A White House executive order issued Friday afternoon directing regulators to ease Dodd-Frank compliance burdens comes as a bipartisan housing bill advances on Capitol Hill.

Borrower equity fell $78.8 billion, or 0.5%, year over year in Q4, according to Cotality’s Home Equity Report. That’s an average decrease of $8,500.

A federal judge wrote in an opinion that a “mountain of evidence” suggests the subpoenas were an effort to push Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to lower interest rates or resign.

Federal bank enforcement actions have dropped sharply since the start of the second Trump administration, but experts’ views vary about whether less enforcement will result in a buildup of risk in the financial system.

Lennar’s first fiscal quarter earnings were down by more than half after three years of persistent trials which are testing consumer confidence and sentiment.

Just a Bit More Selling to End The Week

Nothing much new happened in the bond market today and that’s not great because the status quo has been for rising energy prices to push bond yields higher (and stocks lower). The short end of the curve actually improved, but that says more about end-of-week position squaring than any new development.  All told, it was the least painful day of the week despite ending at the highest yields since Feb 4. Next week brings a Fed announcement with zero chance of a cut, but still perhaps some interesting commentary on how the Fed will sort inflation implications versus the economic impact.

Econ Data / Events

Core Retail Sales (Jan)

0% vs 0.5% f’cast, 0.6% prev

Core PCE (m/m) (Jan)

0.4% vs 0.4% f’cast, 0.4% prev

GDP Q4

0.7% vs 1.4% f’cast, 4.4% prev

USA JOLTS Job Openings (Jan)

6.946M vs 6.70M f’cast, 6.542M prev

Market Movement Recap

08:33 AM Sideways to slightly stronger and a modestly positive reaction to the 8:30am data. MBS up an eighths and 10yr down 1.34bps at 4.252

11:47 AM MBS down an eighth of a point and 10yr up 1.3bps at 4.278

01:21 PM flattening out at weakest levels.  MBS still down an eighth and 10yr up 1.9bps at 4.284

Existing-home sales rebounded modestly in February, recovering some ground after January’s sharp pullback, while improving affordability and slowly expanding inventory helped support buyer activity.Sales rose 1.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.09 million .  “Housing affordability is improving, and consumers are responding,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. The group’s Housing Affordability Index rose to 117.6 in February, the highest reading since March 2022 and the eighth consecutive monthly improvement. Yun noted that wage growth is now outpacing home-price growth by nearly four percentage points, while mortgage rates are also lower than a year ago. Inventory continued to expand, though at a measured pace. Total housing inventory increased to 1.29 million units , up 2.4% from January and 4.9% higher than a year earlier. That equates to a 3.8-month supply of homes at the current sales pace. Price growth remained subdued but positive. The median existing-home price for all housing types rose to $398,000 , a modest 0.3% increase from a year ago and the 32nd consecutive month of annual gains. Regional Breakdown (Sales and Prices, February 2026)

Region
Sales (annual rate)
MoM Change
Median Price
YoY Change

Northeast
470k
-6.0%
$479,800
+3.3%

Midwest
940k
+1.1%
$302,100
+2.3%

South
1.89m
+1.6%
$356,800
+0.2%

West
790k
+8.2%
$603,100
-1.9%

Mortgage application activity continued to move higher last week, though the pace slowed considerably as financial markets turned volatile and mortgage rates moved back up from their recent lows. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported an increase of 3.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending March 6. This week it was purchase demand doing the heavy lifting. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 7.8% from one week earlier and was 11% higher than the same week one year ago. MBA noted that purchase activity continues to track ahead of last year’s pace as improving inventory levels support more transactions. Refinance activity was largely flat by comparison. The Refinance Index edged just 0.5% higher from the previous week but still remained 81% higher than the same week one year ago. According to MBA Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni, markets were unsettled by geopolitical developments during the week, pushing longer-term interest rates higher. The average 30-year conforming mortgage rate rose back above 6% after briefly dipping below that threshold in recent weeks. The composition of activity shifted slightly away from refinances. The refinance share of total applications decreased to 57.8% from 59.8% the prior week, while ARM share increased to 8.9% . FHA share rose to 17.1% , VA share declined to 16.1% , and USDA share remained unchanged at 0.4% .

March hasn’t been a great month for mortgage rates and the past 3 days have been particularly bad. During that time, our daily rate index went from 6.09% on Tuesday to 6.41% today–the highest since September 4th, 2025.  While that’s certainly not the fastest jump we’ve seen, it’s the worst 3-day stretch since early April, 2025. Mortgage rates are driven primarily by movement in the bond market. Like several other asset classes, bonds have not been happy about the Iran war. This is counterintuitive for those who expect bonds to serve as a safe haven in times of uncertainty, but when war has a direct impact on inflation expectations, it’s more than enough to offset any of the safe haven benefit that might otherwise be seen. [thirtyyearmortgagerates]

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