Daily Rate Briefing:

HOUSING MARKET TWIST

After a non-event day yesterday filled with some volatility we are starting off the day with mortgage rates beginning where we left off for the most part.

Some items to share with customers and referral partners is that the average 30 year fixed rate decreased from 6.39% to 6.34% week over week. This is good news to share and encourage others with.

You need to do this as applications increased .6% week over week. Refinances increased 1% and purchases stayed the same. Here is the part that you likely do not know. Did you know that last week refinance applications were up 60% week over week. OMG! 60%. That has not happened since the rates crashed in March of 2020. That means if refinance volume was that high then it is still that high plus 1%. Applications did not drop off.

It is based of course on rates dropping .25 with the Fed which made absolutely no difference in our rates and yet they still apply. Use this to your advantage to find good deals for potential borrowers.

Building permits are still lower than expected and the lowest since May of 2020 so new building is not ramped up as much as we would like. Annualized we are down 2.3% with 1.33 million building permits from August 24 to August 25.

In August 2025, U.S. new home sales jumped 20.5% month-over-month (WOW) to an annualized pace of 800,000 units, up from 664,000 in July. Compare these numbers to the building permit numbers. This marks a sharp rebound after July’s 1.8% decline and sits well above the long-term average of 656,000. For context, sales peaked at 1.39 million in July 2005 and bottomed at 270,000 in February 2011, while the monthly change has historically averaged just 0.3%

That is some cool data to pop out in conversations on the regional stats and stuff like that.

Not much else happening today as we wait on GDP Thursday and PCE (Personal Consumption Expenditures) Inflation numbers on Friday.

DYK – Mortgage Playbook:

LIFE ESTATES CLARIFIED

Fannie Mae now makes it clear that if someone owns their home through a life estate, they can still qualify for a mortgage as long as it’s set up for their lifetime and not revocable.

A life estate is a form of property ownership where someone (the “life tenant”) has the right to use and enjoy the property for the rest of their life, after which ownership passes to another party (the “remainderman”). Families often use life estates for estate planning, intergenerational property transfers, and aging-in-place strategies. They allow parents or older relatives to remain in their home while guaranteeing a smooth transfer of ownership later.

What Changed?

Until recently, Fannie Mae’s guidance around life estates left underwriters uncertain. It wasn’t always clear if life estate holders qualified as borrowers, or whether properties subject to life estates were acceptable collateral.

Now, Fannie Mae has removed the confusion:

Why It Matters

This update is a win for flexibility:

Supports intergenerational wealth transfer.

Key Takeaway

Effective immediately (9/3/2025): Life estates, when structured correctly, no longer prevent loan eligibility with Fannie Mae.

This is something your clients and referral partners need to know.

DYK – Mortgage Playbook:

20/20 VISION

The level of vision we have in life will always dictate the outcome of the results we have in life.

How we see our spouse, our children, friends, our co-workers, those in our community, fellow church members or a stranger walking down the street that we form an opinion of based solely on the glasses we are wearing at the time.

I have a friend that I am quite close to and that as I saw them, viewed them and cared for them I had a certain lens that I saw them through. I did not always understand why they reacted the way they did to certain conversations and topics that would come up from time to time. I viewed them through a certain lens that may not have been the full and correct prescription.

After many years of not knowing they entrusted a secret they had been keeping for quite some time. Earlier in life they went through something that no person should have to experience. They were raped by someone that they knew. Not a relative but someone they knew and they kept quiet and still do to this day. Very few people know and few will likely ever know.

This changed the lens and the prescription in seeing this person. What did not make sense before now makes a lot of sense. In truth, it created a greater bond and a greater understanding and relationship of one another than what was there before. The conversations made more sense and the reactions much more understanding.

Every day we have conversations with friends like this that we may or may not know fully what they have been through in life. Co-workers, strangers, spouses and children all have something they are going through in life. Likewise, when you look in the mirror in the morning I bet sometimes you wish the world knew what you were going through.

I try when possible to live by a truth that can help accept, understand and be willing to look through a different lens so that we may all see a little clearer others in life.

When I pray on many mornings I ask the Lord to help me do the following:

See others as He sees them.

Hear others as He hears their words.

Smell what He smells.

Taste life as He has called us to taste.

To touch others in ways His Will calls us to comfort others.

Whether you believe in God or nothing at all. We all believe in something bigger than ourselves. A higher power that we know from within that makes us a better person, a more faithful friend, a greater spouse, a guiding parent or a welcoming stranger.

When you view someone through a lens that may not be all that clear today I encourage you to try on a new prescription and to see if you can see a little clearer.

My hope for you today as you look in the mirror and see your reflection you know that you are worthy, you are heard, you are seen and there is a God in Heaven who loves you no matter what you see or what you believe.

As you look in your reflection that you gain a perspective to see others in a light you may not have had the right prescription before. See, hear, smell, taste and touch with a little more grace, mercy and hope and see how your vision and the vision of others gains clarity and understanding.