Mortgage rates are mostly unchanged.
It’s been nearly two weeks since the Fed delivered their last monetary policy statement which sent mortgage rates higher by about .25%.
Today, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledged in a speech that “continued accommodative policies” would be necessary for the economy to create additional improvement in the labor market. Analysts are interpreting his comments as a signal that the Fed plans to keep short-term interest rates low through 2014.
In housing news, the National Association of Realtors reported that their index for pending sales declined slightly in February from January. However, pending homes sales increased by 9.2% on a year-over-year basis.
The economic calendar is fairly full for the week. In addition, mortgage rates will have to contend with $99 billion in new US Treasury note supply this week.
Current Outlook: locking bias