The Housing News Podcast is a weekly wrap of the top news stories by HousingWire CEO Clayton Collins.

Each week, HousingWire interviews financial services experts who can help make sense of the latest headlines, sponsored by our partners at Arch MI.

This week, Carl Tyree, the executive vice president and chief sales officer at Arch MI, joins the show for a bonus episode.

Tyree is an industry titan, currently overseeing Arch MI’s sales teams and relationship strategies. Prior to joining Arch MI, he held senior sales and sales leadership roles with Republic Mortgage Insurance Company, Nomura Credit and Capital and Ocwen Financial Corporation.

In this week’s episode, Tyree touches base on the nation’s low-interest rate environment, which he says is causing many lenders to prep for what could be another refinance boom. Additionally, Tyree discusses the housing market’s lack of inventory and Arch MI’s 2020 Mortgage Market review, which claims housing isn’t as expensive as we think.

Here’s more detail on the topics of discussion this week:

This week, the average U.S. fixed rate for a 30-year mortgage averaged 3.51%, dropping to the second-lowest level in three years. The pace is now 95 basis points below the 4.46% rate of the same week last year, according to the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

News about the housing shortage has infiltrated headlines enough times that it comes across as the new normal – the market is perpetually bound to be lacking in inventory. But tucked away in all the stories is the answer that is likely the most undesirable. As home building experts are keenly aware, the answer is that there is no silver bullet to the housing shortage, including affordable housing. It’s going to be a long road to recovery.

The inventory of homes for sale in the U.S. continued to decline in September, signaling the market may be heading toward an overall shortage, according to a realtor.com report. During the month, the national inventory of homes for sale fell 2.5% from the previous year, and at a much faster rate of decline compared to August’s 1.8% decrease.

According to Arch MI’s Housing and Mortgage Market Review, housing isn’t as expensive as we think. The company claims housing affordability is actually better now than its historic norms in most states, remaining far better than the worst point for each state since 1990.

And here are links to the topics discussed:

1) Mortgage rates fall to the second-lowest level in three years
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/mortgage-rates-fall-to-the-second-lowest-level-in-three-years/

2) The answer to the affordable housing shortage no one wants to hear https://www.housingwire.com/articles/the-answer-to-the-affordable-housing-shortage-no-one-wants-to-hear/

3) Arch MI: Housing and Mortgage Market Review
https://mi.archcapgroup.com/Portals/1/Documents/hammr/HaMMR_Winter2020.pdf