since then. Today's increase was a bit of an acceleration so it's no surprise to see bond yields follow. Bonds also saw some mid-day pressure from an active corporate debt issuance landscape, but it's just as fair to say both oil prices and bonds yields have returned to the exact same levels seen during Tuesday's pre-market hours before the early rally.

Bonds are rallying, and we have no objection to that. Reasons are simple and familiar enough that there's no sense in over-analyzing them. Newswires hit at 7am saying that Pakistan's defense minister said "things are shaping up in favor of peace" and that Pakistan's interior minister Khawaja Asif arrived in Tehran to discuss "matters of mutual interest."

It ended up being a remarkably uneventful day for mortgage rates. Some lenders were slightly higher than yesterday. Others were roughly unchanged. The difference came down to whether the lender in question raised rates yesterday afternoon.

Bonds improved modestly on Tuesday which is actually a somewhat resilient/optimistic showing. The ongoing correlation with oil prices suggested less improvement (oil actually closed higher on the day). In addition, it's usually less of a surprise to see bonds struggle to rally on the first half of an auction cycle week. Granted, a spicy CPI on Wednesday would easily push back against any optimistic narratives, but if the data is tame, perhaps we're seeing hints that bonds would be more willing to respond than normal.