The August Group Inc. is your source for dependable Real Estate Appraisals in Saint Louis City and the following counties in Missouri; St. Louis, Franklin, Jefferson, Warren, Lincoln, St. Charles and St. Francois.Whether it's an older home or luxurious new construction, Jeffrey Noyes' experience and hours of study as licensed appraiser make him qualified to provide home valuations in Saint Louis City, St. Louis, Franklin, Jefferson, Warren, Lincoln, St. Charles and St. Francois County for clients ranging from national mortgage companies to local lenders or individual businesses and consumers.
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| Data-Driven Weakness | ||
| 1/15/2026 3:32 PM | ||
| Data-Driven Weakness It was a reasonably straightforward day for the bond market. Trading was flat overnight, then weaker after the 8:30am Jobless Claims data. That report is hit and miss as a market mover, but a sub-200k print without any recent seasonal spike is certainly worth a few bps of weakness...Read More | ||
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| Mortgage Rates Higher For Some Lenders and Lower For Others | ||
| 1/15/2026 2:25 PM | ||
| Mortgage rates moved modestly lower for the average lender today, but higher for others. The distinction is whether the lender in question made a late-day adjustment yesterday afternoon. At the time, the underlying market for mortgage bonds was improving somewhat sharply. This prompted several lenders to drop rates before the end of business...Read More | ||
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| Hedging, Corresp. and Broker, Servicing, Quality Management, Fraud Prevention Products | ||
| 1/15/2026 10:47 AM | ||
| While rumors swirl that Jerome Powell is paying his own legal bills while dealing with the DOJ, and the Administration is ruminating on using 401(k) or 529 funds to buy a home, in the land of “concrete news” the office-to-apartment and condo conversion trend is accelerating, with the number of units repurposed from office buildings more than tripli...Read More | ||
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| Stronger Jobless Claims Leads to Early Selling | ||
| 1/15/2026 7:40 AM | ||
| The weekly jobless claims data (not to be confused with the big monthly jobs report) is hit and miss when it comes to its propensity to move the bond market. On occasions where the results fall far from the forecast, we tend to see moderate reactions. Odds increase when the headline breaks under the psychological level of 200k. With that, tod...Read More | ||
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| Some Asymmetric Risk When it Comes to Locking vs Floating | ||
| 1/14/2026 2:57 PM | ||
| Some Asymmetric Risk When it Comes to Locking vs Floating Bonds improved today mostly in response to heavy stock losses creating some safe haven buying demand. Data wasn"t heavily traded, but it didn"t do any harm. Producer Prices were mixed, with an upward revision in September being offset by lower-than-e...Read More | ||
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| Mortgage Rates Unchanged Despite Bond Market Improvement | ||
| 1/14/2026 2:27 PM | ||
| Trading levels in the bond market directly impact the rates that mortgage lenders can offer. This is why rates moved so much lower after last week"s news regarding planned purchases of $200bln in mortgage backed bonds. But bonds aren"t the only input for rates, and those other inputs can make for days like today where bonds are noticeably be...Read More | ||
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| Existing-Home Sales Jump 5.1% in December, Strongest Pace in Nearly Three Years | ||
| 1/14/2026 11:52 AM | ||
| Existing-home sales posted a notable year-end rebound in December, jumping 5.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.35 million , according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). After adjusting for seasonal factors, December sales were the strongest in nearly three years, marking a broad-based improvement across all four regions. ...Read More | ||
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| Bond Buying Announcement Leads Surge in Mortgage Apps | ||
| 1/14/2026 11:37 AM | ||
| As we reported last week, the announcement that Fannie and Freddie would buy $200bln in mortgage-backed securities led to a precipitous drop in rates last week. For most of Friday, the top tier 30yr fixed rate was at 5.99% for the average lender according to MND"s daily mortgage rate index--the lowest in roughly 3 years. And that single day ...Read More | ||
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| Hedging, Warehouse, BBYS, HELOC Products; Mortgage Apps Jump; Inflation Data Tame; FHA Delinquencies | ||
| 1/14/2026 10:55 AM | ||
| In our world, no one expects lender and/or vendor mergers and acquisitions to diminish in 2026, and in today’s Mortgage Matters at 2PM ET, presented by Lenders One, Garth Graham, Senior Partner at STRATMOR Group, will break down key M&A trends, recap the pivotal developments of 2025, and share insights on what lenders can expect in 2026. (Garth...Read More | ||
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| Today"s Data is Proving Less Tradeable, But Doing No Harm | ||
| 1/14/2026 7:58 AM | ||
| 10yr Treasury futures volumes spiked about 5 times higher in the 2 minutes following yesterday"s CPI than in the 2 minutes following this morning"s PPI/Retail Sales combo. Annual PPI was the highest since July with headline and core both at 3.0%. But November"s results were lower than expected (core m/m at 0.0 vs 0.2). It was a big upwa...Read More | ||
