Before Polymarket could even make odds, FHFA Director Bill Pulte nabs the Acting Director of National Intelligence post (18 intelligence agencies) to wash down the ~$10T portfolio he already oversees at the FHFA. Some feel this may accelerate the GSEs’ exit from conservatorship; I’d argue it ends the discussion. Hiring may be a bit on the light side, but job openings are spiking just as workers chain themselves to their desks (low turnover). Manufacturing growth explains some of it — its best numbers in four years. Oh, and Congress had better hurry up with the ROAD to Housing bill, because new-home construction is on its back.
Mortgage rates spent the early week answering to oil and Iran-war headlines rather than to any domestic print, easing to 6.57% on the MND index as a Strait of Hormuz framework resurfaced and tabled-then-untabled peace talks did the rest. The data that did land was decent: ISM manufacturing hit 54%, a four-year high, with prices still elevated; April job openings jumped more than 730,000 to 7.6 million; and construction spending rose 0.4% on single-family strength. Friday’s payrolls report will decide how much of this holds. Mortgage News Daily
The VA finalized its partial claim and loss-mitigation waterfall — without the proposed step that would have raised some veterans’ payments up to 15% — and Florida’s legislature sent a $250,000 homestead exemption to the November ballot, relief for homeowners and, somehow, a $4.6-billion-and-rising annual question for the local governments that still have to fund themselves.
Let’s get you caught up and out the door in 3 minutes. Tim
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Pulte adds national intelligence to his portfolio. Trump named FHFA Director Bill Pulte acting Director of National Intelligence on June 2, with Pulte keeping his FHFA post and Fannie/Freddie chairmanships — and analysts reading a possible FHFA exit as a privatization tell.
- VA finalizes its partial claim — without the 15% catch. The VA finalized its loss mitigation waterfall and partial claim program Monday, dropping a proposed step that could have raised veterans’ monthly payments by up to 15%; servicers can start submitting trial plans June 15.
- Florida sends a $250,000 homestead exemption to the ballot. Both chambers cleared a DeSantis-backed constitutional amendment that would more than quintuple the homestead exemption by 2028 — now up to Florida voters in November.
- Mortgage rates drifted lower, then flat. Mortgage News Daily’s top-tier 30-year fixed eased to 6.57% Tuesday before a quiet, range-bound June 3 session as Iran-war headlines lost their punch.
- Manufacturing put up its best number in four years. The ISM Manufacturing PMI hit 54% in May, the highest since May 2022 and a fifth straight month of expansion.
- Job openings jumped but hiring didn’t. April JOLTS openings rose to 7.6 million while hires slipped to 5.1 million — the “low-hire, low-fire” pattern intact.
- Construction spending edged up. April outlays rose 0.4%, topping forecasts, with residential up 0.8% on single-family strength even as multifamily slipped.
- Single-family homebuilding fell everywhere. NAHB’s Q1 Home Building Geography Index showed single-family construction declining across every geography; multifamily, somehow, kept growing.
- Multifamily held its ground. Apartment construction expanded in most markets in Q1, led by a 20.8% gain in large metro core counties.
- Realtor.com bets on conversational search. The portal launched RealAssist AI, built on Google’s Gemini, pushing the home-search arms race squarely into generative AI.
RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE MARKETS
- Single-family homebuilding weakened across the board through Q1. On a year-over-year basis, NAHB’s Home Building Geography Index showed single-family construction declining in every geography in the first quarter, on economic uncertainty, high material costs and elevated interest rates, while multifamily grew in most markets. The pullback was steepest in large metro core counties, down 16.0% on a four-quarter moving average. NAHB National Association of Home Builders
- April spending shows a tentative single-family uptick — off that weak base. Unlike the quarterly activity index above, the Census Bureau’s April report is a monthly dollar measure: residential spending rose 0.8% month-over-month to $909.9 billion, with new single-family projects up 1.4%, while nonresidential slipped 0.2%. The monthly bounce marks a pause rather than a turn, with financing costs and the Iran conflict’s commodity drag still pressing on builders. ABA Banking Journal / Census Prism News
MORTGAGE MARKETS
- Rates eased modestly, then went quiet. Top-tier 30-year fixed rates fell from 6.60 to 6.57% for the average lender Tuesday, close to the lowest level in more than two weeks. The move tracked oil and Iran-war headlines rather than any domestic data. Mortgage News Daily Mortgage News Daily
- War headlines, not data, are setting the tape. Since the start of the Iran conflict, rates have moved largely with oil prices on inflation implications; June 1’s bounce to 6.60% followed reports that peace talks had been tabled, and the subsequent drift lower came as a Strait of Hormuz framework resurfaced. The most recent high was 6.70% on May 19th. Mortgage News Daily Mortgage News Daily
(The MBA Weekly Applications Survey for the week ending May 29 had not posted a verifiable release at publication; the prior survey, week ending May 22, falls outside the window and is excluded.)
