Modest Recovery From Morning Weakness
Bonds were slightly weaker this morning in a move that looked like it might have been significant when compared to yesterday's narrow range. But in a just-barely-wider context, today's volatility was just as inconsequential as almost any of the days in December so far. With that, we'll continue to count down to next week's bigger-ticket data and more robust trader participation.
Econ Data / Events
Case Shiller Home Prices-20 y/y (Oct)
1.3% vs 1.1% f'cast, 1.4% prev
CaseShiller 20 mm nsa (Oct)
-0.3% vs -- f'cast, -0.5% prev
FHFA Home Price Index m/m (Oct)
0.4% vs 0.1% f'cast, 0% prev
FHFA Home Prices y/y (Oct)
1.7% vs -- f'cast, 1.7% prev
Chicago PMI (Dec)
43.5 vs 39.5 f'cast, 36.3 prev
Market Movement Recap
10:10 AM Moderately weaker overnight and sideways so far. MBS down an eighth and 10yr up 2.7bps at 4.135
12:02 PM bouncing back a bit. MBS down only 1 tick (.03) and 10yr up 1.2bps at 4.119
03:14 PM Still mostly sideways. MBS down 2 ticks (.06) and 10yr up 2.1bps at 4.128.
Mortgage rates continue operating in an excruciatingly narrow range near their lowest levels of the past few years. Yesterday was the 6th best day of 2025. Today is tied for 7th place after rates moved 0.01% higher on average. While the underlying bond market is fully open today, it's a slow time of year in terms of volume and volatility. Bigger movement becomes more likely by the end of next week thanks to the return of important economic reports and stronger trader participation after holiday absences.
Loan originators are acutely aware of demographics (“know your borrower,” right?). Naming generations is relatively recent, and then-People Magazine Editor Landon Y. Jones coined the term Baby Boomer. (He died last year.) The oldest Baby Boomers turn 80 in 2026. By the end of this decade, all baby boomers will be 65 and older, and the number of people 80 and over will double in 20 years. Do you have loan products for them? Without any immigration, the U.S. population will start shrinking in five years. VP JD Vance is among those pushing for an increase in fertility. Vance has suggested giving parents more voting power, according to their numbers of children, or giving low-interest loans to married parents and tax exemptions to women who have four children or more. (Recall that last year JD Vance recommended giving votes to all children in this country but let's give control over those votes to the parents of those children.) All of these trends and statements do, or could, impact every residential lender. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s are sponsored by the Refi Recapture Engine from LO Autopilot. Did you know lenders lose 80 percent of refi recapture? The Refi Recapture Engine triples recapture volume and delivers refi-ready borrowers to your LOs on a silver platter. They're so confident in the ROI they let you try before you buy. Contact them for a demo. Hear an interview with consultant Jeremy Potter on when companies should use external labor, why LinkedIn is an intellectual isolation ward, and final thoughts from the year that was in mortgage.)
If we turn up the magnification on our market-watching microscopes, it may seem like something important happened in the bond market overnight. 10yr yields were up by more than 3bps at one point and MBS fell just over an eighth of a point. These may seem like big swings relative to yesterday's narrow range, but this is actually a rather tame expression of year-end volatility. To understand a bit more about month/quarter/year-end trading motivations, check out our primer on the topic. 4 trading days ago, 10yr yields hit the top of the prevailing range at 4.20. Yesterday, they were close enough to the lower end of that range (4.10). Nothing that occurs inside these boundaries is remotely significant--just noise.
Uneventful And Slightly Stronger
Although volumes picked up a bit versus Friday, no one would confuse the late December bond market from exhibiting any unexpected signs of life. A stronger open in Europe made for a modest improvement overnight and almost all of the domestic session was spent treading water at those same levels.
Econ Data / Events
Pending Home Sales
79.2 vs 74.9 prev
Market Movement Recap
10:12 AM Modestly stronger overnight and holding sideways so far. MBS up 2 ticks (.06) and 10yr down 1.6bps at 4.117
03:38 PM Minimal volatility all day. MBS up 2 ticks (.06) and 10yr down 1.9bps at 4.114
Watching Rates
Check our some recent articles and posts about current rates.
Mortgage rates continue operating in an excruciatingly narrow range near their lowest levels of the past few years. Yesterday was the 6th best day of 2025. Today is tied for 7th place after rates moved 0.01% higher on average. While the underlying bond market is fully open today, it's a slow time of year in terms of volume and volatility. Bigger movement becomes more likely by the end of next week thanks to the return of important economic reports and stronger trader participation after holiday absences.
With another holiday closure on deck and light calendar of events, the rate market is off to another uneventful start this week. In fact, the average lender barely budged from last Friday. But it was enough for MND's 30yr fixed rate index to tick down by 0.01%. This is the lowest level since October 28th--just barely edging out the lows seen on November 25th. There were only 5 days in November and one day in September with lower rates. Before that, you'd have to go back to September 2024 to see anything lower. As always, there's never any way to know what's next for rates. The outcome of next week's economic data could certainly have a say in that. What we do know is that the present zone has been a recurring lower boundary for the range going all the way back to late 2022.
Because mortgage rates are determined by the bond market, a boring market day typically translates to a boring mortgage rate day. But that's not entirely true today. While the level of movement is indeed very small, it only took a small movement to get the average 30yr fixed rate down to their lowest levels since the end of October. Next week should be another slow one for rates, but things should pick up progressively as 2026 gets underway.
It was a short day for the bond market that underlies mortgage rates, but a good one. A side effect of holiday weeks and early market closures is a bit of random volatility without any obvious justification. When volume and participation are low, bonds can move a bit more than they otherwise might. All that to say today's improvement was luck of the draw, but we won't object to the result. The average top tier 30yr fixed rate fell to the lowest level since November 25th. The caveat is that the range has been fairly narrow during that time. [thirtyyearmortgagerates]
