The rate climb discussed in recent weeks continues with Conforming 30yr fixed rates .75% higher than all-time lows October 7-8. This means a $184/mo higher mortgage payment for a loan of $417,000, and $323/mo higher for a loan of $729,750. Rates for Jumbo loans above $729,750 are only up .25% because these loans are not [...]

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. [...]

Rate/Market Recap Week of September 27 Rates were unchanged last week: 30yr fixed rates were 4.32% with .8 points, which tied a record low set September 2. This figure is the national average for owner-occupied single family home loans up to $417,000.

Below is a speech New York Fed president William Dudley gave today where he fuels chatter that we’ll see more mortgage and treasury bond buying after the Fed’s November 2-3 FOMC meeting. The chatter now is about $500b on top of the $1.25 trillion in mortgages the Fed bought from January 1, 2009 to March [...]

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 [...]

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.”

Rates are net up .25% in the past 2 weeks, with rates up even higher on certain trading days. This WeeklyBasis report’s rate lock bias for the past two weeks continues into next week. Below is a recap of why rates have moved up and why they might continue up next week. Also remember that [...]

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 [...]