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| @thecltmortgageguy |
Vol 1 · Iss 17 · July 17, 2026 |
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| The Weekly |
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| THE WEEKLY WRAP |
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| Rates. Market intel. What it means for you. |
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| Welcome Back |
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| Inflation Blinked. Renovation Money Got Easier. |
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| Thanks for being here again this week. Two inflation reports came in cooler than anyone expected, rates got better in the middle of the week, and the headline number you are going to see quoted does not reflect any of it. That gap is worth understanding before a client asks you about it. Meanwhile the homes that need work are still sitting, and the financing that fixes that problem quietly got easier to use last month. I appreciate every one of you who reads this, forwards it, and sends questions back. That is what makes it worth writing. |
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| Market Update |
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| Inflation Cooled Twice This Week. Rates Followed. |
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| 30-yr Fixed |
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| 6.55% |
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| ↑ Up from 6.49% |
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| Rate Direction |
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| Down |
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| Live market improved |
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| Two inflation reports landed this week and both came in cooler than expected. On Tuesday, consumer prices for June actually fell instead of rising, and the core reading that strips out food and energy was flat for the month. On Wednesday, the wholesale inflation report told the same story. Mortgage bonds rallied on both days, and the benchmark interest rate that mortgages track fell from about 4.62 percent to roughly 4.54 percent by midweek. |
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| That matters because the story going into the week was the opposite one. Escalating tension between the United States and Iran had pushed oil higher and revived fears that inflation was heading back up, which dragged rates to the top of their recent range. Two soft reports in two days undercut that. What is worth noticing is that rates improved even while the geopolitical tension kept building, which tells you the market cared more about the actual data than the headlines. On Thursday the market gave a little back and mortgage bonds slipped, but the week still finished in far better shape than it started. |
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| Here is the part worth understanding before someone quotes you a number. The Freddie Mac survey published Thursday shows 6.55 percent, up from 6.49 percent and the highest reading since last August. That survey is a rearview mirror. It captures pricing from earlier in the week and the tail end of last week's spike, before the inflation reports hit. The live market has been better than that number since Tuesday. So when a client sends you a headline about rates hitting a new high, the honest answer is that the headline is describing where rates were, not where they are. |
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The scary rate headline your client just texted you is describing last week. Ask me where rates actually are before you answer them. |
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| This Tuesday · Noon ET |
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| Two Loans That Make the “Needs Work” Listing Sellable. |
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| Every agent has a listing that has been sitting because the kitchen is dated or the roof is at the end of its life, and every agent has a buyer who walked away from a house they could have loved. FHA 203(k) and Fannie Mae HomeStyle both solve that by rolling the purchase and the renovation into one loan, but they are built for different buyers, and most agents cannot tell you which one to reach for. FHA also made a change in June that removes the single biggest reason these deals fall apart, and it is worth understanding before your next fixer hits the market. On Tuesday we will walk through when to use each one, what actually kills these files, and how to have the conversation with a seller whose listing is not moving. |
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| Drop in Tuesday at noon. No booking needed. Zoom link at linktr.ee/thecltmortgageguy. Bring the listing that has been sitting. Have a topic for a future call? Just reply to this email. |
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| See you Tuesday. For daily rate updates follow @thecltmortgageguy on Instagram. |
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| Book a consult or grab the Zoom link at linktr.ee/thecltmortgageguy. |
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| thecltmortgageguy.com · NMLS #1465241 |
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| Ian Smith · VP of Lending · Rate · [email protected] · linktr.ee/thecltmortgageguy · @thecltmortgageguy · NMLS #1465241 · Equal Housing Lender |
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| © 2026 Guaranteed Rate, Inc. D/B/A Rate | NMLS ID 2611 |
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