After reaching a 3-year low the previous week the fixed rate for a 30-year mortgage averaged 3.49% this week, down 9 basis points, according to Freddie Mac.
The Federal Reserve released its latest edition of the Beige Book, its periodic commentary on the state of the economy, on Wednesday. Although the Fed’s language painted a fairly rosy picture of the economy, most downside risks persist. As a result, many analysts expect the Fed to cut interest rates by 25 basis points when it meets later this month.
“If there were some sense among Fed staffers that the rate cut should be postponed, they certainly did not establish a defense of that position in this Beige Book,” Ward McCarthy and Thomas Simons, Jeffries’ chief financial economist and senior money market economist, wrote in a research note Wednesday.
