Ashton Woods leans into discipline as orders and margins slide
October 9, 2026
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Net new orders fell 6.7% and gross margin slid to 22.7% as incentives and land costs pressured returns
Mortgage rates can respond to changes in inflation, employment, Federal Reserve policy, Treasury yields, and expectations about future economic growth. These factors do not determine mortgage rates by themselves, but they can influence the broader bond market and the pricing lenders offer.
For homebuyers and homeowners, the important question is not simply whether economic news is “good” or “bad.” The key is how new information changes expectations for inflation, interest rates, and the economy. Those changes can contribute to mortgage rate movement and affect purchasing power, refinance opportunities, and monthly payment estimates.
Use the market updates below as supporting information, then consider your specific loan type, credit profile, property, and financing goals when evaluating current mortgage options.
Real Estate & Financial Market Updates
Net new orders fell 6.7% and gross margin slid to 22.7% as incentives and land costs pressured returns
Nearly 4,000 agents from 20 countries heard product launches and a Gary Vaynerchuk keynote speech on content and AI
Another Nice Round Trip For Bonds–Especially MBS
Nothing new or interesting happened today in terms of underlying events, news, or data. But the price action itself was a different story. While the moves weren’t extreme, it was nonetheless notable that bonds lost ground in a very intentional way this morning only to reverse course and make it back to positive territory by the close. Yields are still broadly sideways at long-term highs, but we now have a second straight day having closed near the week’s best levels. MBS outperformed Treasuries a bit, and officially turned green by the afternoon even as 10yr yields were a hair higher. It’s all somewhat promising, but not conclusive evidence of “more to come.” The 3-day weekend may be adding some distortion. Either way next week’s data may play a big role in making this week look like a false start or sneak preview.
Market Movement Recap
12:47 PM Weaker morning, but bouncing back since 11am. MBS now down only 2 ticks (.06) and 10yr up only 1.4bps at 5.244
Builders report 60% to 80% crew losses in some markets, while September net orders fell 19.5%, Wolfe says
New workflows let lenders pull credit files without scores and add them later
The milestone comes as borrowing costs remain elevated
Even though the underlying bond market is in slightly weaker shape today, mortgage rates ended up trickling just a bit lower than yesterday’s latest levels. This can happen on occasions when there is a strong rally late in the previous day. Mortgage lenders don’t end up passing along all of that improvement in rate sheets and some of them decide to wait for the following day to make the adjustments. In addition, this morning’s slightly weaker bond market performance reversed course around 11am and paved the way for multiple lenders to adjust their rates lower over the past few hours. The net effect is a move down to 7.48% for the average to-tier 30yr fixed rate, just barely edging out the 7.49% seen on the morning of October 2nd to claim the lowest spot since September 25th. Bears/pessimists will be quick to note that this is still massively higher than we were at the end of august when rates were 6.75%. Nonetheless, it’s the strongest counterattack we’ve seen since then. [thirtyyearmortgagerates]
The company reviewed nearly 35,000 active loans, with more than 20% receiving poor or failing grades due to severe title discrepancies
The expansion aims to improve turnaround times and processing efficiency