One reason mortgage rates won’t go up this week

With the near certainty that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will vote to increase interest rates this week, many people assume that mortgage rates will automatically follow. Not so. At least not directly. The Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates will have no direct impact on fixed rate mortgage rates.

The last time the Fed raised interest rates was just a year ago and at that time I wrote What the Fed’s rate increase means for mortgage rates.

I will update the report after the Fed’s decision on Wednesday. (more…)