| Morning, Madison. |
| The 30-year fixed touched 6.85% last week on Mortgage News Daily's index — its highest mark in over a year — before easing a bit on Friday. The push came from a strange place: the gas pump. Here's the plain-English version, and what it means if you're buying, refinancing, or just watching from the porch. |
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By the numbers
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6.85%
the 30-year fixed's one-year high
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21%
rise in foreclosure activity
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1.9%
weekly jump in mortgage applications
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IN THIS ISSUE
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1.6.85%: the highest 30-year rate in over a year
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2.About that 21% foreclosure headline
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3.Buyers kept showing up anyway
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4.The scam that goes after your deed
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The lead · RATE WATCH
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6.85%: the highest 30-year rate in over a year
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| The 30-year fixed climbed through July and hit 6.85% last week — its highest level in over a year — before easing modestly on Friday. |
| The push is coming from the gas pump: Mortgage News Daily notes rate momentum has been tracking oil and gas prices, which are back at multi-year highs and stoking inflation worries again. Bond yields rise on inflation fear, and mortgage rates ride bond yields. When oil eased Friday morning, rates came off the highs a touch. |
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Why it matters: If you're mid-house-hunt or weighing a refi, current quotes are coming off their priciest stretch in a year, and the biggest thing moving them day to day right now is the price of oil.
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Read at mortgagenewsdaily.com →
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REALITY CHECK
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About that 21% foreclosure headline
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| Foreclosure activity is up 21%, and HousingWire's read of the data is blunt: that's normalization, not a crisis. |
| Foreclosure activity has been unusually low for years, so a climb back toward normal shows up as a big-looking percentage. New listings are still low — no wave of distressed homes is hitting the market — and homeowner equity is still high, which usually gives a struggling owner a way out short of losing the home. That's a very different starting point than 2008. |
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Why it matters: If you own, this headline is no reason to sweat your home's value; if you're waiting to buy, the numbers behind it don't show a wave of cheap foreclosure deals coming.
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Read at housingwire.com →
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BUYER TRAFFIC
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Buyers kept showing up anyway
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| Even with borrowing costs at their highest since last August, mortgage applications rose 1.9% last week, with purchase applications doing the lifting while refis slipped. |
| That's the Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly count. HousingWire's longer view points the same direction: purchase applications are up 0.2% over last year and pending sales are holding near flat — a slower market, but a functioning one. |
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Why it matters: If you're a first-time buyer hoping the rate spike would thin out your competition, last week's numbers say the other buyers are still out there.
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Read the full story →
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HOMEOWNER ALERT
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The scam that goes after your deed
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| HousingWire reports deed theft — scammers recording forged documents to take ownership of someone's home — remains a growing threat, with seniors and Black homeowners most at risk. |
| The scheme runs on paperwork: get a forged document recorded with the county, then borrow against the home or try to sell it before anyone notices. Your homework is cheap — pull up your property record through your county register of deeds once in a while, and ask whether they offer a free alert that flags any new document recorded under your name. |
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Why it matters: Your equity is exactly what this scam is built to grab, and a periodic look at your own deed record is the boring checkup that keeps it yours.
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Read the full story →
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Quick hits
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• New home sales bounced back some in June but stayed below last year's pace, as affordability keeps weighing on demand. →
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• Berkshire Hathaway closed its purchase of homebuilder Taylor Morrison, a deal valued at $8.5B. →
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• New rules effective Aug. 6 keep mortgage servicers responsible when their AI tools botch a decision on a borrower's account. →
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Tip of the week
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Get every rate quote on the same day
When you're comparing lenders, collect all your quotes on the same day — the same morning if you can — and ask each one for the same lock period. Rates repriced day to day all last week, so quotes pulled on different days mostly measure the market moving between them, and you can't tell which lender is actually offering the better deal.
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How was this issue?
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Until next week,
Sam, broker & owner
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| P.S. Madison's forecast has us near 101 today — Phoenix weather, on loan. Stay cool out there, and if last week's rate swings have you wondering about timing, hit reply and we'll walk you through the math, no pressure. |