Rates Fall to 3-Week Lows After Fed; Realtors Expect Sales Rebound in 2019; Applications Ebb, Blame Rates?

Rates Fall to 3-Week Lows After Fed; Realtors Expect Sales Rebound in 2019; Applications Ebb, Blame Rates?

Mortgage rates fell moderately today, largely in response to the Federal Reserve's policy announcement. The Fed is in charge of seeing a key short-term rate that impacts the entire financial market by varying degrees. The Fed does NOT set fixed mortgage rates, but in general, the friendlier the Fed with its monetary policy, the better it is for the entire spectrum of rates. The Fed was quite simply friendlier than expected today. Investors were already planning on some sort of adjustment in the verbiage promising ongoing rate hikes and decreases in the amount of bonds purchased directly by the Fed. We got that, and more. For all intents and purposes, today's announcement and press conference could be interpreted as the Fed saying it's done hiking rates until further notice and would only resume