FOMC

Scott Colbert, executive vice president and chief economist at Commerce Trust Co., will discuss the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision and where they go from here.

Officials have pledged to maintain bond buying until the economy shows "substantial further progress" on inflation and employment as it recovers from COVID-19.

But some local markets in the Midwest and oil regions are seeing a lag compared to nationwide annual gains, Veros Real Estate Solutions found.

Federal Reserve officials held interest rates near zero while signaling they expect two increases by the end of 2023, pulling forward the date of liftoff and projecting a faster-than-anticipated pace of tightening as the economy recovers.

And there are some brawls on the field affecting the direction of business for the rest of this year.

When new lending volumes start to recede, even with the FOMC’s actions, the shoals of credit and operational risk lurking just beneath the surface will emerge, columnist and analyst Chris Whalen says.

How we resolve millions of delinquent mortgages due to COVID is the only question that matters.

The central bank said it would keep interest rates at current levels through at least to help the U.S. economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

The only rational strategy for holding MSRs is to be very aggressive on protecting the servicing assets via loan recapture. This is one of the chief reasons that banks have been willing to give up their share in lending and servicing as they collapse back to retail-only lending strategies.

This proposed Libor replacement is an imaginary, backward-looking benchmark dreamed up by the economists at the Fed with no discernible market.

Any intention that Ginnie Mae may have had to slow prepayment rates by changing the rules on RPLs seems to be thwarted by the grim economic reality facing the big banks.

FHFA, HUD and Ginnie Mae should let the rate of prepayments on MBS dictate bond prices and market rates.

The Federal Reserve pledged to maintain at least the current pace of asset purchases and projected interest rates will remain near zero through 2022, as Chairman Jerome Powell committed the central bank to using all its tools to help the economy recover from the coronavirus.

Mortgage rates fell to their lowest level since Freddie Mac started reporting this data in 1971, as the coronavirus shutdown continued to play havoc with the economy.

A number of proposals have been floated for debt payment holidays and other types of moratoria, but such approaches offer solutions that are worse than the problems.

Mortgage prices rose and spreads tightened Monday morning as investors responded favorably to the Federal Reserve's weekend announcement that it will resume net purchases of agency MBS for the first time since October 2014.

The Federal Open Market Committee lowered the fed funds rate target to between zero and ¼% in an emergency meeting on Sunday, but while analysts say the move was needed, they feel it will take more to offset the effects of COVID-19.

Increased refinancing volume led Fannie Mae to raise its 2020 estimate by $300 billion and 2021 projection by $280 billion.

Capacity constraints among mortgage lenders are leading to wider spreads between mortgages and the 10-year Treasury yield even after it remained below 1% for an extended period this week.

Mortgage rates hit their lowest point since Freddie Mac began tracking this data in 1971, as the 10-year Treasury yield fell below 1% after the Federal Open Market Committee's surprise short-term rate cut.