If you’ve been watching the news or checking your mortgage app lately, you might have felt of whiplash. Just yesterday, March 18, 2026, the Federal Reserve announced they were holding interest rates steady – yet today, we are seeing fixed mortgage rates jump across the board. It feels a bit like being told the weather is “calm” while you’re standing in the middle of a literal thunderstorm. As someone who follows trends daily, I know how frustrating this is for homebuyers. You wait for the Fed to “pause” or “cut”, hoping for some relief, only to find out that the market had other plans. Let’s dive into why this is…