FED Chairman Powell warming up to rate cuts!

FED Chairman suggests that rate cuts could be on the way

Happy Friday from Local Mortgage!

It was a pretty quiet and calm trading week without much action until today! We got a nice rally today and will end the week close to 6.125% for our best 30 year fixed Conventional scenario.

This morning’s speech from FED Chairman Powell was exactly what investors have been anticipating. The Chairman said that the balance of risks on inflation and the labor market may justify cutting the federal funds rates. Stocks and bonds both rallied on the Chairman’s dovish commentary putting interest rates near their lowest point of 2025.  

In real estate news, existing home sales nationally inched up 2% from June to July and although the rate of growth continues to slow, the national median sales price inched up 0.2% to $422,400, making it the highest for any previous July on record. Of course, anytime we talk about national numbers, it’s a good reminder to take those figures with a grain of salt since real estate markets are hyperlocal.

Next week, investors will continue to look for more FED guidance in anticipation of the September FED meeting. For economic reports, we will be looking at Consumer Confidence on Tuesday and the PCE index on Friday.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and thank you for reading!