There was a big Fed meeting yesterday, and here's what it means for mortgage rates.
Janet Yellen
Gallows humor from Fed meetings that took place during the crisis years.
Rates started the day up, but have since dropped. Here's why.
Below is the full FOMC statement from today’s Fed meeting, and there are three dissenters on today’s new language stating a low rate target “at least through mid-2013”. These dissents are a big change because all FOMC decisions received unanimous votes since the Thomas Hoenig rotated off the FOMC in January, and he was the
Below is the full FOMC statement from today’s Fed meeting, and there are three dissenters on today’s new language stating a low rate target “at least through mid-2013”. These dissents are a big change because all FOMC decisions received unanimous votes since the Thomas Hoenig rotated off the FOMC in January, and he was the
Today’s Fed statement acknowledges economic recovery is on “firmer footing,” and while the Fed acknowledges inflationary concerns, it’s choosing to ignore inflation pressure for now and keeping overnight bank-to-bank target Fed Funds Rates at 0-.25%, and keeping the overnight Fed-to-bank Discount Rates at .75%. They also said they’d keep going with their second round of
Below is the statement from the first Fed rate policy of 2011, which shows their view that the economic recovery and jobs situation is still unstable. They left overnight bank to bank lending rates the same at a 0-.25% target, and also said they’d continue their $600b quantitative easing program designed to lower business rates
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)
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.
Reshuffling Of Fed Members Is the economy really in good enough shape for the Fed to start selling their $1.25 trillion of mortgage-backed securities? I don’t think so, but maybe the press doesn’t have enough else to talk about, so the Fed possibly lightning up on their balance sheet has been receiving some publicity. Federal
NAR’s Proposal for Fannie/Freddie My daughter and I went through the McDonald’s take-out window and I gave the clerk a $5 bill. Our total was $4.25, so I also handed her a quarter. She said, “You gave me too much money.” I said, “Yes I know, but this way you can just give me a
Below are our excerpts of key elements from Fed minutes from their last FOMC meeting on December 15-16. The excerpts cover the following: Fed’s view on whether economic recovery will last, support for tame inflation even with volatile energy prices, bank standards to remain tight because of commercial real estate strains, and jobless rate likely
The Fed kept the overnight bank-to-bank Fed Funds Rate target at 0-.25% and Fed-to-bank Discount Rate at .5%. They changed their language ever so slightly about the economy from “likely to remain weak for some time” to “likely to remain weak for a time” and following that by saying they expect fiscal and monetary stimulus
The big news from today’s Fed meeting isn’t that they’re keeping overnight Fed Funds Rate the same at 0-.25% but that the mortgage bond purchase program is being extended through the first quarter of 2010. Same $1.25t target amount of purchases, but the extension gives markets more time to get used to less Fed help
Today’s FOMC announcement is below. The highlights are that they reiterated they’ll stop Treasury buying in the Fall to wean markets off this support but continue mortgage bond buying until they hit their budget of $1.25t by end of year–we cover this topic weekly, see ‘Fed Mortgage Bond Program’ articles. FULL FED FOMC ANNOUNCEMENT Information
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