by Calculated Risk on 9/27/2022 08:53:00 PM

From Matthew Graham at Mortgage News Daily: Yes, Mortgage Rates Are Now Over 7%, But It's Complicated

That brings us to the bottom line on 7% not necessarily being 7%. Most rate quotes and most major rate indices include upfront "points" or other cost assumptions (and in larger amounts than normal). The presence of points means you could definitely still get 6.625% today. You'd just be paying more for it upfront. [30 year fixed 7.08%]
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, Pending Home Sales Index for August. The consensus is 1.0% decrease in the index.

On COVID (focus on hospitalizations and deaths):

COVID Metrics
	Now	Week Ago	Goal
New Cases per Day2	49,808	56,844	≤5,0001
Hospitalized2	23,355	26,111	≤3,0001
Deaths per Day2	353	385	≤501
1my goals to stop daily posts, 27-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.

NOTE: Cases have declined by more than half, and deaths lag cases - so we might see average daily deaths in the 200s soon (better, but still too high).

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