REGULATORY & POLICY DEVELOPMENTS
- Pulte tapped as acting DNI while keeping the housing-finance reins. President Trump appointed FHFA Director Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence while he retains his FHFA and GSE chair roles; if nominated to serve full time, he would need Senate confirmation. The 38-year-old replaces outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard at the end of June. HousingWire HousingWire
- The dual-hat raises a privatization question. KBW’s Bose George flagged that to the extent Pulte chooses to leave the FHFA role, it could be viewed as positive for GSE privatization — a reminder that the more consequential housing story may be who runs FHFA day-to-day, not the intelligence title. HousingWire HousingWire
- VA finalizes loss mitigation and partial claim policies. The VA finalized updates to its loss mitigation and partial claim policies Monday, adding a new option to its loss mitigation waterfall and eliminating a step in the initial proposal that could have increased borrowers’ monthly payments by up to 15% — a change the MBA and CHLA praised. Servicers can submit trial payment plans beginning June 15 and have until Nov. 28 to update their systems for the new partial claim program. Scotsman Guide scotsmanguidescotsmanguide
- Florida Senate passes a $250,000 homestead exemption. The Florida Senate passed HJR 1-F, a DeSantis priority sponsored by Sen. Bryan Avila, proposing a constitutional amendment that creates a $250,000 homestead exemption on non-school levies — $150,000 effective Jan. 1, 2027, rising to $250,000 on Jan. 1, 2028, and indexed to inflation thereafter. The measure also cuts the annual assessment-increase cap on non-residential property to 5% from 10% and sets a framework for eventual full elimination. Florida Senate flsenateflsenate
- The amendment heads to November — with a sizable revenue question. Both chambers approved the measure Tuesday (Senate 30-9, House 75-26), sending it to the November ballot, where it will need at least 60% support; the exemption would not apply to school-district levies. A House staff analysis estimated the proposal would reduce annual revenue to non-school governments by $4.6 billion initially, growing to $8.4 billion per year. CBS MiamiCBS NewsCBS News
ECONOMIC NEWS
- ISM manufacturing hit a four-year high. The Manufacturing PMI registered 54% in May, 1.3 points higher than April and its highest reading since May 2022, with the overall economy in expansion for the 19th straight month. New orders expanded to 56.8%, though price pressures stayed elevated. ISM via PR Newswire PR NewswirePR Newswire
- A “weirdly decent” labor market, built on nobody leaving. Wolf Street’s read on the April JOLTS data notes total separations plunged to 4.98 million — the lowest since the lockdown months — as quits and layoffs both fell, so the soft 5.12 million hire count reflects fewer vacated slots to backfill rather than outright weakness, an equilibrium that suits employers but leaves young jobseekers little churn to break into. Wolf Street
- Openings spiked; hiring did not follow. Job openings increased to 7.6 million in April, while hires and total separations decreased to 5.1 million and 5.0 million, respectively. The report kicks off a busy labor-data week, with ADP on Wednesday and the government jobs report Friday. BLS U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsBakersfield Now
- The macro backdrop runs through Tehran. Oil and Treasury yields continued to swing on Iran-war and Strait of Hormuz headlines, the dominant input for rate direction into Friday’s payrolls print and the Fed’s June 16–17 meeting. Mortgage News Daily
INDUSTRY NEWS
- Multifamily construction stayed resilient as single-family sagged. Large metro core counties led multifamily with 20.8% growth on a four-quarter moving average, picking up pace after returning to positive territory in the prior quarter, while construction in non-rural counties grew 10.5%. Demand for rental housing continues to pull large metro core counties back toward market share they had been shedding for a decade. Eye on Housing / NAHBEye on Housing
- Realtor.com launches an AI-first home search. Realtor.com launched RealAssist AI, a Google-powered conversational home search tool that lets buyers search using natural language instead of traditional filters, providing personalized recommendations, affordability insights, neighborhood analysis and agent connections while maintaining preferences across sessions. HousingWire HousingWire
- The bigger play is capturing buyers before the loan officer. Built on Gemini and grounded in Realtor.com’s buyer data, the beta lets shoppers work through affordability, down-payment and monthly-payment questions before ever seeking pre-approval — a shift that puts the portal earlier in a funnel mortgage lenders have historically owned. National Mortgage Professional