Real Estate Finance Alerts

The FED adjourn the August meeting and issue their statement tomorrow at 2:15 EDT. 

 - Remember, the focus will be on changes to the statement setting expectations for future rate actions. 

 - Futures indicate less than 10% odds the FED will HIKE rates by 25 basis points at the August 5th FOMC meeting; see the probabilities chart here.   The market indicates the FED will hike rates only 25 basis points by the end of 2008.  

- The bias is still for rates hikes and markets are very volatile.  Make sure you know the re-price policy of any lender before you lock your loan to protect yourself from higher rates BUT still have the ability to take advantage of any rate drops.

 - Despite reduced rate hike odds compared to several weeks ago, current mortgage rates are still higher than in June when the market expected the FED to raise rates by nearly 1 point by the end of the year.