FOMC Minutes: Committee Discusses “Normalizing” Policy

April's meeting of the Fed's Federal Open Market Committee was held along with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Meeting minutes released Wednesday indicated the committee's interest in "normalizing" its monetary policy. This included the FOMC's ongoing commitment to tapering its asset purchases under its quantitative easing program. The committee agreed to taper the Fed's monthly asset purchases by $10 billion to $45 billion per month. Committee members discussed raising the target federal funds rate, which now stands at 0.00 to 0.25 percent, but the minutes clearly stated that this topic was undertaken as part of "prudent…
Read More

What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – May 27, 2014

Last week's economic news was dominated by speeches given by Federal Reserve presidents, the minutes from April's FOMC meeting and commencement address given by Fed Chair Janet Yellen. The latest readings for new and existing home sales were also released. Federal Reserve Speeches Suggest Concerns Over Monetary Policy Dependence, Low Inflation Here are highlights of comments made by each of the Fed presidents' speeches. Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Fed, and John Williams, President of the San Francisco Fed, spoke at a conference held at the Bush Institute. Mr. Fisher said that 98 percent of jobs lost during the…
Read More

What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – May 12, 2014

Results from a Federal Reserve survey of senior bank loan officers indicated that lenders have held the line on prime lending standards and have raised standards for sub-prime and non-traditional home loans. Survey respondents represented 74 U.S. banks and 23 foreign banks. Survey respondents also said that demand for mortgage loans was lower; this could be an unintentional result of tight credit standards for mortgage loans. Analysts said that tight credit requirements and less demand for home loans could mean more trouble for the housing industry. Home Prices Rise In March, But At Slower Rate The annual rate of increase…
Read More