Oklahoma City Home Loan Rates React to Fed Announcement

Last week, local home loan observers were hardly surprised by the news that the Fed’s key borrowing rate—the one that’s most important where Oklahoma City home loan interest rates are concerned—was left as-is. At least for the moment.

What that indicated to most educated guessers was that the previous three months’ worth of relatively weak economic news was probably behind the decision not to raise rates. The economic news may not have been all that weak, but it was shaky enough to provide more good news when it comes to Oklahoma City home loans—still remarkably (and happily) hugging the bottom of the 4% range.

The reason it’s fair to call the expert observers of Fed decisions “educated guessers” is because of the noncommittal language that usually comes out of Federal Open Market Committee announcements. For Oklahoma City homeowners or soon-to-be homeowners, the direction that local home loan interest rates are likely to be headed is an important element in planning if and when to buy or sell a home. A half-percent rise or fall in the Fed funds rate can trigger similar movements in mortgage rates. Over the course of retiring a typical $250,000 home loan, that amounts to a $25,000+ difference—for some, reason enough to make a real estate move sooner rather than later. If only you could anticipate where rates are headed…

In that respect, this time, the Fed’s announcement was actually a tad more expressive than usual. It described the economy’s first quarter’s slowdown as “likely to be transitory.” In other words, they don’t believe it was meaningful—so, in other words, fuhgeddaboutit! Job gains were “solid;” business financing had “firmed.” Likely prospect (per the expert guessers) was for two more quarter-percent raises in 2017—with the first most likely to happen next month.

Whether the Oklahoma City home loan outlook will trace that precise trajectory is anything but certain, of course. There’s a reason the Fed announcements are deliberately evasive. But one thing is for sure: Oklahoma City home loans are still being locked in at historically desirable rates. And that alone is an excellent reason to give me a call!