The Federal Home Loan Bank system, a Depression-era program designed to shore up mortgage lending that has morphed into a go-to — and controversial — source of cheap financing for banks and other financial institutions.

Lenders and condo market stakeholders are raising concerns that new GSE rules ending limited reviews and tightening reserve requirements could raise costs and limit access.

Stakeholders rely on detailed, easy-to-read reports. From including cited data to using a structured format, learn how to simplify the lending reports process.

The title policy and settlement statement datasets introduce digital standards that will allow the information on forms to move as data instead of documents.

The national delinquency rate ticked up seven basis points to 3.72% last month, coupled with a 10-basis-point increase in prepayment speed, according to ICE.

Noticeably Lighter Volatility. Why?

Wednesday offered a welcome break from the pervasive volatility seen since the start of the Iran war. It was among the narrowest trading ranges of any single day in March, especially during domestic trading hours. This is somewhat surprising considering the preponderance of contradictory newswires and headlines concerning the state of the Iran war (i.e. ceasefire vs more strikes and negotiations vs no communication). If Iran is refuting U.S. claims regarding de-escalation, why would bonds be calmly in stronger territory? Simply put: U.S. claims regarding de-escalation matter more than verified agreements with Iran. If the U.S. wants to wind down the war, that’s what will happen and that’s what the bond market likes.

Econ Data / Events

Import Prices

1.3 vs 0.5 f’cast, 0.6 prev

Market Movement Recap

08:58 AM Choppy and slightly stronger. MBS up an eighth and 10yr down 3.7bps at 4.327

11:32 AM Near best levels. MBS up 5 ticks (.16) and 10yr down 5bps at 4.315

01:26 PM Relatively weak 5yr auction but no major reaction. MBS up an eighth and 10yr down 3.6bps at 4.329

03:06 PM Holding sideways at similar levels. MBS up 5 ticks (.16) and 10yr down 4.2bps at 4.323

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The past 24 hours have seen multiple news stories with seemingly contradictory updates regarding the state of the Iran war. There’s a ceasefire. There’s no ceasefire. There’s negotiation. There’s no negotiation, etc. As far as the rate market is concerned, the most important development has been the general appearance of a shift toward diplomacy and resolution on the U.S. side. This has been enough for oil prices to preserve a majority of the drop seen at the start of the week.  Bond yields (which correlate with mortgage rates) have been doing even better than oil prices today. The net effect is the lowest average mortgage rates since last Thursday. Notably, these rates are still sharply higher than February’s and, apart from the past few days, the highest since early September, 2025. [thirtyyearmortgagerates]

There have been various comments from U.S. officials about ending the war for several weeks (i.e. on March 9th, Trump said the war could be over soon). Yesterday’s developments (Trump comments on the war being “won” and the 30-day ceasefire news from Israel) are being taken more seriously by markets or at least seriously enough to get trading levels back to where they were after Monday morning’s ceasefire/talks news. Oddly enough, oil prices and bond yields are holding onto the gains despite Iran refuting negotiation claims and launching another wave of air strikes.

More than 42,000, or 13.7%, of home-sale agreements in the United States fell through in February, according to a new Redfin report.