Last week saw mortgage rates trending slightly further downward. The Federal Reserve again held
interest rates steady, but changed their assessment of the economy. While its assessment is less
positive than in previous meetings, the Fed appears to still have faith the economy will slowly pull
itself out of this recession, but noted that "the pace of economic recovery is likely to be moderate for a
time." GDP was adjusted downward last week, and sadly, we're seeing evidence that the housing
industry continues to struggle, with both existing and new home sales slowing.
This is a very busy week of economic reports and data. With a manufacturing-led economic recovery
underway, the ISM Manufacturing Index will be very influential this week. If it only drops slightly,
as expected, mortgage rates should hold fairly steady. However, a drop in the ISM could push rates
further downward. We end the week with the Employment Report. If the unemployment rate does
climb, along with a net loss of jobs, we'll see rates trending downward as the week ends.
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