by Calculated Risk on 4/19/2022 09:10:00 PM

From Matthew Graham at Mortgage News Daily: Highest Mortgage Rates Since 2009

Today's dubious distinction is that we'd have to go back to 2009 before seeing rates that were meaningfully higher. [30 year fixed 5.35%]
emphasis added

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

• At 10:00 AM, Existing Home Sales for March from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The consensus is for 5.80 million SAAR, down from 6.02 million.

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

• At 2:00 PM, the Federal Reserve Beige Book, an informal review by the Federal Reserve Banks of current economic conditions in their Districts.

On COVID (focus on hospitalizations and deaths):

COVID Metrics
	Now	Week Ago	Goal
Percent fully Vaccinated	66.0%	---	≥70.0%1
Fully Vaccinated (millions)	219.0	---	≥2321
New Cases per Day3🚩	37,132	30,293	≤5,0002
Hospitalized3	9,560	9,883	≤3,0002
Deaths per Day3	389	489	≤502
1 Minimum to achieve "herd immunity" (estimated between 70% and 85%). 2my goals to stop daily posts, 37-day average for Cases, Currently Hospitalized, and Deaths 🚩 Increasing 7-day average week-over-week for Cases, Hospitalized, and Deaths ✅ Goal met.

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows the daily (columns) and 7-day average (line) of deaths reported.

Hospitalizations and deaths are declining, but new cases are increasing.

Average daily deaths bottomed in July 2021 at 214 per day.