Mortgage Rate Update April 25, 2012

Mortgage rates are unchanged today.

It’s a very busy day in the interest rate markets with attention squarely focused on the Fed.  The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) wraps up its regularly scheduled 2-day monetary policy meeting today and will issue its policy statement at 12:30 EST.

If you’ll remember back to the last FOMC meeting their policy statement was notable for leaving out any mention of further quantitative easingwhich is a monetary policy tool designed to keep long-term rates low.

As a result mortgage rates rose by approximately .25% in the following weeks.

Since then the economic recovery has appeared more vulnerable and the European Debt crisis has reemerged.  Many investors believe the Fed will be forced to engage in another round of quantitative easing later this year which is partially why mortgage rates are back down at all-time low levels again.

This may be the case but I don’t believe the Fed will explicitly announce anything today.  Therefore, I see a case for mortgage rates rising just like 6 weeks ago.  I shifted to a locking bias on Friday and will maintain it today.

Current Outlook: locking bias