Fed's Fischer: Housing Market Not Overheated

The housing market is not overheated, but it would be useful if the U.S. central bank was given new tools to target housing finance if a bubble was building, said Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer, on Friday. In a speech at a Boston Fed conference on financial stability, Fischer noted that the Bank of England has a number of tools unavailable to the Fed, including limits on loan-to-value and debt-to-income ratios for mortgage lending. Overall, Fischer said he did not see "acute risks to financial stability in the near term." Because the U.S. toolkit to address financial stability is not large and not yet battle tested, there may be times when interest rate policy should be discussed as a means to curb risks to financial stability, he said.