Mortgage

The Federal Open Market Committee opened a two-day meeting Sept. 15 with markets pricing a rate increase at better than 90% odds. The 10-year Treasury has already closed at 4.97%, its highest of 2026, and the 30-year mortgage rate is at 6.76%.

CrossCountry Mortgage raised its agency conforming limit to $845,000 on Sept. 10, up 1.47% from $832,750, more than two months before FHFA sets the official 2027 figure.

Freddie Mac’s Sept. 10 survey put the 30-year fixed rate at 6.76%, the highest since June 2025, as crude oil prices and producer inflation pushed bond yields up days before the Fed meets.

Intercontinental Exchange’s September Mortgage Monitor found property insurance costs rose 8.7% over the past year to a record $209 a month, with homeowners who switched carriers cutting premiums by 6.6%.

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s survey for the week ending Sept. 4 shows the 30-year fixed rate at 6.85%, refinance applications at their slowest weekly pace since May 2025, and adjustable-rate loans taking their largest share since June.

Optimal Blue’s August Market Advantage report shows total rate-lock volume down 9% from July and 3% below a year ago, with rate-and-term refinancing off 47% year over year even as the 30-year rate held flat at 6.72%.

FHFA Director Bill Pulte ended a four-month limited rollout and instructed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to accept VantageScore 4.0 from every lender, effective immediately. Fair Isaac shares fell 16% on Friday as investors weighed the first real competition to FICO in mortgage underwriting.

Maryland opened applications Sept. 4 for First Homes for First Responders and Teachers, offering eligible first-time buyers a rate half a point below standard Maryland Mortgage Program pricing plus a 5% interest-free deferred loan for down payment and closing costs.

Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey put the 30-year fixed-rate average at 6.71% for the week ending Sept. 3, the highest since July 2025, as long-term government bond yields climbed in the U.S., Japan and Europe.

MBA’s survey for the week ending Aug. 28 showed applications up 0.8% as the 30-year conforming rate hit a four-week high of 6.79%, refinancing fell and the ARM share rose to 8%.

Zillow says a record 78,000-plus renters had on-time payments reported to credit bureaus in July, as its analysis of federal data shows thin credit files are now the leading reason conventional mortgage applications are denied.

Velocity Financial will acquire Toorak Capital’s business-purpose lending platform for $63 million in cash while a third-party investor buys Toorak’s $3 billion loan portfolio, in transactions valued at about $3.2 billion.

Freddie Mac’s 30-year fixed-rate average rose one basis point to 6.66% this week, a third straight near-flat reading, as the Kansas City Fed’s Jackson Hole symposium opened and new listings hit a four-month high.

In his first Jackson Hole keynote as Fed chairman, Kevin Warsh acknowledged housing is showing strains but said financial conditions are not restrictive and the Fed’s focus belongs on 3.7% inflation.

The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge held at 3.7% year over year in July with core at 3.3%, BEA said Wednesday. Real consumer spending was flat, the saving rate rose to 3.0%, and mortgage rates stayed in the mid-6% range with the Fed still split over whether to hike.

Cook’s attorney told the White House the occupancy entries at the center of the case were an unintentional error, not fraud, three weeks before an FOMC meeting that will shape mortgage rates.

Better Mortgage and Coinbase moved their token-backed conforming mortgage into general availability Wednesday, letting borrowers pledge Bitcoin or USDC to fund a down payment without selling it.

The FDIC, NCUA, OCC, CFPB, HUD, DOJ and FHFA jointly withdrew the 2022 interagency statement that encouraged lenders to offer special purpose credit programs, effective immediately upon Federal Register publication Tuesday.

The committee formed to respond to the founder’s campaign to replace the board said the decision to move on from him was unanimous among the other directors, and laid out operating results to argue the company is better off without him.

The last regulatory approval has landed and the deal is set to close before Tuesday’s market open, taking a publicly traded mortgage servicing rights REIT private inside one of the country’s largest retail lenders.

JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo and Bank of America have each rolled out major housing-supply initiatives, led by JPMorgan’s $750 billion, decade-long American Dream Initiative.

Florida Realtors’ Board of Directors voted to support Amendment 3, the November ballot measure raising the homestead exemption to $250,000 by 2028 and lowering the non-homestead assessment cap.

Ten states led by Oregon and New York sued the OCC over rules that would let national banks stop paying interest on mortgage escrow balances in 14 states and territories.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.65% for the week ending Aug. 20, 2026, down from 6.67% a week earlier and the second consecutive weekly decline, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

Mortgage applications for new home purchases fell 5.7% from a year earlier and 1% from June, and the MBA estimated new single-family home sales ran at a 647,000 annual pace in July, down 3% from June.

The share of mortgaged U.S. homes considered equity-rich fell to 41.1% in the second quarter, down from 43.3% in the first quarter and 47.4% a year earlier — the fourth straight quarterly decline, according to ATTOM.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed 15,855 foreclosure prevention actions in May, down from the prior month, while the serious delinquency rate held at a low 0.58%, according to the FHFA.

Newly released minutes of the Fed’s July meeting show a committee divided over raising rates, with officials noting home-purchase mortgage activity ‘remained depressed.’

NAHB’s analysis of Federal Reserve data shows total consumer credit growth slowed in Q2 2026, but revolving credit card balances grew nearly twice as fast as auto and student loan debt.