Saturday is genuinely quiet on the mortgage news front, and the week's operative story has not changed: the Fed is leaning toward another hike, and Wednesday's CPI is the next real test. The one fresh macro print came Friday. The University of Michigan's preliminary October survey put consumer sentiment at 46.3, down from 48.1 in September, with year-ahead inflation expectations at 4.7% (from 4.6%) and long-run expectations at 3.5% (from 3.4%). Rising expectations sit on the same side of the ledger as the September minutes, where participants described inflation risk as skewed to the upside, so nothing in Friday's read argues for relief before CPI.
Bonds closed the week without much drama. Treasury's daily curve closed the 10-year at 5.24% Friday, up 2 hundredths from Thursday's 5.22%, and Mortgage News Daily described a morning sell-off that reversed by the close, with MBS finishing slightly positive. Bankrate's conventional 30-year reads 7.55% this morning, unchanged from Friday, matching the top of its 90-day range and 6 hundredths above a week ago's 7.49%. Freddie Mac's PMMS read 7.40% on Thursday, up 12 hundredths on the week and 64 hundredths over 30 days on that survey.
Monday is Columbus Day and the bond market takes the day off, so the next rate-sheet move waits for Tuesday. BLS publishes September CPI on Wednesday, October 14, at 8:30 am Eastern, and PPI follows Thursday, October 15, alongside weekly jobless claims and the next PMMS. Housing starts and permits land in the October 16 to 18 window, and the Fed meets October 27 to 28 without a dot plot. Any borrower still floating into Wednesday is carrying the CPI risk, and the effective fed funds rate is 3.88% with a Fed governor on record expecting more hikes.
Two industry items are worth a minute. Equifax and TransUnion each rolled out a way to buy the mortgage credit file separately from the score, according to HousingWire. TransUnion's First Look Functionality for Mortgage lets a lender pull a report with no score or one score and add scores later without paying for a second report when eligibility and matching conditions are met. Equifax Mortgage Score Select ties each file to a single score the lender chooses, or none, with a repull inside 24 hours priced at $1 plus the chosen score. Neither bureau has put a number on the savings. Separately, FHFA has not yet set the 2027 conforming loan limits; the 2026 baseline is $832,750, and National Mortgage Professional reports that more than 50 lenders are already financing under anticipated limits as high as $850,000. On the Fed itself, the White House formed a committee of inquiry into allegations about Governor Lisa Cook's mortgage statements, and HousingWire reports a hearing set for November 5. Nothing in it changes the October 27 to 28 meeting calendar.
Things you may have missed this week: HUD republished a HousingWire analysis of ICE data on Mortgagee Letter 2025-09, which removed the non-permanent resident category from FHA eligibility effective May 25, 2025. Non-permanent residents went from about 5.8% of FHA purchase originations to about 0.1%, and the lenders quoted point those borrowers to conventional or non-QM financing. PLACE announced it is acquiring Ardley, adding mortgage intelligence and lead-capture technology. And the 72-hour recap: FHA's Mortgagee Letter 2026-11 adds VantageScore 4.0 and FICO Score 10T for case numbers assigned on or after January 1, 2027; the September FOMC minutes and Governor Waller both pointed to another hike; and Fannie Mae's SEL-2026-09 widened the verbal VOE methods lenders can use, effective immediately.
List every unlocked file closing before mid-November and book a Tuesday lock-or-float call with each borrower, so every one of them decides before Wednesday's 8:30 am CPI release!