Powell Sees Housing Rebound as Passing Phenomenon

Q: Are you concerned a housing bubble is forming and is there a price increase you're looking at that might change your MBS purchase levels? Corporate debt cycle bubble?

- A: We've had a strong rebound in housing; some tightness we think is a "passing phenomenon", with a lot of pent-up demand, people spending a lot of time in their houses and thinking they need another house/bigger house. We think those price increases are unlikely to be sustained.

Re corporate debt, we monitor the markets carefully... Corporate debt spreads are tight, they've tightened after being very wide during the acute phase of the pandemic and now at lower end of typical range. We monitor that, though not something we can control or operate on directly. In a sense it's a good thing, and that's part of highly accommodative financial conditions.