Here are highlights from news reports on the Federal Reserve’s decision today to leave short-term interest rates unchanged:
Reuters:
“U.S. short-term interest rate futures rose on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve pledged, as expected, to keep interest rates near zero for an ‘extended’ period in a bid to support an economic recovery.
“The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), [...]
Fed feels ‘no urgency’ to increase rates is a post from: Mortgage Insider
How will the mortgage-backed securities market function now that the Federal Reserve has ended its program to buy more than $1 trillion in securities?
The world’s biggest bond fund, Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co., says investors will keep mortgage rates down.
Here are excerpts of a Q & A on the PIMCO site with Scott Simon, managing director and head [...]
PIMCO: Fed’s retreat won’t spike mortgage rates is a post from: Mortgage Insider
Minutes of the March 16 gathering of the Federal Open Market Committee and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System reveals a foreclosure fear …
Participants were also concerned that activity in the housing sector appeared to be leveling off in most regions despite various forms of government support, and they noted that commercial [...]
Fed fears growing foreclosures is a post from: Mortgage Insider
Demand for real estate loans has dipped in recent months, according to the Federal Reserve’s survey of lenders.
And some banks continued to tighten loan standards on property lending, while banks are mostly done turning the screws on other types of loans. Here’s a clip (bold added):
Banks continued to tighten standards on residential real estate [...]
Mortgage demand softens is a post from: Mortgage Insider
Policy makers at the Federal Reserve are considering adopting a new benchmark interest rate to replace or complement the one they’ve used for the last two decades. Here’s more from Bloomberg:
The central bank has been unable to control the federal funds rate since the September 2008 bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., when it began [...]
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said this in a speech Sunday (PREPARED TEXT HERE) …
… the most important source of lower initial monthly payments, which allowed more people to enter the housing market and bid for properties, was not the general level of short-term interest rates, but the increasing use of more exotic types of [...]
Time magazine named Fed Chief Ben Bernanke as Person of the Year 2009.
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Post from: Mortgage Insider
I didn’t hear any buzz this week as mortgage rates dipped as low as 4.5% with a one-point fee. Maybe it’s the holidays, or maybe there aren’t many people left who could benefit from a refinance unless rates fall even further.
Then rates nudged up late in the week as the yield on a 10-year Treasury [...]
The Wall Street Journal online reports on a talk by Brian Sack, the guy at the Federal Reserve who implements many of its market-tinkering programs.
Sack’s group estimates the Fed’s $300 billion in Treasury purchases helped push down rates on those securities by half a percentage point and its purchasing of mortgage-backed securities (it will eventually [...]
