The Week Ahead: Will the Fed Raise Rates?

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will meet on Tuesday and announce the results of this meeting on Wednesday at 2 p.m. EST. The announcement is a policy statement issued at the end of the FOMC meeting and offers updates on economic conditions as well as the status of the federal funds' target or its official policy rate.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell had announced the last fed hike of 2018 after the FOMC meeting in December. While the market was expecting this rate hike, the ninth one since 2015, the FOMC had said that it would assess the economic conditions "relative to its maximum employment objective and its symmetric 2 percent inflation objective," to determine the target range for its federal fund rates. "This assessment will take into account a wide range of information, including measures of labor market conditions, indicators of inflation pressures and inflation expectations, and readings on financial and international developments," the committee said in a statement.

While the conventional 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rates don't always move in step with the Fed interest rates, they do impact short-term mortgage rates such as adjustable-rate mortgages as well as Home Equity Lines of Credit.

Here's what else is happening in the week ahead:

• AEI Housing Market Indicators Briefing, Monday, 11 a.m. EST
• First American Real House Price Index, Monday 10 a.m. EST
• S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller HPI, Tuesday, 9:00 AM ET
• Census Bureau Housing Vacancies and Homeownership report, Tuesday, 9 a.m. EST
• MBA Mortgage Applications, Wednesday, 7:00 AM ET
• NAR Pending Home Sales Index, Wednesday, 10:00 AM ET
• Fed Balance Sheet, Thursday, 4:30 PM ET
• Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, Thursday 10 a.m. EST