(Reuters) – Interest rates on U.S. 30-year mortgages tumbled on Wednesday near record lows on Wednesday, a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve pledged to keep short-term interest rates near zero at least through mid-2013.
One of the Fed’s goals with its latest move is to lower U.S. mortgage rates to spur the housing market that has yet to recover from the subprime mortgage mess and overbuilding from the housing boom, analysts said.
Another goal for the Fed to help the economy is to add more money into homeowners’ pockets by enabling them to refinance into lower-rate mortgages, they said.
“Refinancing could be sustained for a long period of time,” said Mona Marimow, senior vice president of marketing at Lendingtree.com (TREE.O), an online loan broker.
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