Ahead of the Federal Reserve’s meeting on interest rates and inflation, progressive lawmakers are calling for the central bank to “seriously consider” the impact of continued high interest rates on housing affordability and other economic issues.

“We write to urge the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) to seriously consider the harmful economic consequences of maintaining excessively high interest rates for an unnecessarily long period of time,” the congressional Progressive Caucus wrote in a letter to Fed Chair Jerome Powell. “While we understand that you have indicated that the March FOMC meeting will not see the federal funds rate reduced, we ask that you develop a prompt timeline for future rate reductions.”

Powell is expected to announces the council’s decision to raise, cut or maintain interest rates at 2 p.m. Wednesday. Though inflation has returned near to the central bank’s 2% target, Powell has indicated the council is unlikely to reach the “level of confidence” in sustained target inflation to announce rate cuts at the upcoming March meeting.

The central bank is expected to maintain the federal funds rate within the 5.25% to 5.5% range in Wednesday’s announcement, keeping lending rates high for many prospective homebuyers and consumers. However, economists have speculated rate cuts could arrive as soon as the June meeting.

The letter, signed by Massachusetts lawmakers Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, said “today’s excessively contractionary monetary policy needlessly worsens housing market imbalances and the unaffordability of home ownership, creates risks for banking stability, and could threaten the achievements of strong employment and wage growth and its attendant reductions in economic and racial inequalities.”

Warren also argued the high rates are “holding back clean energy projects across our country that will create new clean jobs and cut electricity costs,” in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday.

“It’s time for the Fed to cut interest rates,” the senator wrote.

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In Massachusetts, interest rates have played a role in the continued spiking home prices, with the cost of a single family home climbing 10% for February 2024 to a median price of $548,250.

“Housing affordability is the number one issue I’m hearing about from my constituents,” Pressley said, addressing Powell during a House Financial Services Committee hearing in early March. “Families in my district and throughout this country need relief now. I truly hope the Fed listens to them and cut interest rates.”

Vincent Reinhart, chief economist at Dreyfus-Mellon and a former Fed economist, notes that the Fed typically cuts rates quickly as the economy deteriorates in an often-futile effort to prevent a recession.

But this time, the economy is still healthy. The Fed is considering rate cuts only because inflation has steadily fallen from a peak of 9.1% in June 2022. As a result, it is approaching rate cuts the way it usually does rate hikes: Slowly and methodically, while trying to divine the economy’s direction from often-conflicting data.

“The Fed is driving events, not events driving the Fed,” Reinhart said. “That’s why this task is different than others.”

— Herald wire services contributed