TODAY’S INTEREST RATES
Interest rates have drifted slightly higher over the past 7 days, but remain in the same range we’ve seen for the past couple weeks.
It’s a big week for U.S. economic news.
The FED is meeting on Tuesday and will announce any FED rate changes on Wednesday.
Most are expecting a 25 bps rise in the Federal Funds Rate.
Remember that the Federal Funds Rate does not have a direct correlation to mortgage rates.
It does affect consumer loans like HELOCs, car loans, credit cards, etc.
We also have the US Jobs Report on Friday.
This should be an interesting week but I’m expecting interest rates to stay in the same range,
barring any economic news that is way out of expectations.
HOUSING UPDATE FROM INDUSTRY EXPERTS:
If you missed our Housing Update with Barry Habib, Dan Habib, Neel Dhingra, and Steve Jacobson – we got you.
Click on link below for recording. Lot’s of great information here to make you a better professional for your clients.
Barry Habib – “There is No Housing Bubble”
My favorite slide from the presentation is below.
Barry constantly preaches that inflation drives mortgage rates and the stats support his position.
We expect rates to fall as inflation drops in 2023.
Barry Habib is specifically referencing May 10th, 2023.
He states that the CPI report on May 10th will be the date when housing data will start to cooperate with inflation.
Barry Habib predicted in June 2022 to watch the date on November 10th, 2022.
November 10th, 2022 was the best day for mortgage interest rates of the whole year and mortgage interest rates dropped 1% since then.
The man knows what he is talking about!
CASE SHILLER HOME INDEX
During the writing of this update, The Case-Shiller Home Price Index was released measuring U.S. Home Appreciation.
The National Index reported a 7.7% year over year gain in home prices in November 2022, down from 9.2% in October of 2022.
What does this mean?
We are seeing the yearly home appreciation numbers dip as home prices in most markets have decreased since mid 2022.
We look at this as a window.
The US has seen 121 consecutive months of home appreciation and 5 months of modest price decreases.
We are already seeing a major increase in buyer activity in 2023 and I expect this to continue during the spring buyer season.
