Tag

rising interest rates

Will Rising Interest Rates Cool Off a Hot Housing Market?

Powell Succeeds Yellen as Fed Reserve Chair “In Friday pre-trading, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.854%, the highest intraday level since January 2014.” –“Dow Set for Its Biggest Weekly Fall in Two Years“; The Wall Street Journal (2/2/18). It had to happen. With the stock market making record highs, and...
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Home Ownership and the Interest Rate “Lock-in Effect”

Rising Rates Deter Home Buying & Selling, Right?  Not Necessarily (and, who says they’re rising??) “Now that interest rates have begun to turn up from their historic lows, the housing market may face a problem called “the lock-in” effect, where homeowners are reluctant to move, since moving might entail taking out a new mortgage at...
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Higher Interest Rates = Stronger Economy (Usually)

Is Apprehension About Rising Rates Misplaced? Conventional wisdom is that higher interest rates would be disastrous for a still-recovering economy. Is that mindset right? Maybe not. Whither Interest Rates? If rates are rising because the economy is stronger, that’s a positive, not a negative. As one loan officer I work with said, “If you’re hoping for dirt-cheap...
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Predicting Recessions — and Rising Interest Rates

Mortgage Rates Pop 25 Basis Points Monday “Economists have predicted nine out of the last five recessions.” –Paul Samuelson Just because economists have been predicting, wrongly, for years now that interest rates are about to rise doesn’t mean that it won’t happen. Someday. In the meantime, there are periodic tremblors, suggesting that rates won’t stay...
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