Posted by Jeff on April 2, 2010 under Mortgage Info | 
The Federal Reserve’s program of buying mortgage backed securities in order to inject liquidity into the market and keep rates low, ended on March 31st. The anticipation of the end and now the actual loss of liquidity has had the expected impact on mortgage rates.
Rates have been climbing steadily since Thursday March 25th and have jumped again today for a total increase in the past week of .25%. That adds up to an increase of about $30 per month on a $200,000 loan. Not the end of the world but probably not the last of the increases to come.
Posted by Jeff on March 18, 2010 under Mortgage Info |
Federal Reserve policymakers pledged to keep rates low for an “extended period”. This reiterates the phrase they’ve used for the past year. The Federal Reserve also said it would end, on schedule, its program of buying mortgage-backed bonds to help keep home loan rates low.
The big question is will the end of the Fed MBS buy back policy drive mortgage rates up due to the lower demand for the security. As the normal secondary market for mortgage bonds is virtually non existent, it remains to be seen what will happen to mortgage rates.
Posted by Jeff on December 24, 2008 under Mortgage Info |
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s index of applications to buy a home or refinance a loan rose 48% last week to the highest level since 2003. Is this good news? Well, yes and no.
No one ran out to buy a house last week just because rates dropped. Those smart home buyers were in the market already and were able to take advatage of the drop in rates when they were ready to apply for their mortgage. But the trend in rates is down and housing is more affordable so more people will start to enter the market which is good for the economy.
As far as the rest of those applications, Read more of this article »
Posted by Jeff on December 23, 2008 under Mortgage Info |
The Federal Reserve cut the Discount Rate but mortgage rates have barely improved. The truth is the Fed has no control over mortgage rates. Mortgage rates are a function of the bond market and fluctuate just like stock prices. As investors buy and sell bonds, mortgage rates will change accordingly. Sometimes they will change 2 or 3 times in a single day if the market is particularly active.
Investors are still worried about the safety of mortgage bonds so more investor money is going into government backed treasury bills and treasury bonds. There is currently about a Read more of this article »
