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Mortgage Rates Hit a 20-Year High of 6.92%

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According to Freddie Mac, mortgage rates reached a 20-year high last week due to rising interest rates, now at a whopping 6.92%. The Federal Reserve is continuing its aggressive monetary policy to squash surging inflation, sending shockwaves throughout the housing market.

The federal funds rate is projected to reach 4.4% by the end of 2022. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, supply chain issues and record low interest rates during the pandemic led to unprecedented inflation, prompting the Fed’s policy initiative.

While the Fed continues to wrangle with inflation, the housing market is especially feeling the pinch of higher interest rates. The S&P 500 and the New York Stock Exchange also fell 20% from this time last year as a result of these rate hikes. The declines have continued for several weeks.

Despite the Fed’s efforts, the consumer price index has not significantly budged. The index rose to 8.2% in September, far from the Fed’s eventual target of 2%.

For the last 15 years, mortgage rates in the U.S. have been relatively low. Thirty-year fixed mortgage rates were notably low during the previous two years, hovering between 2.5% and 3.5% between 2020 and early 2022.

However, mortgage rates spiked in recent weeks. As of Oct. 13, the thirty-year mortgage rate is at a two-decade high of 6.92%. The fifteen-year rate is at 6.09%.

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Freddie Mac’s chief economist Sam Khater released a statement regarding the rates.

“Rates resumed their record-setting climb this week, with the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage reaching its highest level since April 2002. We continue to see a tale of two economies in the data: strong job and wage growth are keeping consumers’ balance sheets positive, while lingering inflation, recession fears and housing affordability are driving housing demand down precipitously. The next several months will undoubtedly be important for the economy and the housing market.”

The Fed has been clear about its plan to continue increasing the federal funds rate until prices begin to level out. Mortgage rates tend to rise alongside the federal funds rate.

In September, the chairman of the Fed, Jerome Powell, said there is no way to avoid the rising unemployment and slowing growth that will follow the Fed’s current monetary policy. The consequences of out-of-control interest rates may be even more disastrous for the economy than necessary rising interest rates. The Fed estimates unemployment will climb to 4.4% in 2023 and 2024, up from the current rate of 3.5%.

“We have to get inflation behind us. I wish there were a painless way to do that. There isn’t.”

Some experts are taken aback by how quickly mortgage rates are rising. Economist Matthew Speakman from Zillow told ABC News that “few could have predicted exactly how far and how fast they have risen.”

“There’s not a lot of incentive for rates to come down dramatically in the near-term, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to keep running away at this pace.”

The relationship between homebuyer behavior and rising mortgage rates is complicated. In general, higher mortgage rates reduce demand, which drives down the prices of homes. Real estate prices are falling, but not as rapidly as expected, in the face of the skyrocketing mortgage rates.

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Daryl Fairweather, an economist at Redfin, spoke on the complexity of the current housing market.

“It’s like a standoff between buyers and sellers. Buyers can’t afford higher prices, and sellers don’t want to sell for lower prices.”

Recession worries, rising inflation and high-interest rates have made things appear bleak, but many experts believe mortgage rates will not continue to skyrocket. Lawrence Yun, the chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, predicts that rates will hover around the resistance point of 7%.

“We don’t want to see a bursting out of that second resistance and going up, because you’re talking about 8.5% mortgage rates, something that we clearly do not want to see. The 7% interest rate could be the new normal.”

In July, Yun released a statement predicting that higher mortgage rates will persist as long as the high inflation rate persists.

“If consumer price inflation continues to rise, then mortgage rates will move higher. Rates will stabilize only when signs of peak inflation appear. If inflation is contained, then mortgage rates may even decline somewhat.”

house

US Home Prices Decline at Fastest Pace Since 2008 Financial Crisis

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We are in the middle of the most significant two-month drop in home prices since shortly after the collapse of the Lehman Brothers in September 2008. Prices have been declining at the fastest pace since the Great Recession, prompting some experts to believe we are entering a housing market correction.

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Homebuilder Sentiment Falls for Ninth Consecutive Month

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U.S. homebuilder confidence in the housing market dropped to its lowest level since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts believe the high inflation rate and rising borrowing costs are contributing to first-time homebuyers’ hesitancy to purchase new single-family homes.

The National Association of Home Builders/ Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, which measures the activity of the single-family housing market, fell to 46 in September after declining for the ninth consecutive month. The last nine months are the most prolonged and persistent decline in builder sentiment in the last four decades.

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Experts say a Housing Market Index above 50 shows a healthy market with net positive growth. In November 2020, the index rose to 76, the highest in 35 years, due to the Federal Reserve pushing the federal funds rate to nearly zero. After the pandemic’s dampening effect, the Fed’s loosening of the federal funds rate was meant to stimulate the economy back to health.

