As we close out July we saw the Fed hike rates another 0.75% which was already priced into markets based on the Fedʼs prior commentary. I donʼt think itʼs a question of “if ” the Fed will continue to hike rates, the only real question is by how much?
This year has been full of mortgage rate talk, Fed rate talk and a lot of doom and gloom from the media. Let’s take a minute and talk about The Neutral Interest Rate or the Real Federal Funds rate! This is calculated by taking the nominal Fed Funds Rate and subtracting inflation. (Fed Funds Rate – Inflation = The Real Federal Funds Rate) With
The number one question I get asked is “Are we going to see a housing crash or a recession?” Which I get, the media has had a very negative tone in 2022 and with mortgage rates rising and inflation at the highest levels in 40 years it makes it easy to jump on the attention-grabbing headlines. While most of us
With Q1 of 2022 in the books, I think it’s worth a look back at some of our early-year predictions and what we had hoped we would see in the mortgage market and housing market. Early this year we predicted mortgage rates rising (not a shocker) but had hoped that by the end of March we would see them in
As we get set to close out Q1 of 2022 the year has started off much as we expected. Volatility in rate markets Inflation reaching the highest levels in nearly 40 years 10-year treasury note breaking 2.0% for the first time since 2019 All of this has caused mortgage rates to also reach the highest levels that we’ve seen since
As the calendar turns to February and we look back on the first month of 2022 economically—it ended almost identical to what we had expected. Mortgage rates are trending upwards, stock markets are volatile, and the Federal Reserve confirmed that they will start hiking the Fed Fund and Prime rate. The only thing that changed is the Fed is now
Welcome to 2022 and while I’m sure each of us over the next week will inevitably write, type, text, or data, enter the wrong year somewhere 2022 is here and we’re ready. This is the first time since 2018 where we enter a year not really having a line of sight as to what the first quarter is going to
Independent contractors account for a huge portion of the U.S. economy. According to the Freelancers Union, more than 50 million Americans operated this year as freelancers, which translates into about 35 percent of the country’s workforce. And while freelancing has many perks, getting approved for a mortgage isn’t one of them. Unfortunately, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has put additional hurdles in
Even in the best of times, house hunting comes with built-in stressors ranging from mortgage approvals to bidding wars and beyond. But house-hunting during the coronavirus pandemic can change the game entirely. Toward that end, here are five surprising lessons one homebuyer learned while house-hunting during these ongoing difficult times. 1. Don’t expect bargains Early on during the pandemic, some
Written and published on 3/26/20 by: Barry Habib and Dan Habib, “Mortgage Crisis and Fed Unintended Consequences” The Coronavirus Meltdown The current Coronavirus crisis is having a critical impact on the Mortgage Industry, which could potentially make the 2008 financial crisis pale in comparison. The pressing issue centers around capital that’s required by Mortgage Lenders to be able to function
