Mortgage rates tick lower ahead of Fed announcement
The national average for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage ended trading down 0.04% to 7.88%* on Tuesday. There were a few announcements from the U.S. Treasury Department and the Bank of Japan, but neither had a lasting impact on the bond market.
The market is waiting for the interest rate announcement from the Federal Reserve today. These announcements have a direct impact on the bond market, which affects mortgage rates.
What could the Federal Reserve announce today?
The Federal Reserve will conclude its two-day meeting on Wednesday with an announcement on interest rates. Market watchers and industry experts believe there is virtually no chance that policymakers will make a move up or down on interest rates.
While the Federal Reserve is widely anticipated to pause rate hikes this time around, analysts will pay close attention to the tone and message that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell delivers during his afternoon press conference.
There’s a non-zero chance that Powell’s comments will have a greater impact on the market as a whole than the anticipated pause in rate hikes. Matthew Ryan, the head of market strategy at Ebury, said, “(The Fed) will not signal that it is done tightening policy just yet. We still see another U.S. rate increase as unlikely in the current cycle. As a compromise, we think that the Fed will stress that rate cuts are not on the cards anytime soon, with easing to begin no sooner than the second half of 2024.”
Chicago’s first all-affordable condo building opens
Residents have started to move into a 5-story building at 869 W. Blackhawk St. in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. Called, ‘The Seng’, the building offers two-, three-, and four-bedroom condo units at prices below the local market average. Over half of the units in the building are under contract already. The Seng is part of a plan to bring affordable housing to neighborhoods on Chicago’s northside.
‘The Seng’ is the first of three developments built by Structured Development, a real estate development company. The co-living space called ‘Post Chicago’ opened this past spring, and a 27-story rental tower called The Foundry is scheduled to be completed in 2024.
* National average rates accurate as of 10/31/23 from MortgageNewsDaily.com and are not advertised rates from Guaranteed Rate.
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