Mortgage rates

Despite 2022's slew of interest-rate hikes from Chair Powell and colleagues, financial conditions are the loosest since last February as investors bet fading inflation will allow the central bank to soon cease raising borrowing costs and then cut them later this year.

But several recent news developments are creating the perception that the risk of a recession is on the wane and that could end the downward pressure on rates.

The U.S. economy expanded at a healthy pace in the fourth quarter, though an extended salvo of Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes is seen jeopardizing growth prospects this year.

The market is signaling that a Federal Reserve policy rate peak short of 5% will be enough to cause a recession, requiring rate cuts totaling half a point during the second half of the year.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams said officials have not completed their aggressive tightening campaign to reduce stubborn price pressures.

Generally positive news about the U.S. economy helped push rates lower, but worries about Congressional infighting over the debt ceiling could reverse the trend, Freddie Mac and Zillow said.

Single-family property values during the year's final three months rose 9.2% year-over-year, but that bump fell below the 13.1% annual rise in the prior quarter.

The 30-year fixed loan rate dropped 15 basis points compared with last week as bond market investors acted in advance of this morning's Consumer Price Index report.

With Control Your Price loan officers can lower the interest rate by up to 40 basis points on a loan and by 1.25 percentage points across their pipeline.

However, trackers from Optimal Blue and Zillow found that rates moved in line with the drop in the 10-year Treasury yield.