Interest rates for 30-year mortgage loans in the U.S. fell on the news that the Federal Reserve won’t begin tapering its stimulus program.
A 30-year fixed mortgage rate slipped to 4.32 percent from 4.5 percent — a two-month low — Freddie Mac said in a statement. The average rate for a 15-year mortgage, meanwhile, tumbled to 3.37 percent from 3.54 percent, according to the agency.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said more evidence is needed before the central bank begins reducing its pace of monthly bond buying, a move aimed at giving homebuyers relief from rising mortgage rates.
“This is kind of a temporary pause,” Ellen Haberle, an economist at Redfin, an online real estate search service and brokerage based in Seattle, told Bloomberg News. “With all of the uncertainties as to when the Fed will taper and who the next Fed chairman will be, mortgage rates will show some volatility the next few months.”
In a rush to take advantage before tapering begins, mortgage applications for home purchases leaped the most in six months in the week ended September 20, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. [Bloomberg News] — Julie Strickland