Following the last Fed policy statement of 2010 (below), rates continue higher—30yr fixed 5% today vs. 4% on October 8—as mortgage and Treasury bond prices continue to trade lower on the 4 rate themes of recent weeks. The Fed noted that “the economic recovery is continuing” and that they’d continue the $600b+ Treasury buying (QE2) [...]

The Fed said it will buy $600b in long-term Treasuries from now until June 30, 2011 as part of a second round of quantitative easing, and made no mention of buying more mortgage bonds. Buying Treasuries helps overall rates in the economy but has no direct impact on mortgage rates like buying mortgage bonds does. [...]

Following it’s sixth meeting of 2010, the Federal Open Market Committee voted to keep the overnight bank-to-bank Fed Funds rate at a target of 0-.25%, and the overnight Fed-to-bank Discount Rate at .75%. The statement (below) talks about ongoing threats to economic recovery, and mortgage bonds have rallied strongly (currently up 72 basis points) since [...]

Rates ended last week even vs. previous week. Record low rates are holding as we head into the September 20 week. Rates and fine-print below. Also below are three topics: (1) Fed meeting and home sales preview, (2) critical alert on FHA loan cost increases, and (3) advice for refinancers. Rate Factors Week of September [...]

Jumpy Rate Market Response To GDP & Home Sales Reports Rates dropped 0.2% early last week then rose Friday to end the week even. The $109b in Treasury auctions throughout last week caused mortgage bonds to sell off slightly, and July’s record low New Home Sales (down 32.4% year-over-year) and Existing Home Sales (down 25.5% [...]

Mortgage bonds closed up 19 basis points today following a Fed meeting where they kept their low rate stance. Mortgage lender rate sheets didn’t decrease commensurately as lenders held the line ahead of a 10yr Treasury note auction Wednesday and a 30yr T-Bond auction Thursday. Lenders do this because longer-dated Treasury auctions compete with mortgage [...]

The Federal Open Market Committee voted today to keep the overnight bank-to-bank Fed Funds Rate steady at 0-0.25% and the overnight Fed-to-bank discount rate at .75%, citing subdued inflation that’s likely to continue for “some time.” For the fourth straight meeting in 2010, Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig dissented on the belief that modest [...]

The FOMC just announced the results from their third meeting of 2010, and all members except for Thomas Hoenig voted to leave overnight bank-to-bank Fed Funds Rates unchanged at the target 0-.25% range—the rationale for this is in their unchanged language on inflation: “inflation is likely to be subdued for some time.” As for long-term [...]

The Fed just made it’s announcement following today’s FOMC meeting. All FOMC members except for Thomas Hoenig voted to leave the overnight bank-to-bank Fed Funds Rate the same at 0.25%. There was no reference to the Fed-to-bank Discount Rate, which is currently at 0.75% following a surprise 0.25% hike last month. As usual, the press [...]

The Fed held the overnight bank-to-bank Fed Funds Rate at a range of 0-0.25% and more definitively announced that they expect to wind down their mortgage bond purchases by March 31. They still said they will make a final decision on MBS buys according to market conditions, but they did say they’d wind down purchases [...]