Weekly Mortgage Update 2-4-2026

Weekly Mortgage Rates

February 4, 2026

A lot of news, but none of it really moving the needle on mortgage rates. Here are the highlights from the past couple of weeks.

Will the Next Fed Chair Please Stand Up?

Last week’s Fed meeting had zero impact on rates. The outlook showed the Fed believes rates are near neutral, employment remains stable, and inflation is manageable. No rate cuts are expected until the second half of this year, after Powell’s term ends in May.

Speaking of Powell’s term ending, Trump announced his replacement: Kevin Warsh for Fed Chair. Powell’s influence will diminish from here as more weight will be given to what the market expects from his replacement.

Warsh, a former Fed governor during the 2008 crisis, has spoken out against the Fed’s Quantitative Easing program and argues that expanding the balance sheet is one of the main drivers of inflation. “If we would run the printing press a little quieter, we could then have lower interest rates…because what we are doing right now is we have all this money being flooded into the system, which causes inflation to be above target.” (Source: WSJ) 

A Fed chair who wants to control money growth, in the long run, will help bring down long-term rates. It might be bumpy, though, as the market weans off its easy money era. He may be a breath of fresh air from the Keynesian monetary theory that has dominated the Fed’s policy moves post-2008. I guess we shall see.

Oops, I Did It Again

Normally, we would have all the January BLS employment data this Friday, but guess what? The most recent government shutdown delayed it again. The partial government shutdown ended after just 4 days, but it was long enough to delay the data. No new release date has yet been announced, so we’ll get that when we get that.

We did get some employment news from the private sector, though. Contrary to the Fed’s outlook on employment remaining stable, ADP just released its 2025 figures that showed 398k jobs created in 2025—that’s about half of the jobs they show were created in 2024. 

Market Strategies- ADU News

Fannie Mae is expanding its financing for ADU properties, now allowing for financing on single- and multi-family homes with more than one ADU (up to 4 total units allowed). Single-family homes can now be financed with up to 3 ADUs. The guidance also allows manufactured homes to have multiple ADUs under the MH Advantage program. This is a real game-changer to help increase our affordable housing options. Let me know if you have a scenario or need more details.