Last Week's Mortgage Rate Recap: Rates improved 👍
Rates actually improved last week when the Fed continued to project three rate cuts for 2024 and more to come in 2025. The Fed also signaled that it wasn't yet concerned with the recent uptick in inflation and still felt that it would have no need to raise rates further in this tightening cycle, and left its policy rate unchanged.
This Week's Mortgage Rate Forecast: Rates may improve 👍
This week is a holiday shortened week that is unlikely to see rates make any significant moves, but we could see slight improvement. The latest trend is that rates may slowly improve ahead of April's labor and inflation data, as markets start to see a June Fed rate cut as more likely after the latest Fed meeting.
What's affecting rates this week:
- Economic data: Although there are some mid tier economic reports that will come out this week, the PCE inflation data comes out on Friday when markets will be closed for Good Friday and we are not likely to see a reaction to that data until Monday. It is unlikely rates move much on this week's data.
- Holiday weekend: Markets close early on Thursday and will be closed on Friday, meaning that most lenders will not change rates after Thursday until next week.