Mortgage Rates and the price of Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) have steadily improved over the past month, regaining about half of their losses since the Iran war started.
Rents – single family rents, as published by Cotality, increased 1.1% year over year, their slowest pace since 2010. Last year prices were up 2.6% year over year. The current pace is about one third of the pre-2020 average.
Inflation – the BLS Producer Price Index showed that headline inflation rose 0.5% in March (pretty high) with the year over year number increasing from 3.4% to 4% (mostly due to oil prices). The core rate, which strips out food and energy prices, rose 0.1% and remains at a 3.8% year over year increase .
Mortgage Applications to purchase homes fell 1% last week and are now flat year over year. Refinance applications rose 5% last week and are up 15% from this time last year.