Portland Mortgage Market Update — January 26, 2024

It was an "unsteady" week for interest rates, where they spent most of the time increasing only to change course yesterday ahead of today's PCE report (more on that below). The PCE report came in at expectations and the market took the news with a firm "meh". Currently rates are hovering around mid-high 6's.

Speaking of the PCE report… The Fed's favored inflation measure, annual Core PCE, declined to 2.9% for the 12 months ending in December. This was the first reading below 3% in nearly three years and an important step towards the Fed's 2% target. With the Fed's next meeting on January 30-31, the markets will be closely listening for hints regarding a pivot to rate cuts later this year. And why didn't the market react more positively to the first "2-handle" on inflation in 3 years? Because part of the report involves personal spending which blew through the estimated 0.3% increase and reported a .7% increase.

Last week I teased a new Down Payment Assistance product that allowed buyers to get into a new home with 0 down payment. Now I have literature for you! Here is a link <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dv62d4Ki3qBUVp9fr23T3SGbpwTu5wvi/view?usp=drive_link> to a flyer that you can use to review some of the details of it and pass along to your clients that may need a little help coming up with the down payment for their new home