Certain years gain notoriety in financial markets for various reasons. Sometimes these are massive, individual reasons like 2013, the year of the taper tantrum. Sometimes there are separate themes that pull the market in opposite directions like 2016’s Brexit /Trump election combo that pushed rates massively lower and then massively higher.
Source: Kevin Litwicki MBSLIVE
2019: The Year Of The Trade War

Financial markets remain transfixed by seemingly insignificant updates relating to US/China trade negotiations. This For those who follow markets closely, this can be exasperating at times, but it’s happening for a good reason.
Source: Kevin Litwicki MBSLIVE
Good Times Rolling For Housing; How Long Will It Last?

The past 2 weeks have been fairly exciting in terms of interest rate volatility. This is the perfect environment for seemingly authoritative sources to get it dead wrong when it comes to telling you how rates are moving.
Source: Kevin Litwicki MBSLIVE
Many Credible Sources Are Dead Wrong About Rates

Last week, we discussed a fairly quick move toward LOWER rates. One short week later and we’re forced to discuss an even more abrupt move back toward HIGHER rates. By Friday, the average mortgage lender was quoting the highest rates in more than 3 months, and things could get worse before they get better.
Source: Kevin Litwicki MBSLIVE
Rates at 3-Month Highs and They Could Go Higher

I’ve gone out of my way on several occasions to explain why mortgage rates are not directly affected by Fed rate cuts. Now this week, the Fed cut rates and mortgage rates dropped abruptly the very next day. Is it time to revisit this logic?
Source: Kevin Litwicki MBSLIVE
What's Behind This Week's Big Drop In Rates?

In about 2 weeks, the big bond rally of 2019 (i.e. the big drop in rates!) will officially be 1 year old (because it actually began in the 2nd week of November). This has been a uniquely interesting year for rates. Granted, there are plenty of other years with the same sort of big overall movement, blatantly obvious motivations, paradoxically subtle motivations, and uncertainty-inducing curveballs, but few have combined all of those components.
Source: Kevin Litwicki MBSLIVE
Is It Time To Worry About Rising Rates?

Source: Kevin Litwicki MBSLIVE
Why Do Rates Care About Brexit?

It would have been hard to make it through this week without hearing about Friday’s trade deal progress, but how does it affect you? At face value, a healthy trade partnership is good for the global economy, but if you need a mortgage any time soon, the trade deal just pushed your rate higher.
Source: Kevin Litwicki MBSLIVE
The Trade Deal Just Made Your Mortgage Rate Higher, But There's a Catch

As of Thursday, most major news outlets and even several important trade organizations ran headlines claiming mortgage rates were flat this week. But rates are actually much lower compared to last week. What’s up with that?
Source: Kevin Litwicki MBSLIVE
Don't Believe The News on Mortgage Rates

Looking at the calendar (and the weather, depending on where you live), summer may seem like an increasingly distant memory, but for housing market data, things are just heating up.
Source: Kevin Litwicki MBSLIVE
Housing Market Ended Summer With a Bang