Mortgage Rates Improve

After rising for several weeks, mortgage rates improved a little this week. The news on inflation was not as negative as investors may have feared, and the economic growth data was mixed. The most significant reports on growth, Retail Sales and Industrial Production, both fell short of expectations, which helped mortgage rates.

The FOMC Minutes from the January 26 Fed meeting were released on Wednesday and contained no major surprises. The minutes revealed that disagreement was growing among Fed officials about the benefits of continuing the quantitative easing program which is scheduled to end in June. However, there was general agreement that the hurdle for altering the program remains very high, and investors continue to expect the Fed to complete the $600 billion in purchases of Treasury securities as originally planned. The Fed raised its forecast for 2011 GDP growth to 3.65% from their prior estimate of 3.30% in November. Perhaps the biggest surprise was that the Fed lowered its forecast for 2011 core PCE inflation levels. With all the recent evidence of rising prices, lower inflation predictions were not expected.