The real estate firm resolved two other NTRAP lawsuits in late 2025 and may find itself in front of another following a recent Nevada investigation.

A group representing this part of the industry and a community lenders’ association both called for more time to implement the legislative mandate.

The lender will offer a comprehensive suite of residential lending programs and commercial lending solutions, such as builder construction loans.

Industry comments are favorable, but with statements like “no bill is perfect” and “bold action is needed,” groups want changes before it goes to the president.

The Senate passed a bipartisan housing bill in an 89 to 10 vote, but how quickly and easily the bill can pass the House remains unclear.

Mortgage rates are driven by the bond market. Although bonds only experienced moderate, steady weakness throughout the day, mortgage rates lurched higher by an amount typically seen when the market is reacting to big, breaking news.  But there wasn’t any of that sort of news on tap today–just downbeat updates that reinforced a longer timeline for geopolitical disruptions. The bigger issue for mortgage rates is that they often experience heightened volatility when they pass through the 6.25% level. Due to the underlying structure of the mortgage market, 6.25% is sort of a dead zone. If you really want to see the nuts and bolts behind that phenomenon, here’s the primer. The practical result is that movement tends to be bigger when rates are rising or falling through 6.25% (or any level that ends with 0.25 or 0.75). As such, when rates began moving up from 6.125%, the slightly elevated bond market volatility made for a faster trip up to the 6.375% zone (today’s MND index was revised up to 6.35% in the afternoon after ending Monday at 6.14%). This is the highest level since December 8th, 2025, though it should be noted that prior to September 2025, rates had been much higher, on average, for roughly an entire year. 

War Protest: Bond Market Edition

There’s no quicker way to classify the movement we’ve seen over the past 2 weeks. The market is actively protesting the war in Iran–not because it’s a sentient being that cares about violence, but rather because the implications for inflation, economic uncertainty, and Treasury issuance on not great. There weren’t even any major developments today–just a few newswires that suggested no end in sight for the conflict or the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. 10yr yields are quickly back up to early Feb levels, but the selling is being led by the short end of the curve with 2yr yields at the highest levels in more than 6 months.

Econ Data / Events

Building Permits (Jan)

1.376M vs 1.41M f’cast, 1.455M prev

Continued Claims (Feb)/28

1,850K vs 1850K f’cast, 1868K prev

Housing starts number mm (Jan)

1.487M vs 1.35M f’cast, 1.404M prev

Jobless Claims (Mar)/07

213K vs 215K f’cast, 213K prev

Trade Gap (Jan)

-54.50B vs $-66.6B f’cast, $-70.3B prev

Market Movement Recap

08:30 AM Roughly unchanged overnight. No reaction to econ data. MBS up 1 tick (.03) and 10yr down half a bp at 4.223

11:33 AM Weakest levels. MBS down a quarter point. 10yr up 2.7bps at 4.254.

02:03 PM Back to weakest levels after a very modest attempt to recover. MBS down a quarter point again and 10yr up 2.6bps at 4.253

03:29 PM More selling around the 3pm close. MBS down 3/8ths and 10yr up 4.3bps at 4.27

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The bond market doesn’t look like it can catch a break as long as war persists in Iran. If it’s not oil, it’s fertilizer, nat gas, military spending, or a host of other inflationary knock-on effects that bode ill for the fixed income sector. Yes, the implied economic fallout would help offset the inflationary impulses, but not enough for rates to make downward progress just yet. Bonds will need to get past the point of pricing in another big inflation reckoning for that to happen. Until then, downward progress will be tough to sustain. This morning’s headlines (which involve more reports of mines in shipping channels and a Trump comment that said military objectives were more important than oil prices) have pushed the June Fed rate cut outlook to its worst levels in a year. 10yr yields are easily back up and over the 4.20% technical level. 

A near-record share of homeowners unable to sell their properties are renting them out instead, with “accidental landlords” accounting for 2.3% of listed rental stock in October, per Zillow data.