Mortgage Rates Catch a Break; Growing Concerns Over VA Churning; New Home Sales Defy Holiday Lull

Mortgage Rates Catch a Break; Growing Concerns Over VA Churning; New Home Sales Defy Holiday Lull

Mortgage rates caught a break today, moving lower for the first time this week and pushing back from the highest levels since early July 2017. Like yesterday, strong demand at a Treasury auction helped US bond markets, but notably, only the longer-term maturities (10yr and 30yr bonds were the big winners). Fortunately, the bonds that underlie mortgage rates tend to correlate well with longer-term Treasuries. Economic data also played a role with a weaker reading on inflation at the producer level. Tomorrow brings the much more important reading on consumer-level inflation (via the Consumer Price Index or CPI). If CPI is similarly weak, it could steel the resolve on the part of rates to hold to recent ceilings--potentially providing a base of operations for borrowers to consider a strategy other