The average weekly rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 4.1% from 4.14% despite the release of information about further tapering of the Federal Reserve's mortgage bond holdings.
The rate drop in Freddie Mac's weekly survey occurred even though it incorporated a "smidgen of movement from the Fed minutes."
There had been some concern about
But the plan didn't shock the market the way plans for the first round of tapering in the Fed portfolio did in 2013 largely because the Fed had better communicated its intentions to the market, said Walter Schmidt, senior vice president and manager of mortgage strategies at FTN Financial, a capital markets and investment services company in Chicago.
"I don't think the Fed is repeating that mistake this time," said Schmidt.
While the Freddie survey did reflect a little of the market activity that occurred after the minutes' release Wednesday, more of it will be incorporated in next week's survey.
