Mortgage Rates & News – Week of 12/30/2024

by | Dec 30, 2024 | Mortgage

Rates

🎉 Happy New Year! Markets close early Tuesday and reopen Thursday.

We woke up to a nice rally today. As of now, mortgage bonds are up 36bps, the equivalent of about .125-.25% improvement in rate. The consensus is that the large swings last week and this week are all part of the standard holiday/end of year wrap up.

Important notes for understanding and using this information:

  • Any site/chart that advertises rates (like the above) is showing a national average for one very specific loan scenario, as reported by survey respondents. These aren’t the rates that borrowers are locking in. Use this only as a tool to get a gauge of what ballpark to expect
  • 30 Yr Fixed Conventional: a “top tier” scenario is used as a baseline (owner occupied, single family, 25% down, 780+ credit)
  • Most important point: the best use of this index is to track the CHANGE from week to week. There are so many things that can cause discrepancies between borrowers, lenders, and quotes.

Commentary

Here is a nice and easy 2024 real estate and mortgage summary. TLDR: 2023 and 2024 were pretty similar when all is said and done. 2025 looks to start off on the same trend; economic data in early January could set the tone going forward.

Lock/Float Considerations

Rates continue muddling along at or near longer-term highs following the December 18th Fed announcement. If we hope to see significant improvement, it would depend on big ticket econ data like the jobs report or CPI (Jan 10th and 15th respectively). Random volatility remains a risk in the New Year holiday week. If we see calendar-driven support, it wouldn’t be until Thursday and even then (and to reiterate), bigger victories require bigger data.

Econ Calendar – Potential Market Movers

  • Thursday – Unemployment Claims, weekly

  • Friday – ISM Manufacturing PMI (Institute for Supply Management, Purchasing Managers’ Index), December
    • Level of a diffusion index based on surveyed purchasing managers in the manufacturing industry

Loan Program Updates

  • Luminate Home Loans is moving to Luminate Bank in early 2025. Right now, Luminate Home Loans is a wholly owned subsidiary of Luminate Bank. In February, we will become a division of Luminate Bank. This move will result in the exact same set up as ENG Lending/Bank of England – a FDIC insured lender. There will be no changes to how loans are processed, underwritten, issued or sold on the secondary market. Being a division of the bank will give us direct and easy access to bank lending products (HELOCs, SBA and commercial loans) as well as actual banking products (personal and business checking/savings, etc.)

  • Other than the name change to Luminate Bank, you will not experience any service or disruptions