TODAY’S RATES & HOUSING NEWS
Everything this week is about the FED meeting and what they will announce on Wednesday.
Will they raise the federal funds rate or pause?
I personally believe the economy isn’t as strong as some of the data suggests.
Much of the economic growth is being paid for by high interest rate credit as America’s credit card debt is over $1 Trillion.
I’m hoping the FED agrees with me and decides to pause.
When the FED raises rates, they are purposely trying to slow down the economy to help battle inflation.
This is a good article on CNBC about the Federal Funds Rate and how it has affected other interest rates.
The Federal Funds Rate is the overnight rate that banks charge each other.
The Federal Funds Rate has ripple effects on all other financing.
Credit Card Rates 20% +
Mortgage Rates 7% +
HELOC Rates 9% +
Auto Loan Rates 7% +
Federal Student Loan Rates 5.5%
This is an interesting image from MBS Highway which shows the 4 times the FED Funds Rates has exceeded the 10 Year Treasury.
The 3 other times the FED ended up cutting rates drastically once they realized the Economy was in a recession.
MBS Highway’s argument is the FED pays attention to past numbers instead of looking into the future, which often equates to them going too far in their policies and ten having to back track.
What the FED does on Wednesday and their clues about future moves will have a big impact on where interest rates go.
Current interest rates are nearly unchanged from last week.
Below is Mortgage News Daily’s average rates across America on 9/18/23.
Below is the Green Home Loans rate sheet today.
There are a lot of characteristics that go into a mortgage rate – credit score, investor, loan to value, loan amount, costs, etc.
Please call me to go over your specific scenario so we can price your loan out accurately.
INFLATION TO 3.7%
The CPI inflation data came out last week and inflation increased to 3.7% – a bit higher than expected.
While inflation has cooled tremendously since it’s peak, the numbers are still higher than the FED’s stated goal of 2%.
It’s estimated that inflation is actually lower due to the nature of shelter costs lagging due to rent renewals usually happening once per year.
