The Federal Reserve’s policy-making committee announced it will continue to hold down short-term interest rates, which in turn will help keep mortgage rates low. But there is question of how much longer the central bank will do this.
The Fed said it will continue to buy $85 billion a month in Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities, but would reduce its asset purchase — known as “quantitative easing” — if job growth continues at its current pace. Last year, the Fed committed to holding short-term interest rates near zero for as long as unemployment remained above 6.5 percent. In February, the unemployment rate was 7.7 percent. Many economists don’t expect unemployment to drop to levels around 6.5 percent until 2015.
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