It’s A Lock: New White Paper Examines How Rate Lock Data Can Help Manage Portfolio Risk
Published March 15, 2022
Impact on Mortgage Rates from Rising 10-Year Treasury Yields
Early on in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Reservere-engaged quantitative easing measures, injecting liquidity into the market and driving the 10-year Treasury to ~50 bps andmortgage ratesbelow 3% for the first time. In the months since, interest rates have [...]
The Bifurcation of Refinance and Purchase Rates
Published October 13, 2020
Historically, there has been little to no difference in refinance and purchase rates. A borrower looking to do a rate-term refinance on a primary residence would typically be offered the same rate as they would for a purchase loan on the same [...]
Emergency Actions in Response to COVID-19 & the Implications of the Policy Actions
In response to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) pandemic, global economic conditions, and the economic uncertainty that social isolation protocols have induced, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) just made its second emergency rate cut over the past two [...]
Market Volatility and the Anatomy of Mortgage Rates
Published March 18, 2020
Optimal Blue recently co-authored an article with Andrew Davidson & Co., Inc. (AD&Co), a leading provider of risk analytics and consulting for residential lending and MBS, titled Market Volatility and the Anatomy of Mortgage Rates. This timely article [...]
Market Commentary: The Impact of Rates, Seasonality, and Appreciation on Mortgage Volumes
Mortgage originations are booming! While this is primarily fueled by the most recent refi boom, there are other aspects to this that, right now, are also favorable and adding fuel to the fire. The loan purpose is one of the main determinants of how volume will be affected by [...]