Storm departs — arctic temps arrive, gas prices are up, man wanted for murder in Reidsville
The weekend winter storm left the eastern two-thirds of the country with heavy snow, severe ice, record-breaking cold, and widespread power outages. The winter weather advisory is now in effect and expires at 1 p.m., but at 6 p.m. this evening, a cold weather advisory begins and lasts until noon on Tuesday. Very cold wind chills as low as five below zero are expected throughout the region. Gusty northwest winds will develop by late morning. This is cold enough to result in hypothermia if precautions are not taken. Temperatures will be slow to warm on Tuesday, but could rise just above freezing for areas east of the mountains for a few hours in the afternoon. Frigid conditions and chances of mountain snow showers will persist through the week, with the lowest wind chills by Saturday morning.
Average gas prices in Virginia are up 13.2 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $2.88 today, according to GasBuddy. Prices in Virginia are 14 cents per gallon higher than a month ago and 21.1 cents per gallon lower than a year ago. AAA reports average gas prices are $2.64 a gallon in Patrick County, $2.71 in Martinsville, and $2.74 in Henry County.
The Reidsville Police Department is looking for a man that is wanted for first degree murder. A warrant has been obtained for 38-year-old Ronnie Junior Brim in the death of Christian Pollard. Brim is considered armed and dangerous. Do not approach him. If you see him or know his whereabouts, call 911 immediately. The homicide occurred on January 14th in the 100 block of Madison Street. Upon arrival officers found 22-year-old Christian Pollard suffering from gunshot wounds. He later died from his injuries at a local hospital.
A substitute judge denied a request by Martinsville Mayor LC Jones for an emergency protective order against Councilman Aaron Rawls. Judge Wally Covington told Rawls he crossed the line, claiming he would “put someone in the dirt,” but told Jones the comment wasn’t sufficient to obtain the order. The matter came down to the definition of the term; Jones said to him it meant Rawls intended to kill someone, while Rawls said he meant to subdue someone in defense.
Meanwhile, petition coordinator Patti Covington said the signatures on her petition calling for Jones’s removal from office had been certified. Martinsville Commonwealth’s Attorney Patrick Flinn said he asked for a special prosecutor in the case but was denied, and the responsibility for determining the petition’s merit will fall to him. If he approves it, the matter will proceed to court. Flinn asked for the community’s patience during the process.
President Donald Trump attends the signing ceremony of the Peace Charter for Gaza as part of the 56th World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 22, 2026. (Harun Ozalp/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Mortgage rates whipsawed in recent weeks as markets reacted to a flurry of policies from the Trump administration.
It began with a major milestone. Mortgage rates earlier this month fell below 6% for the first time in nearly three years, according to a data released by Mortgage News Daily.
“The progress stems directly from President Trump’s aggressive agenda to restore the American Dream of homeownership,” the White House touted in a statement on Jan. 12. The Trump administration cited its announcement days earlier, calling on government-sponsored mortgage lenders to purchase $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities.
Within little more than a week, however, mortgage rates had climbed to 6.21%, responding to rattled bond markets and erasing the previous reduction. The uptick came as Trump issued a tariff threat to European allies over his demands to acquire Greenland at the time. When Trump backed off of that levy soon afterward, mortgage rates fell but remained above previous lows, Mortgage News Daily data showed.
The volatility in mortgage rates underscored the risks posed by recent trade tensions, which threaten to push up Treasury yields and, in turn, drive mortgage rates higher, some analysts told ABC News.
Still, they added, mortgage rates will likely face downward pressure this year from anticipated interest-rate cuts at the Federal Reserve, and Trump may take further steps of his own to reduce borrowing costs.
“President Trump is certainly not sitting back and doing nothing,” Susan Wachter, a professor of real estate at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, told ABC News.
“Some of it is big things on the international front, which are potentially destabilizing. And there’s an attempt to do anything and everything for the affordability of housing,” Wachter added.
To be sure, average 30-year mortgage rates have dropped from 7.08% to 6.17% since Trump took office, according to Mortgage News Daily. That drop-off owes in part to a post-pandemic cooldown of inflation, which allowed the Federal Reserve to begin lowering interst rates.
In a social media post earlier this month, Trump said lower mortgage rates would “make the cost of owning a home more affordable. It is one of my many steps in restoring Affordability.”
Mortgage rates closely track the yield on a 10-year Treasury bond. Since bonds pay a given investor a fixed amount each year, the specter of inflation risks higher prices that would eat away at those annual payouts. In turn, bonds often become less attractive in response to economic turmoil. When demand falls, bond yields rise.
U.S. Treasury yields jumped last week in the aftermath of Trump’s tariff threat over Greenland, which appeared to presage a possible trade war with several European allies.
The 10-year Treasury yield climbed as high as 4.3% in the aftermath of Trump’s threat, before dropping steadily down to 4.21% as Trump withdrew the levy and backed negotiations over Greenland, MarketWatch data showed.
As tensions rose in response to Trump’s tariff threat, some major U.S. bondholders in Europe appeared poised to sell. A Danish pension fund, AkademikerPension, said last Tuesday it would unload U.S. treasuries by the end of the month. It remains unclear whether other European bondholders will follow suit, especially after Trump’s reversal on tariffs.
If a substantial share of U.S. bondholders were to sell off their assets, it would slash demand and push up bond yields, some analysts said.
Since 30-year mortgage rates and other key interest rates track the yield on 10-year treasury bonds, a selloff of treasuries could bring about higher monthly payments for home loans, Raymond Robertson, a professor of trade, economics and public policy at Texas A&M University, told ABC News.
“It’s a pretty big concern,” Robertson said.
Marc Norman, associate dean at the New York University School of Professional Studies and Schack Institute of Real Estate, said bondholders are evaluating the reliability of U.S. government debt.
“Basically, it’s a bet on the U.S. government,” Norman told ABC News. “If that becomes unstable and people lose trust, it could have a big effect.”
Despite the uptick in mortgage rates in recent weeks, borrowing costs for homebuyers remain markedly lower than where they stood a year ago.
Analysts attributed the drop to a series of interest rate cuts at the Fed, as well as Trump’s order calling on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy hundreds of billions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities. After the order, Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, instructed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to up their bond investments in an effort to put downward pressure on mortgage rates, the Associated Press reported last week.
By ordering a federal agency to buy up some mortgage-backed securities, the Trump administration helped increased demand for the underlying loans, which pushed bond yields lower, Wachter said.
“This mortgage bond proposal is not a big move but it makes a difference,” Wachter added. Wachter said she expects mortgage rates to fall further over the course of this year, though she acknowledged ongoing risk: “Investors don’t like uncertainty.”
Still, Wachter said, “If you’re looking to buy a home, today is as good a day as any.”
If homebuyers move forward with a purchase but later find that mortgage rates have continued to fall, they can opt to refinance their homes. “The old saying is, ‘You marry the home and you date the mortgage,'” Wachter said.
