Buchta, Jim
Explaining why requires a trip back to the financial crisis of 2008. To stimulate longer-term interest rates, the Fed kickstarted a massive asset-buying program, gobbling up trillions of dollars worth of Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities. Essentially, the process expanded the money supply, ...
Mortgage rates were fairly flat heading into today's important Fed announcement. Despite arguably receiving bad news, they didn't move too much higher by the end of the day. What was the bad news? In short, the Fed is doubling the pace of "tapering." That means it will be reducing ...
The Federal Reserve began cutting the federal funds rate in September 2024 after a series of hikes in 2022 and 2023, but interest rates on mortgages have actually risen in the time since then. What gives? Unfortunately, the Fed can't wave a magic wand to lower mortgage rates....
Mortgage rates peaked 8.01% in October 2023 before finally declining, even though the Fed would take no more action for nearly 14 months. The first federal rate cut brought the benchmark to 4.75%-5.00%. The second in November pushed the benchmark down by another 25 basis p...
Separate data byMortgage News Dailysaid that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was averaging 7.03% as of Thursday afternoon. The Mortgage Bankers Association’ssurveysaid that the 30-year was at 6.97% as of March 15. What Freddie Mac said:The increase in mortgage rates comes as both home lis...
Mortgage rates have risen despite the Fed’s rate cut Mortgage ratesare the main exception. The 30-year fixed-rate mainly tracks the 10-year Treasury yield, rather than the fed funds rate. Both benchmarks are guided by the same macroeconomic forces, but at its most basic level, Treasury...
While the Fed Funds Rate and Mortgage Rates tend to trend together over time, the former does not directly impact the latter. However, the Fed Funds Rate does directly impact short term lending rates. What is the Fed Funds Rate In short, the Fed Funds Rate is the rate at which banks le...
The article reports on the rising mortgage rates following the initial success of the efforts of the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) to spent some $70 billion buying bonds backed by home loans in an attempt to lower mortgage rates since January. According to Bankrate.com, the 30-year fixed mor...
If mortgage rates continue slide, Fed may stop interest rate hikes