The effect of rising rates on housing affordability will become less pronounced in 2019.

Multiple factors are causing homeowners to stay put.

Officially $11 Billion, but also causes emotional damage to workers, delay of economic reports.

This is good news for the reeling refinance market, though the refinanceable population is still down.

This new rule divides rate and term refinances and cash-out refinances

Important events occurred last week, including the Fed announcement and the jobs report release.

Guidelines include the removal of confidential consumer data from public view, such as property address and applicant credit scores.

Rates expected to remain steady while job market grows.

New rule removes regulations that require borrowers to purchase 10-year protection plans.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in consultation with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, announced new mortgage origination requirements in light of the ongoing government shutdown.

The percentage of borrowers that purchased adjustable-rate loans reached 8.9 percent, the highest it’s been since Ellie Mae began tracking data in 2011.

The Trump Administration wants to work with Congress on freeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from government control

The Internal Revenue Service, responding to pressure from the Mortgage Bankers Association and other industry trade groups, said it would resume processing tax transcript information requests.

The FHA releases new loan limits for 2019. The base loan limit will be $314,827 and the high cost limit will be $726,525, the same as conforming high cost limits.

Tomorrow, the Federal Reserve Board releases their announcement from the conclusion of their last meeting of the year. The markets have been predicting another 0.25% rate hike all along, though the probabilities have been lowered slightly due to the volatility in the financial markets.

Fannie Mae appointed Hugh R. Frater as Interim CEO, subject to final Federal Housing Finance Agency approval. He will succeed Timothy J. Mayopoulos, who announced his intention to depart in July and left the company on October 15.

It will likely be a very busy end of the year and this current period will significantly contribute to that forecast. Last week we had the first reading of economic growth for the third quarter and minutes released from the last meeting of the Federal Reserve Board's Open Market Committee.

It hopefully just got a little more difficult for scammers to abuse someone’s credit information, because consumers can now freeze their credit at all three of the major credit reporting agencies, for free.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) needs to spend millions of dollars on technology to catch up with the rest of the industry, FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery said at the Mortgage Bankers Association annual convention in Washington, D.C. "To be sure, my highest priority is to move FHA into the 21st Century and beyond," Montgomery said.

The Federal Reserve likely will continue gradual interest rate increases but will accelerate the pace if signs that financial imbalances continue to build, central bank Governor Lael Brainard said in a speech.