The Lede

The Street, Feb. 5, 2019--Brian O'ConnellTalk about a toboggan ride. U.S. historical mortgage rates from the early 1970s to 2019 have been on a decidedly downward trend.

Wall Street Journal, Feb. 5, 2019--Andrew Ackerman (subscription)Senate lawmakers are expected as early as next week to consider the nomination of Mark Calabria, a critic of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to the post responsible for overseeing the housing-finance companies.

National Mortgage News, Feb. 5, 2019--Brad Finkelstein (subscription)A significant percentage of consumers are willing to turn to technology companies for their financial needs, including applying for a mortgage, although they have trust issues with them, a Fannie Mae report said.

HousingWire, Feb. 5, 2019--Alcynna LloydAlthough several housing markets were impacted by January's slow growth in home sales, new data from Redfin indicates the West Coast is especially feeling the slowdown.

Wall Street Journal, Feb. 5, 2019--Andrew Ackerman, Lalita Clozel (subscription)The Federal Reserve on Tuesday said that its stress test for big banks will imagine a rapid increase in unemployment, as it announced the details of the hypothetical scenario that banks must survive to pass the latest round of the exams.

National Mortgage Professional, Feb. 5, 2019--Phil HallThe delinquency rate for U.S. commercial real estate loans in commercial mortgage-backed securities began 2019 by continuing its 2018 downward spiral, according to data from Trepp LLC.

American Banker, Feb. 5, 2019--John Heltman (subscription)The Federal Reserve on Tuesday agreed to exempt banks with assets of $100 billion to $250 billion from the 2019 supervisory stress testing cycle, an announcement included as almost an afterthought in a suite of other changes unveiled to provide greater transparency to its stress testing regime.

Reuters, Feb. 5, 2019--Lucia MutikaniU.S. services sector activity slowed to a six-month low in January as businesses worried about the impact of a partial shutdown of the federal government on the economy.