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MortgagePoint ยป Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 64 December 2025 J O U R N A L For the past 20 years, mortgage rates have been more closely associated with the interest paid on 10-year Treasury notes than with the fed funds rate set by the FOMC, according to Kris Gerardi, a Research Economist and Senior Adviser, and Domonic Purviance, subject matter expert with the Atlanta Fed's Supervi- sion and Regulation Division. "While mortgage rates do, typically, move fairly closely with short-term interest rates like the fed funds rate, they are more strongly linked to longer-term rates such as the 10- or 20-year Treasury yield," Gerardi said. "This is because the average life of a mortgage is around seven to 10 years." Mortgage rates respond to many economic signals besides the Fed funds rate, Holden Lewis writes in a Nerd Wallet blog. "The availability of jobs is one of those signals. Because of the government shutdown, a jobs report for September wasn't released. The most recent jobs report was for August, and it showed a slowdown in hiring and an increase in the unemployment rate." TRUMP ADMINISTRATION NOMINATES LEVENBACH TO LEAD CFPB O ffice of Management and Budget official Stuart Leven- bach has been nominated by the Trump administration to be Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for a five-year term. Reuters reported that President Trump and OMB Director Russell Vought have called for the elimination of the CFPB, the federal consumer finance watchdog. Vought is also Acting Director of the CFPB. Levenbach was appointed Associate Director for Natural Resources, Energy, Science, and Water at the OMB after Trump took office this year. Reuters said Levenbach's CFPB nomination was received in the Senate. Previously, Levenbach held other positions at OMB, and he was also Chief of Staff for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. CFPB Workforce Faces Uncertainty With Cuts Planned Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massa- chusetts Democrat considered to be the architect of the CFPB, said Levenbach's nomination appeared like "a front for Russ Vought to stay on as acting director indefinitely as he tries to illegally close down the agency." Reuters reported that the CFPB's workforce faces mounting uncertainty over the Bureau's ability to continue to pay them or offer severance while a legal battle continues over the admin- istration's plans to fire the vast majority of the CFPB's staff. The CFPB gets its funding directly from the U.S. Federal Reserve, unlike federal agencies for which Congress appropriates money each year. The CFPB has been in the crosshairs of Vought and President Trump for much of the year as intergovernmental battles over its mission and continued existence have stretched on. Vought had previously commented that the process to dismantle the Bureau was underway and could conclude "within the next two or three months." Those plans have faced pushback from CFPB labor unions and consumer advocacy groups that have filed lawsuits arguing that the Administration lacks the authority to dismiss most agency staff or dissolve the Bureau outright. The CFPB has been in the crosshairs of Vought and President Trump for much of the year as intergovernmental battles over its mission and continued existence have stretched on.