Recently The Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates by adopting an aggressive monetary policy to bring the inflation rate back down to sustainable levels. A lack of supply due to construction costs fueled by those interest rates has slowed down building into a housing recession.

NAHB chairman Jerry Konter said builders are responding to a falling market by using incentives to bolster sales, “including mortgage rate buydowns, free amenities and price reductions.”

Pantheon Macroeconomics analyst Ian Shepherdson believes that builder sentiment will continue to decline.

 “This probably will not mark the bottom of the cycle, given the latest surge in mortgage rates above 6%. The rate of fall of mortgage applications slowed over the summer, but the early September numbers point to a renewed sharp decline.”

Mortgage rates have skyrocketed to those seen during the 2008 housing crisis, with interest rates on 30-year fixed loans hitting 6%. According to data released from the Mortgage Bankers Association, mortgage rates have already risen 4% so far this year.

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This increase in mortgage rates would add $389,000 in interest payments to the life of a $500,000 single-family home purchase. The association’s data also showed that the seasonally adjusted MBA Purchase Index rose only 0.2%. New applications for mortgages went down  1.2%.

Though builder sentiment often signals the eventual direction of mortgage applications, NAHB CEO Jerry Howard told Fox Business that people should have confidence that the housing market will pick back up again.

“I think you’re seeing a weakening in virtually every market, but those that were stronger are weakening less. I guess the most important thing that investors and people need to remember is that Americans still want to own their homes and that, as soon as the conditions turn a little more favorable, housing will pick up. That will pick up the whole economy.”

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Dow Tumbles More Than 1200 Points After Inflation Data

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US stocks plummeted Tuesday after the latest Consumer Price Index report showed inflation rates are still at a 40-year high. The Dow fell more than 1200 points on its worst day since June 2020.

The report revealed that monthly consumer prices rose more than expected in August. History shows that low unemployment and rising inflation often precede a recession. High inflation rates erode consumer purchasing power. They also decrease companies’ profits due to rising material costs, causing stocks to fall and economic activity to slow down.

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Matt Peron, director of research at Janus Henderson Investors, agreed with most analysts that the Federal Reserve will likely increase the federal funds rate higher to cool off the market.

 “The CPI report was an unequivocal negative for equity markets. The hotter than expected report means we will get continued pressure from Fed policy via rate hikes.”

The Fed responds to rising inflation by increasing the federal funds rate. In the wake of the pandemic, the rate sat at near zero in an attempt to stimulate the economy. The Fed then hiked rates from a range of 0.25% to 0.50% in March 2022 to a range of 2.25% to 2.5% in July 2022. The rate of increase in borrowing costs was the fastest since the 1980s.

When the Fed raises the federal funds rate, the cost of credit throughout the economy increases and loans become more expensive for businesses and consumers, since interest payments are higher. At the same time, people with savings in banks earn more interest on their deposits. Together, this drops the amount of money in circulation, bringing down the inflation rate. However, if the Fed increases the federal funds rate too high, it may also trigger a recession by slowing economic activity too much.

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The Fed is expected to keep hiking the federal funds rate until a sustained drop in consumer price inflation. Investors hoped that the Fed would keep its interest rate increases at a slower speed, with analysts predicting a federal funds rate of 3.4% at the end of the year. Brian Jacobsen, a senior investment strategist at Allspring Global Investments, told Reuters his concerns.

“The big risk is that next week, the Fed tries to convince the markets that they’re not going to just try to go for 4% with the Fed funds rate, but that they could push it to something closer to four and a half percent.”

All three major US stock indexes — S&P 500, the Dow, and Nasdaq had their most significant one-day percentage drops in over two years. The CBOE volatility index, which measures the market’s expectations for volatility over the next 30 days, rose to 25.74 points.

The next Federal Reserve meeting is scheduled for Sept. 20.

 

Inflation

Retail Sales Drop 0.3% In May As Federal Reserve Prepares To Hike Interest Rates Further

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According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, retail sales fell 0.3% in May, wiping out any progress made by a 0.7% rise in April. It comes as a 8.6% inflation jump has forced millions to focus their money on food and gas, the latter of which now sits above $5 per gallon nationally.

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U.S. Consumer Confidence Slips In May Among Inflation

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On Tuesday, The Conference Board reported that its consumer confidence index decreased slightly in May to 106.4, a score that — while still a strong number — is down from 108.6 in April (which saw a small increase itself from March).

Meanwhile, the group’s present situation index, which is based on consumers’ assessments of current business and labor market conditions, declined from 152.9 to 149.6. The expectations index, based on consumers short-term outlooks for income, business, and labor, decreased from 79.0 to 77.5.

