Market Pulse: Rates Drop & Mortgage Updates - 8/4/25 Market Update

Interest rates have improved following a favorable jobs report, while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are expanding appraisal waivers to loans with lower down payments and high credit scores.

• Interest rates dropped about a quarter point (60 basis points) after Friday's favorable jobs report
• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac redefining appraisal waiver algorithms 
• Plans to extend appraisal waivers to loans with lower down payments but high credit scores
• These changes will roll out in late 2025 into 2026

Agents - Take Action Today!
• National Night Out presents visibility opportunities for agents
• Community engagement ideas include school supply drives and local event sponsorships
• Plan fourth quarter activities now before vendors are booked

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Chapters

• 1:12 Monday Market Update Introduction
• 1:28 Interest Rates Improvement News
• 1:57 Fannie & Freddie Appraisal Waiver Changes
• 3:11 National Night Out Visibility Tips
• 4:45 Community Engagement & Planning Ahead
• 7:02 Final Thoughts & Call To Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:37

It's Monday, August 4th and I want to welcome you to the Monday Market Update. Nikki is actually not joining us live today, but I do have an update for her, so I'll go ahead and play that now.

Speaker 2: 0:53

Good morning and happy Monday. We are looking really, really, really good on interest rates this morning. So on Friday when we got the jobs report, it was definitely favorable, which helped mortgage interest rates reduce. That helped us improve the market by around a quarter, around 60 basis points, which means that interest rates on Friday and now through today are showing in the six and a half, six and three-eighths range, which is a great improvement from what we've been seeing so positive things going on there.

Speaker 2: 1:22

I also want to talk about a little bit of changes that are happening with Fannie and Freddie with regard to appraisal waivers. Now we've often talked about how the Fannie and Freddie gather algorithm data and they talk about being able to give appraisal waivers for loans where people are putting significant money down and also have higher credit scores. So they are redefining and becoming more specific on the algorithm data and the data that they have gathered to issue those appraisal waivers. They are talking about having appraisal waivers for loans that have less down payments and still higher credit scores and kind of algorithm and aggregating that data to make sure that they can issue more appraisal waivers than they ever have before. So this is a good change moving into the later half of 2025 and into 2026. So it'll be great to see what happens there. Other than that, things are moving along just as they should in the mortgage business. Applications are up during the summer months and everything is looking wonderful. So if you do have any questions, or your clients have any questions, I'm always available to help.

Speaker 1: 2:27

Wonderful. So there you have it. Quick Monday market update today, but good news, trending in the right direction, absolutely. And my message for you today I'll keep it short as well. It's National Night Out Tomorrow, so I encourage you to be visible, be neighborly. I know I've gotten two, if not three, flyers in my mailbox of different events going on in my neighborhood and neighborhoods just down the road.

Speaker 1: 3:00

So go to get out of your house, go see some neighbors, bring a dish to share, whatever it looks like, but be out, be visible, have conversations, and you don't have to even bring up real estate if that seems a little bit out of context for the situation. But wear a hat, wear your name tag, wear some logo gear. You know it's always good to not be a secret agent and let people know what you do, because you, if someone's going to buy, sell or invest in real estate, they are going to use an agent, and why shouldn't it be you? So if you don't ask or if you don't put it out there, the answer is already no. So definitely be visible. I mean, think about all the other people in different industries that walk around like billboards, with their logos on their cars or on their person, whether it be a shirt or a hat or whatnot. So we just have to get out of our own ways and our own heads and get out there and help people.

Speaker 1: 4:02

The other thing would be back to school While you're at National Night Out or, if you can't make it, you could do a school drive. So you know, collect school supplies. I know I've seen some agents very successfully door knock with a flyer and a grocery bag from their local grocery store and if the people aren't home they'll leave the bag with a note saying I'll come back next Wednesday at one between one and three and pick this up. And if you'd like to donate to a local food drive, you know, have this on your doorstep and I'll pick it up. Well, you could do the same thing with school supplies, or bring that for tomorrow night, make up a quick flyer and just say I want to do a school supply drive and this is when I can stop by your house and pick it up. Then you're out, you're visible, you're donating to your local community and helping out. The other thing would be you know, in Minnesota we have the state fair coming up, which is huge. If you want to reach out to your sphere of influence. You could do a drawing for state fair tickets. Or if you post online and say, give me your opinion on this, I'll draw two winning tickets to the state fair. So people will be more likely to engage with you and stop instead of just scrolling on by.

Speaker 1: 5:27

And you know we're going into the fall. So then you have Halloween, you have Labor Day. There's so many opportunities.

Speaker 1: 5:33

But I encourage you to take a little bit of time and plan. If you haven't planned the rest of your year and you know the second part of this quarter and fourth quarter, start planning. I know a lot of agents do holiday parties. If they have not already booked their, if it's a Santa event, or if they want to have a face painter or whatever it is, or a pumpkin patch I mean, there's so many different things Do that now. This is a friendly reminder, because I had an agent wait until September last year and it was too late. So if you're going to be doing something in the fourth quarter, plan it now, book it now.

Speaker 1: 6:13

Take some time to really look at how you want to end your year and how you want to give back and how you want to be in front of and a part of the people that know you, like you, trust you, your past clients, your sphere of influence, all those people out there. So that's my message for today Until next week, go out and sell something and, of course, if you need anything at all, drop a comment below. Whether you're watching on my YouTube channel or listening on the podcast, I'd love if you subscribe, like, left a comment. Let us know how we can be helping. We're here and happy to do so, so see you next week.