The bank has brought about mortgage industry veteran Ken Logan as senior managing director to head this new business line

Realpha, which currently does business in 20 Florida counties using its AI agent, is buying Be My Neighbor, a mortgage broker active in 26 states.

Home selling sentiment was mostly unchanged, even though some shifts appeared on a regional basis, according to the latest Fannie Mae research.

The CFPB changed how reverse mortgage lenders can appeal to older Americans. Their value is now pitched mainly through direct education, rather than through Tom Selleck.

After months of anticipation, Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr is set to lay out the path forward for the interagency regulatory capital reform effort known as the Basel III endgame on Tuesday.

Holding Last Week’s Gains as Bonds Wait For Actionable Info

Monday was an anticlimactic session relative to the average day offered up last week.  Friday was especially important as the market’s anxiety over picking a size of the upcoming rate cut was on full display.  Fed Funds Futures didn’t move much today and that’s not a surprise considering the absence of actionable info.  There were no big ticket economic reports and no Fed speakers (they’re in the blackout period–a customary 12 calendar days with no public comment on rate policy leading up to Fed day).  It will be interesting to see if bonds will give much credit to economic data when we get CPI, PPI, and Jobless Claims on Wed/Thu.  If Friday was any clue, traders cared more about the Fed’s interpretation than the data itself.  Now that we cannot get any additional Fed comments, perhaps the data will get a vote.

Market Movement Recap

08:47 AM Modestly weaker overnight with bonds opening near the higher-yield end of Friday’s range.  10yr up 3.3bps at 3.741.  MBS down 6 ticks (.19).

01:08 PM Into stronger territory in PM hours.  MBS up 3 ticks.  10yr down 0.7bps at 3.702

03:28 PM Little changed into the close.  MBS up 2 ticks (.06) and 10yr down almost 1bp at 3.7

Despite heavy volume and volatility, Friday’s trading session managed to conclude in roughly sideways territory.  The new week is starting off on a calmer note with more directional trading since 6am ET.  During that time, moderate overnight weakness yielded to steady buying, ultimately resulting in unchanged levels by 11am.  The first two days of the week are sparse in terms of econ data and events.  Wednesday and Thursday bring CPI and PPI data as well as more consequential Treasury auctions.  It’s also worth keeping a close eye on Jobless Claims as the Fed will probably take anything they can get before deciding on 25 vs 50bps for next week’s rate cut.

Forget ATR. What about ATN? The Ability to Nap. Here in Denver, at The Mortgage Collaborative event, napping is not on the agenda… Every lender out there is trying to improve their business, and many businesses can improved with creative methods. (Don’t try this with the kids!) Housing and politics are being discussed in the hallways here, and here’s a good article on how Kamala Harris’ plan compares to Donald Trump’s. We still have nearly two months until the election, although the first debate, not to be missed, is this Tuesday night. Former President Trump recently said he would ban undocumented immigrants from obtaining home mortgages, and vowed to “create a government efficiency commission tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government,” he said during a speech at the Economic Club of New York. Elon Musk has agreed to head that task force, saying, “I think it would be great to just have a government efficiency commission that ensures that the taxpayer money is spent in a good way. (Analysts are quick to point out that Tesla and SpaceX have received billions in taxpayer funds.) (Today’s podcast is found here and Sponsored by Richey May. Richey May’s consulting, cybersecurity, business intelligence, and automation services are designed by mortgage experts to help you continue to drive growth and increase profitability. Hear an interview with Polly’s Marcus Lam on what capital markets folks are paying attention to as we move into the final third of 2024.)

The average lender’s top tier 30yr fixed rate fell to the lowest level since April 2023 last week. That’s down more than 1.25% over the past 5 months.  During that time, economic data and the Fed’s interpretation of the data have moved into better alignment with the idea of a rate cut cycle.  As always, things like Treasury yields and mortgage rates are free to move lower well in advance of the official Fed rate cut and that’s why the past 5 months have seen such swift improvement in mortgage rates even though the Fed Funds Rate hasn’t budged. Last week was just another week in that saga.  Rates were already in the neighborhood of long term lows on Thursday, so it didn’t take much of a push.  Today brought a significantly smaller improvement, but an improvement on a long-term low technically makes another long-term low. [thirtyyearmortgagerates] Much of the next few days will be focused on watching economic data for any potential influence on the size of the rate cut that the Fed will announce next week.  The market is leaning toward the minimum 0.25% cut, but if inflation (Wed/Thu) is low enough or if Jobless Claims (Thu) spike high enough, things could get interesting.  Even then, the next big adventure for rates has a lot less to do with the size of the Fed’s rate cut and more to do with how the rate cut path evolves from there.  One of the first considerations in that regard will be the Fed’s rate projections which are incidentally released at the same exact moment that the rate cut is announced next Wednesday.

The deal will create liquidity for the lender’s shareholders while giving the distillery access to the mortgage company’s sales tools, the firms said.