The new law adds rules, including counseling requirements, which would put severe constraints on originations of HEIs, an industry representative said.

Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve, denied that he would act as Trump’s “sock puppet” if he’s confirmed and said the president has directed him to lower interest rates.

More than 21% of reverse mortgage clients entered counseling with a deficit in their monthly budget last year, almost double the 12.2% of clients in 2024.

Federal Reserve Gov. Christopher Waller said certain corporate functions at the 12 regional banks, including information technology and human resources, could be consolidated under one structure to increase standardization and reduce costs.

The Chicago-based homeowners received a $41,000 check to pay down a portion of their existing mortgage, freeing them from the lock-in effect, DREAM product provider Takara said.

Wholesale and Correspondent Product and Corporate News Homebridge Financial Services, Inc., one of the nation’s largest privately held non-bank mortgage lenders, has officially signed an agreement to merge with an affiliate of Saluda Grade, a premier independent alternative investment firm (founded in 2019 with approximately $4.4 billion in assets under management). This powerful partnership marks a major leap forward, positioning the combined platform for explosive growth, particularly across the rapidly expanding Non-QM and HELOC space. The executive and management team at Homebridge are continuing with the company. Homebridge and REMN Wholesale will keep their full teams intact, ensuring continuity while unlocking next-level scale, innovation, and market leadership. Introducing HELIX, The Future of Digital Mortgage Lending! As part of this transformation, Homebridge and REMN Wholesale will be launching HELIX, a cutting-edge Digital mortgage lending platform that is miles ahead of anything currently in the market. Built directly from client feedback and engineered with a relentless focus on speed, automation, and elite customer experience, HELIX isn’t just an upgrade—it’s a complete reinvention of the digital mortgage process. This powerful new platform integrates home equity and first lien lending into one seamless ecosystem, dramatically improving both the borrower and MLO experience while driving unprecedented efficiency and scalability.

Technically and officially, today’s average top tier 30yr fixed mortgage rate is the highest since last Monday. The catch is that there hasn’t been much movement since then with the overall range being limited to 0.04%.  Today’s jump was the largest upward movement during that time. There was some upward pressure on rates from stronger employment data in the morning, but the market was even more focused on the uncertain status of US/Iran peace talks.  As the domestic business day winds down, it doesn’t look like there will be concrete news on a ceasefire extension. As such, volatility potential remains elevated heading into Wednesday.

Ceasefire Uncertainty Adds to Losses

Bonds were just a bit weaker this morning after the weekly ADP data. Just before 11am ET, several newswires called ceasefire negotiations into question. Chief among these was a report that Iran had not confirmed its intent to participate. Despite the seemingly significant consequences, bonds only rose about 2bps in terms of 10yr yields. By the 3pm CME close, yields were up less than 4bps on the day and still well inside the prevailing consolidation range. There’s been a bit more weakness since then owing to new headlines indicating that neither Iran nor JD Vance are attending Wednesday’s planned talks in Pakistan. 

Econ Data / Events

ADP Employment Change Weekly

54.75K vs — f’cast, 39K prev

Retail Sales (Mar)

1.7% vs 1.4% f’cast, 0.6% prev

Retail Sales Control Group MoM (Mar)

0.7% vs 0.2% f’cast, 0.5% prev

Pending Home Sales (Mar)

1.5% vs 0.1% f’cast, 1.8% prev

Market Movement Recap

08:32 AM Modestly weaker after weekly ADP data. No reaction to Retail Sales. MBS down 2 ticks (.06) and 10yr up 1.9bps at 4.268

09:44 AM 10yr up 2.4bps at 4.275.  MBS down 5 ticks (.16).

10:51 AM MBS down a quarter point and 10yr up 4.6bps at 4.296

02:44 PM Sideways since previous update. MBS still down a quarter point and 10yr up 4.4bps at 4.295

Heading into the day, the 8:30am Retail Sales data was the obvious pick among the available economic reports to be a potential market mover. Reality had other ideas… weird ones. After months and months without any major reaction, this morning’s weekly ADP employment finally made its presence felt, even if only by the smallest of margins. Retail Sales definitely garnered a higher volume reaction, but it was balanced between buyers and sellers whereas ADP actually caused a small directional move. Fortunately, it’s so small that we’ve already talked about it too much. Bonds are essentially flat and the rest of the day now becomes about the familiar task of sitting and waiting for any interesting war-related developments. 

About two-thirds of respondents to a NewDay survey said their education about the benefit was lacking either during their time in the service or afterwards.