After weeks of waiting, President Biden announced Monday he is renominating Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome H. Powell to another four-year term. Now analysts are asking what impact another Powell term will mean to mortgage rates and the housing market. The move has been characterized as a return to the status quo in which the Fed chairman is reappointed regardless of their political identity, a tradition former President Trump bucked when he appointed Powell. The Fed chairman question has been on many industry watchers’ minds in the last two weeks. Much was made of Biden’s sit down with Fed Governor Lael Brainard, seen as the most likely candidate if Biden chose to make a change. Brainard has instead been nominated as…
Mortgage rates rose again after several weeks of small declines, reaching 3.10%, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. Freddie’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) found that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.10%, up from last week’s 2.98%. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 2.72% “The combination of rising inflation and consumer spending is driving mortgage rates higher,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist. “Shoppers looking to buy a home are fueling strong demand while ongoing inventory shortages are not improving in the presence of higher home prices. This reality illustrates the challenging situation facing the housing market.” Though the holidays are usually a slow period in the industry, homebuyer demand has remained high. Redfin’s latest Homebuyer Demand…
Lawrence H. Summers, who served as Bill Clinton’s Treasury Secretary and was one of Barack Obama’s chief economic advisors, says “housing inflation is almost certain to soar in coming months,” and he’s taking the current Treasury chief to task over her rosy view of inflation. Former Treasury Secretary Summers has been sounding the alarm over inflation for months, even as current Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has claimed the problem is “transitory” and not a significant threat to the economy. In response, Summers has criticized the Biden administration’s economic response to the pandemic, warning that rising inflation isn’t a temporary concern but a long-term problem the Fed will have trouble reining in. “We are printing money, we are creating government bonds,…
