Mortgage rates dipped below 5% this past week in the Freddie Mac Weekly Survey. The 30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage was at 4.99% in today’s Freddie Mac survey results and the 15 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage was at 4.26%.
Last week the Federal Reserve raised the Fed Funds Rate target by 0.75%. The Fed is also on a path to reduce the amount of mortgage and treasury securities on its balance sheet, know as tapering. Based upon most recent data available, the Fed’s approach to tapering continues at a slower than expected pace. (see chart below) Some recent government bond auctions have had lower than expected supply. It will be interesting to see if the Fed has taken the opportunity to sell into that environment or if it’s just letting shorter duration bonds run-off.
Mortgage rates are likely to remain volatile in this environment as the Fed tries to navigate this last half of the year. It’s still difficult to predict what may happen to rates if the Fed starts to taper according to the actual plan. The plan has the balance sheet below $8.4 trillion at the end of 2022 and below $7.3 trillion at the end of 2023.
(dynamic chart with current data)
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 data)
