Seattle Mortgage Rates Today 1/30/2013
Seattle Mortgage Rates Today 1/30/2013: “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” Ok, so the sky isn’t really falling but mortgage bonds have fallen considerably this past week on positive headlines and better than expected economic data. Today, the ADP Report on the private job sector came in 19,000 higher than the 173,000 expected; however, this is much higher than the Labor Department’s number of 163,000 expected to be reported on Friday. Also released today was the GDP report for the 4th quarter of 2012. Although a 1% overall growth was expected, the -0.1% contraction was unanticipated. This has been the lowest rate of growth since December of 2009 when the economy was attempting to begin recovery. Given the natural disasters of late which have indeed affected the economy, the negative growth rate can put some of the blame on that. Bonds have seen a roller coaster ride this morning as they dropped upon news of the ADP report and have since gained almost all their losses after the release of GDP numbers.
The Federal Reserve releases its Monetary Policy Statement today with no change in rates expected. The Federal Open Market Committee—the policy-makers—will continue QE3 bond-buying at the rate of $85 billion a month and keep interest rates near 0% until the rate of unemployment drops 1.3% to 6.5%. However, there are some critics that oppose the Fed’s “unlimited” bond-buying spree saying that it may lead the economy back into recession should inflation rise over 2.5%.