Mortgage rates surged higher this week in Freddie Mac’s Weekly Survey. The 30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage was at 4.16% in today’s Freddie Mac survey and the 15 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage was at 3.39%. The Federal Reserve recently stopped buying mortgage bonds, raised the Fed Funds Rate target by 0.25%, and indicated it will begin to liquidate mortgage and treasury bonds sometime in next few months.
It’s still unclear whether the recent geopolitical instability will have a longer term material impact on the Fed’s rate and balance sheet decisions. It’s also unclear if and when the Fed will more aggressively attack the growing inflation problem they have been feeding for years – a problem they continue to actively encourage by maintaining a $9 Trillion balance sheet and excessively low interest rates. Fed Chair Powell indicated they plan to slowly but consistently raise rates through the rest of the year and reduce their balance sheet at a faster pace than previously attempted.
Freddie Mac’s Weekly Survey was released this morning with its most recent assessment of the mortgage rate landscape. See the details of their survey below.
(dynamic chart with current info)