“Life is like a roll of toilet paper: The closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.” Just like that, 2025 is half over. With it have come changes at the GSEs, government loan programs, and the compliance landscape. In his latest edition of Mortgage Musings, Attorney Brian Levy offers insights on the trigger lead bill(s) and the challenges faced by DC trade association lobbyists in the current environment. (Sign up here for a free subscription to Levy’s Mortgage Musings.) Certainly there have been changes in the servicing landscape, and STRATMOR’s Advisory Angle today at 11AM PT is, “The Strategic Power of Servicing: Turning Cost into Competitive Advantage” featuring Michael Grad, Mike Seminari, and Garth Graham. “Servicing has emerged as a strategic growth driver for mortgage lenders navigating a challenging 2025 market. From increasing regulatory scrutiny to rising borrower expectations and compressed margins, the conversation explores why servicing can no longer be treated as a cost center, and how the smartest lenders are using it to build loyalty, drive recapture, and create operational leverage.” (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s is sponsored by Figure, which is shaking up the lending world with their five-day HELOC, offering borrower approvals in as little as five minutes and funding in five days. Figure has hundreds of partners in the banking, CU, home improvement, and (of course) IMB space embedding their technology, giving borrowers an experience they will rave about. Today’s has an interview with Bank United’s Chris Huang on trends that capital providers are seeing in mortgage originators and what to look for in bank partners or warehouse line counterparties.)

It’s been 88 days since the average 30yr fixed mortgage rate was as low as it is today–close enough to 3 months.  Some lenders may be higher or lower than they were yesterday depending on whether or not changed rates yesterday afternoon. Mortgage lenders prefer to set rates once per day, but can “reprice” if the underlying bond market moves enough in one direction or the other. Bonds improved enough yesterday afternoon for many lenders to offer slightly lower rates.  Those lenders are a hair higher today, generally.   In terms of the underlying bond market, things are just a bit better right now compared to yesterday morning and just a bit worse compared to yesterday afternoon. That deterioration mainly followed this morning’s job openings data which showed another increase from the longer-term lows seen 2 months ago. Rates typically move higher if job openings are higher than expected, all else equal. But today’s data-driven volatility is nothing compared to what could be seen on Thursday morning following the big jobs report (officially, the “Employment Situation” which offers a count of jobs created in June as well as an update to the unemployment rate). 

Tuesday brings the week’s first decent dose of meaningful economic data with both S&P/ISM Manufacturing PMIs and Job Openings.  The PMI data was somewhat more debatable with headline levels slightly stronger than expected, but some internal components remaining bond-friendly.  Job openings data was less equivocal, suggesting a marked bounce versus last month’s lower levels (and the previous month’s cycle lows).  In other words, job openings now look more like they’re leveling off after falling rapidly from 2022 through late 2024 or early 2025, depending on how one chooses to view the trend. Bonds have been more interested in responding to the job openings data, and this has MBS moving quickly back to yesterday’s lows and yields near yesterday’s highs. 

Bill Pulte, regulator and conservator of entities that buy and securitize many mortgages, also reaffirmed he’s ‘not happy with” lenders’ main score provider.

Democrats reintroduce a $100 billion housing equity bill to help first-generation buyers and address racial disparities in homeownership.

The former management and program analyst, working three jobs, submitted time sheets showing over 24 hours of work per day, prosecutors said.

In some California markets, a household would need a six-figure raise to afford monthly payments on a typical home, new Zillow research found.

The Financial Technology Association — which had been granted the right to defend the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s open banking rule after the bureau declined to defend it — filed a motion Sunday to preserve the rule.

“The seminar ‘How to avoid frauds’ is canceled. Tickets are non-refundable.” Mortgage fraud is alive and well in the United States. In Utah, Kouri Richins, 35, the Kamas mother who is accused of killing her husband and writing a children’s book about grief is facing 26 new felony charges, including five counts of mortgage fraud. It certainly is not confined to the U.S.: In Canada (remember Canada, whose citizens used to visit the U.S.?), a tragic tale unfolded with lost money and death. In lighter legal and regulatory news, the recent MBA Hawai’i annual conference attracts well-known industry experts, and a few weeks ago attendees heard Mitch Kider (Chairman and Managing Partner of Weiner Brodsky Kider PC), Brian Levy (Of Counsel to Katten & Temple, LLP and author of Mortgage Musings), and Bob Niemi, CMB (Director of Government Affairs at WBK) discuss regulatory and compliance issues. Lenders and vendors should know what they and other compliance people are watching (see below). (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s is sponsored by Figure, which is shaking up the lending world with their five-day HELOC, offering borrower approvals in as little as five minutes and funding in five days. Figure has hundreds of partners in the banking, CU, home improvement, and (of course) IMB space embedding their technology, giving borrowers an experience they will rave about. Today’s has an interview with Figure’s Michael Tannenbaum on stable coins, the latest happenings at Figure, and product proliferation in the mortgage industry as a result of borrower and investor demand.)

April 3rd and 4th saw the average top tier 30yr fixed mortgage rates well into the “mid 6’s.”  Many lenders were able to quote 6.5% at the time.  Just a few days ago, we noted there was still a ways to go before breaking below those early April levels, but the past few days have taken us within striking distance.  The average lender is now only 0.07% higher than they were on April 4th and that’s a gap that can be traversed in as little as one day under the right circumstances. If it is destined to be traversed in the near feature, it would likely be due to exceptional weakness in the forthcoming economic data–especially Thursday’s big jobs report.  Conversely, if this week’s economic data surprises to the upside, it would likely coincide with rates bouncing here and headline back into the recent range. And lastly, if this week’s data doesn’t cast a decisive vote in either direction, next week’s inflation reports could easily break the tie. The most interesting aspect of today’s movement was the movement itself.  It didn’t happen due to any interesting data or news headlines.  Both stocks and bonds (which dictate rates) improved as traders moved portfolios into position for the end of the month/quarter.  This can cause market movement independent of economic data/news.