Elements That Affect Mortgage Rates

There are many factors that influence mortgage rates such as inflation, economic growth and most importantly the Federal Reserve. When determining mortgage rates, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy is taken into consideration.

The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy is set by the Federal Open Market Committee. The Federal Reserve itself is the central banking system of the United States of America. The goal of the Fed is to boost job growth while controlling the amount of inflation. The Federal Open Market Committee

(FOMC) has a certain way of maintaining its goal through monetary policy. This is done through the federal fund rates. The federal fund rates are “interest rate that banks charge one another for short-term loans.” These federal fund rates help shape mortgage rates along with other long-term loans.

Neither the mortgage rates or the fed rates follow each other necessarily. Most of the time, the federal funds rate and mortgage rates tend to go the same direction. There are times in history when the Fed has  lead the market and other times the mortgage market has lead.

The FOMC meets eight times a year to work on any necessary changes that might need to be made to the monetary policy. If they make a change, FOMC will let investors know the result of their decision before making the change. This way there will be a consensus derived from the investor’s opinion on the FOMC’s decision. The consensus, for the most part, agrees with the Fed’s decision whether to cut rates, raise them or keep them the same.

Currently, the federal funds rate has been reduced to a range of 0% to 0.25% as of March 15, 2020.

The central bank plans to keep the federal funds rate close to zero for the time being. They also will conduct a round of quantitative easing which is a form of economic stimulus the central bank has used in the past.

The quantitative easing planned is for the Feds to purchase around $500 billion of Treasurys and approximately $200 billion of mortgage-backed securities. The Fed hopes this will “add cash to the mortgage banking system to reassure lenders that it’s safe to lend because the Fed is willing to buy the resulting mortgage-backed securities.”

Federal funds rate will not only influence the mortgage rates in the housing market but will also influence the home equity lines of credit (HELOC). The HELOc rates are usually adjustable rates and are based off the Wall Street Journal’s prime rate. In a nutshell, when the Fed cuts the federal funds rate, the interest rate on HELOcs will also go down.


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