Two Conflicting Stories?
WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve is considering contingency plans for expanding its lending power in the event its recent steps to unfreeze credit markets fail.
WASHINGTON -- Mortgage applications in the U.S. rose last week as purchases and refinancing increased. The Mortgage Bankers Association's index of applications to buy a home or refinance a loan rose 5.4% to 725.6 from 688.3 the prior week. The group's purchase index gained 8.1% percent and its refinancing gauge increased 3.4%.
Lower prices have made homes more affordable and rates on fixed mortgages have retreated over the last month after the Federal Reserve cut the benchmark and pumped money in credit markets.
WASHINGTON -- Mortgage applications in the U.S. rose last week as purchases and refinancing increased. The Mortgage Bankers Association's index of applications to buy a home or refinance a loan rose 5.4% to 725.6 from 688.3 the prior week. The group's purchase index gained 8.1% percent and its refinancing gauge increased 3.4%.
Lower prices have made homes more affordable and rates on fixed mortgages have retreated over the last month after the Federal Reserve cut the benchmark and pumped money in credit markets.
Note: Through February, real estate loans at commercial banks (Fed data here) are at an all-time high, and increased almost 10% (annual rate) compared to January.
2 Comments:
Their consideration shouldn't take long.
The taxpayer will get stuck with backing these loans, many will go into default. The actions of the FED are due to the fact that many of the banks are insolvent and thier actions are to bail out the banks.
http://media2.bloomberg.com/cache/vl8TvJRLodUg.asf
“Financial crises do not happen in a vacuum and the current U.S. banking debacle was in part due to an economy where both government and consumers spent more than they earned. Financial crises usually don't come along unless there are other underlying problems in the economy, you can't go on forever spending more than you're producing. You have to rely on unorthodox finance to sustain it."
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker - The Harvard Club 4/9/08
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