The Fed is not a major factor in high mortgage rates
The high mortgage rate has little to do with the Fed’s benchmark rate, the Fed chair said.
“We don’t set mortgage fees for the Fed. We set an overnight rate,” Powell said. The rate you get into a mortgage is a long-term fee. “It works for us, but we are not the main effect,” he said.
Instead, there are other things in the housing sector that also affect affordability of housing, such as a long-term housing shortage.