What did the Federal Reserve decide to do?
The Federal Reserve didn’t surprise anyone on Wednesday when they announced a pause in rate changes after their two-day conference. What did surprise was the upgrade to the economy that was included in the committee’s general assessment.
The post meeting statement claimed, “economic activity expanded at a strong pace in the third quarter.” This is a change from the last meeting when the Fed used the term ‘solid pace’.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell held a press conference after the announcement. Powell stated that the Fed still has a long way to go in its fight against inflation, and also claimed the central bank hasn’t made any decisions on its December meeting.
In an interview after Powell’s comments, Charlie Ripley, a senior investment strategist at Allianz Investment Management, said, “This signals that while there is a potential risk for the Fed to do more, the bar has become higher for rate hikes, and we are clearly seeing this play out with two consecutive meetings of no policy action from the Fed.”
How did mortgage rates react to the Fed announcement?
Mortgage rates fell quite a bit before the Fed announcement and actually ticked a bit higher in the afternoon. The morning downturn was due to an early morning bond rally after several reports were released. The national average for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage ended Wednesday’s session down 0.19% to 7.69%*.
It remains to be seen if we continue to inch towards 7.00% or if this is just a rest before a late fall run back to 8.00%.
Affordable housing under construction in Collin County
If you’re looking for a home outside of Dallas at an affordable cost, you may want to look into the new development in Collin County that just broke ground. Built by Pacesetter, the 258-lot development has started construction in Lavon, TX.
The community is located just north of Rockwall and east of Wylie. It’s close to the Central Expressway corridor and employment centers in Plano and Frisco.
The two-unit townhome designs will start at $290,900, and offer a modern take on starter homes, and also offer larger sized units to serve multiple family types or needs in Texas.
4,000 units are planned for the area, and this is one of the early phases of the development. When finished it will be a complete community with multiple parks, playgrounds, ponds for fishing, a dog park, and multiple biking and hiking trails.
* National average rates accurate as of 11/1/23 from MortgageNewsDaily.com and are not advertised rates from Guaranteed Rate.
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