Many homeowners and first-time buyers are surprised by rising property taxes and insurance, which can sharply increase monthly mortgage costs beyond principal and interest.

The announcement drove a large increase in Better’s stock price, but UWM, Rocket and Pennymac all saw any gains earlier in the day more than dissipate.

The top employers in home lending value business partners with a large market share and reach but they also need to differentiate themselves.

While this only shows a 2-basis-point rise in the 30-year fixed since last week, the Lender Price product and pricing engine data is 30 basis points higher.

Median rents rose at a greater rate than median sales prices in 55% of the 416 counties with sufficient data between 2025 and 2026, Attom found.

Mortgage rates bounced back up today as the underlying bond market continued the selling trend seen on 3 out of 4 days so far this week. In the overnight hours, bond yields (which generally correlate with mortgage rates) moved higher in concert with rising oil prices.  That said, it would be a mistake to assume this is the only correlation in town. Oil prices continued to rise sharply during domestic hours, but bond yields remained flat–possibly benefiting from safe-haven demand following heavy losses in stocks. The average top-tier 30yr fixed rate is still under its recent highs, but after today’s jump, it’s fairly close. This is a victory of sorts, considering 10yr Treasury yields are clearly above their recent highs.  [thirtyyearmortgagerates]

Dueling Narrative Leave Yields Higher Ahead of Jobs Report

In the overnight session yields followed oil prices higher, but notably, Treasuries continued to sell even after oil leveled off. Then during domestic hours, it was Treasuries’ turn to level off while oil prices spiked.  From 9am to 2pm, oil rose nearly $5/bbl while Treasury yields remained completely flat. One way to justify this would be via safe-haven demand from heavy stock losses, but we continue not loving that explanation because it is even less reliably correlated than bonds vs oil. At this point, we’re simply hoping that the jobs report helps restore some sense of normal market/data correlation, but at this point, anything’s possible. 

Econ Data / Events

Challenger layoffs (Feb)

48.307K vs — f’cast, 108.435K prev

Continued Claims (Feb)/21

1,868K vs 1850K f’cast, 1833K prev

Import prices mm (Jan)

0.2% vs 0.2% f’cast, 0.1% prev

Jobless Claims (Feb)/28

213K vs 215K f’cast, 212K prev

Market Movement Recap

08:51 AM Weaker overnight and little-changed after data. MBS down just over an eighth and 10yr up 3.6bps at 4.136

12:23 PM sideways at weaker levels. MBS down 5 ticks (.16) and 10yr up 3.6bps at 4.136

02:35 PM sideways at similar levels. MBS down 6 ticks (.19) and 10yr up 3.4bps at 4.134

Here in Park City, at the annual mortgage ski trip, some of the banter is social, and some is focused on business. On the business side of things, one topic is the nearly 1 million people impacted by hackers attacking Figure Technology Solutions, a blockchain-focused fintech lender. U.S. financial institutions are increasing cybersecurity vigilance amid the escalating war with Iran, with industry leaders warning that geopolitical conflict often brings a rise in digital threats. Todd Klessman, managing director for financial services cyber and technology at SIFMA, said, “The industry remains vigilant and ready to respond to cyber threats at all times, and especially when global cybersecurity risks are heightened.” While we’re on technology, the industry continues to wonder if there will be any limits on artificial intelligence (AI), and in an Insellerate webinar today at 10AM PT (1PM ET) they will discuss how top lenders are pre-positioning for refinances with AI and how to prepare for the next refi cycle without over hiring, overreacting, or missing the window. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s ‘casts are sponsored by Feewise, which turns mortgage compliance from bottleneck to business accelerator. Handle all the complexities involved with establishing TRID compliant fees and disclosures, achieve sign off, and deliver packages to your consumers for review or signature. Hear an interview with Feewise’s Rob Withers on enhancing tech stacks through a disclosure manufacturing solution that works at the speed of sales.)

The bond market has already shown an indifference to this week’s econ data as a market mover (even though we expect that to change with tomorrow’s jobs report). This morning, however, the trend continues with stronger jobless claims and a big uptick in labor costs failing to inspire a reaction. But there has been movement. A steady wave of overnight selling pushed 10yr yields more than 3bps higher, easily breaking above the 4.10% technical level. Attempting to clearly connect that move to underlying motivation is an imperfect science, yet again. Oil prices and yields continue to correlate, but yields rose faster on a relative basis.

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