Mortgage interest rates dropped throughout the month of March, culminating in interest rates closing out the month with the largest single-week decline in 10 years. As of the end of March, mortgage rates were at their lowest point since January 2018. And as one might expect, that drop in mortgage rates led to a massive increase in mortgage prepayments in March, according to a first look at March’s mortgage data from Black Knight.

Rising interest rates are driving prepayment speeds down significantly, a new report from Black Knight Financial Services shows. And with interest rates consistently rising over the last few months, and expected to continue climbing, prepayments are likely to continue slowing.

The latest data from Freddie Mac, released Thursday, showed that mortgage interest rates are on the rise again. What will the impact of rising interest rates be on mortgage-backed securities, especially private-label mortgages? A new report from Morningstar has the answers. And here they are.

A new segment of lenders and servicers that specialize in quicker prepayments is costing the TBA market “several hundred million of dollars a year,” analysts from Deutsche Bank Markets Research said in a new report. Prepayments are a new kind of problem now.

Refinancing activity may have reached its breaking point, with prepayment rates – a barometer of refi activity – plummeting 30% between May and current levels, new data from Lender Processing Services says.