The real estate industry is at the forefront of a lobbying blitz to sway Congress to preserve the carried interest tax break that President Donald Trump wants to abolish in a giant tax bill pending in Congress.

The portfolio of offerings includes a buy-before-you-sell product as well as loans geared toward small-business owners, gig workers and real estate investors.

Completed foreclosure sales reach their highest level since the second quarter of 2023, with a 20% quarter-to-quarter increase, Auction.com said.

The company has not traditionally had a large presence in housing finance, but plans for government-related credit modernization have given it a boost.

The subsidiary of Amerant Bank trimmed 58 of its mortgage-related employees, leaving just 20 workers to focus exclusively on Florida-based customers.

It’s now been more than a week since mortgage rates ended the day higher than the previous day.  And we haven’t recovered quite as much lost ground as 10yr Treasury yields, we’re getting pretty close to fully re-entering the narrow range that persisted before the April 2nd tariff announcement.  [thirtyyearmortgagerates] Depending on one’s worldview, tariffs could be a good or bad thing.  Let’s just say they’re a thing that can be good in the right applications and that the initial roll-out of the tariff plan was too much of a good thing.  The early April rate spike was due to fallout from that realization and the recovery has coincided with a more measured approach toward more sustainable trading relationships. Of course there’s much left to be determined and solidified, but whereas the bond market (and thus, rates) was a bit panicked at first, the balance of official communications has afforded traders more confidence.  In addition, most traders assume there will be a near-term economic toll to pay as trade relationships are re-worked, and when markets expect weaker economic data, it puts downward pressure on rates, all other things being equal. Things aren’t exactly equal in this case. Inflation pushes rates higher and there is definitely some fear that tariffs will cause a surge in inflation–temporary or otherwise.  As this push and pull between the economy and inflation is increasingly resolved in the objective data, rates will have a better sense of where they’ll settle out.

Trading Range Restored. Big Data on Deck

Today’s trading was almost a carbon copy of yesterday’s with overnight losses, an AM reversal, and gradual improvement that leveled off in the PM hours. With those gains, 10yr yields made a full round trip back to the lower boundary of the pre-tariff trading range of 4.19-4.34.  That doesn’t mean anything about the future, but it’s an interesting reflection on the recent past. White House comments on Amazon hit stocks early, but everything bounced back even before Amazon clarified its position. Econ data helped bonds hold or add to gains (Confidence and Job Openings). Data gets incrementally more important over the next 3 days, and volatility gets incrementally more likely to pick back up. 

Econ Data / Events

Wholesale Inventories

0.5 vs 0.7 f’cast, 0.3 prev

Job Openings

7.192m vs 7.48m f’cast 7.48m prev

Consumer Confidence

86.0 vs 87.5 f’cast, 92.9 prev

Market Movement Recap

08:49 AM Modestly weaker overnight and little-changed so far this morning.  MBS down an eighth and 10yr up 2.2bps at 4.229

09:50 AM Additional gains.  10yr down 1bp at 4.198 and MBS unchanged.

02:03 PM Holding sideways at best levels.  MBS up an eighth and 10yr down 3.7bps at 4.171

Once again, bonds were modestly weaker overnight and once again, that weakness is being reversed in early trading. Whereas scapegoats were nowhere to be found yesterday morning, Tuesday has a few. The first move followed a comment from the White House regarding reports that Amazon was considering listing tariff impacts on prices. While this has since been clarified, it caused initial selling in stocks and buying for bonds. The 9:30am NYSE open saw both stocks and bonds improve. Lastly, the 10am econ data didn’t necessarily add to the gains, but it at least stayed out of the way.

My cat Myrtle was always interested in both the primary and secondary markets… for line-caught halibut. In residential lending, the secondary markets shouldn’t be a mystery to anyone. Did you know that Fair Housing laws apply to the secondary markets? HUD’s overview notes that “It is illegal discrimination to refuse to purchase a loan based on race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), disability, familial status, or national origin.” In primary and secondary markets hungry for borrowers and assets like MBS, this isn’t currently a problem, so that’s good. In the secondary markets, accurate data commands a premium, whether it is borrower data, credit data, genetic data, and now… neural data, they’re all for sale. (Elon Musk’s Neuralink, brain implant tech, is considered medical technology, thus supposedly covered by HIPPA.) Repositories of mortgage, servicing, & borrower data see value in using the data and reporting the information, while worry continues to mount over non-government agency DOGE having nuclear, Medicare, Social Security, and population data for U.S. citizens. Some say, “Most have nothing to worry about” while others say, “I want my privacy.” Stay tuned. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week is sponsored by CreditXpert, the credit optimization platform that helps today’s top mortgage originators and more than 60,000 mortgage professionals qualify more applicants, make more competitive offers, reduce LLPA premiums and close more loans. Hear an interview with American Pacific’s Audrey Boissoneau on the latest conversations that originators are having with borrowers as we enter Spring home buying season.)

Sellers have roughly a month to bring transactions involving properties from the “claims without conveyance of title” and REO programs in line with the changes.