Rates Steady to Slightly Lower After Fed; New Home Sales Fall; Fed Statement Differences

Rates Steady to Slightly Lower After Fed; New Home Sales Fall; Fed Statement Differences

Mortgage rates were steady to slightly lower today, despite fairly substantial movement in underlying bond markets. Bond prices ultimately do more to inform mortgage rates than anything else. Prices moved higher today by an amount that would typically result in effective rates falling 0.03-0.05% depending on the lender. But as it stands, the average lender is only 0.01% lower than yesterday's latest offerings. Given recent volatility, it's not outside the realm of possibility that lenders are simply waiting to make sure the gains are still around tomorrow before they adjust rate sheets more aggressively. This would fit with recent patterns of lender rate sheet movement lagging bond market movement. As for today's market motivation, the lion's share of the movement happened after the Fed Announcement