by Calculated Risk on 1/23/2018 07:09:00 PM

From Matthew Graham at Mortgage News Daily: Small Reprieve For Recent Rate Spike

Mortgage rates finally managed to move lower in a small but meaningful way today--something they haven't done in more than 2 weeks! ... While it is indeed bigger than recent examples, many prospective borrowers will find it underwhelming. In isolated cases, it may get a loan quote down to the next .125% of a percent lower, but most quotes will simply have slightly lower upfront costs (while the rate itself remains unchanged). Looked at another way, we could say apart from yesterday, today's rates are the highest in more than 9 months. [30YR FIXED - 4.25%]
emphasis added

Wednesday:
• At 7:00 AM ET, The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the results for the mortgage purchase applications index.

• At 9:00 AM, FHFA House Price Index for November 2017. This was originally a GSE only repeat sales, however there is also an expanded index.

• At 10:00 AM, Existing Home Sales for December from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The consensus is for 5.75 million SAAR, down from 5.81 million in November. Housing economist Tom Lawler expects the NAR to report sales of 5.66 million SAAR for December.

• During the day, The AIA's Architecture Billings Index for December (a leading indicator for commercial real estate).