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“The decline in the present situation index was driven solely by a perceived softening in labor market conditions,” Lynn Franco, The Conference Board’s senior director of economic indicators, said. “By contrast, views of current business conditions — which tend to move ahead of trends in jobs — improved. Overall, the present situation index remains at strong levels, suggesting growth did not contract further in Q2.”

“That said, with the expectations index weakening further, consumers also do not foresee the economy picking up steam in the months ahead. They do expect labor market conditions to remain relatively strong, which should continue to support confidence in the short run.”

The dip in confidence comes after April saw an 8.3% year-over-year rise, which was down from March’s 8.5% year-over-year hike. Also not helping is the producer price index, which saw a jump of 6.9% in April. That’s down from March’s 7.1%, but up from February’s 6.7%.

Even with the Federal Reserve’s attempts to fight inflation by raising interests rates by 0.5% to 1.00%, the soaring prices will likely continue to be a burden to Americans over the coming summer months. One area consumers are being tortured in are rising gas prices, which now sit at a national average of $4.6 per gallon.

The labor market continues to remain a question mark for consumers even after employers added 428,000 jobs in April, keeping the unemployment rate at a pandemic-low 3.6%. Those numbers helped the country keep a 12-month streak of 400,000 or more jobs added.

However, that steady improvement may be misleading. Politico noted that data released by the Ludwig Institute suggests the “true rate of unemployment” (or TRU) is higher than national or local figures show and accounted for 23.1% of the labor force in April.

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“We think it misleads the American people to say, ‘Oh, we’ve got 3.6 percent of America that is unemployed, ergo, a huge percent of the population is employed,’ when in fact they can’t make above a poverty wage,” Ludwig told Politico.

Additionally, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell has previously called the labor market “unsustainably hot,” and — in an interview with Marketplace — explained that the demand of labor is inconsistent with low inflation. “What we need to do is we need to get demand down, give supply a chance to recover and get those to align,” he said.

President Joe Biden met with Powell Tuesday, saying afterwards that inflation has become his top domestic priority. “My plan to address inflation starts with the simple proposition: Respect the Fed, respect the Fed’s independence, which I have done and will continue to do,” Biden said.

How Biden deals with inflation could significantly impact his odds of possessing a second term in two years. According to FiveThirtyEight, the President currently sits at a 54.0% disapproval rating (up from 52.4% May 1), with just 40.8% approving of his work. Biden has pointed to the Ukraine invasion and supply chain issues as culprits of inflation woes.

Federal Reserve

Federal Reserve Raises Interest Rates By 0.5% In Largest Move Since 2000

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On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve raised short-term interest rates by 0.5% to 1.00%, marking the largest increase in over two decades as it attempts to fight the ever-increasing inflation that has continued to cause financial burdens for Americans.

Since 2000, the Fed has only raised interest rates in increments of 0.25%. “Inflation remains elevated, reflecting supply and demand imbalances related to the pandemic, higher energy prices, and broader price pressures,” the Fed said in a FOMC statement. “The Committee is highly attentive to inflation risks.”

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In March, inflation rates rose to 8.5%, up 0.6% from February’s 7.9% and 1.5% from December’s 7%. It’s now the highest inflation rate the country has seen since the 1980s, though forecasts project a downturn over the coming months. The increased interest rates will take time to lower the inflation, however.

The Fed explained it’s monitoring the situation of the 10-week-old Russian invasion of Ukraine — citing “tremendous human and economic hardship” — among other global issues that have essentially stalled production and sent the supply chain spiraling.

“The invasion and related events are creating additional upward pressure on inflation and are likely to weigh on economic activity. In addition, COVID-related lockdowns in China are likely to exacerbate supply chain disruptions.”

As for what this all means for the average citizen, borrowing will become more expensive. Higher interests rates will occur for mortgages, student debt, car loans, credit cards, and business loans for both small and large companies.

Higher mortgage rates are a particularly hard pill to swallow for those in the already difficult-to-navigate real estate market, as home prices alone have shot up during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first quarter of 2021, the average home sold for $507,800.

Currently, a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate sits at over 5%, up from 3.10% in early-December and 4.16% in mid-March. The Fed will now discuss increased interest rates between 0.75% to 1.00% in June and July, while some officials have advocated for raising rates to 2.5% by the end of 2022.

Following the Fed’s announcement, the Dow Jones Industrial Average spiked up 900 points to 34,064 before dropping 1,000 points Thursday morning, or 2.9%. The S&P 500 saw a 3.3% drop, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 4.6%. Similarly, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, had a 5.3% slide.

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Speaking Wednesday, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell attempted to relay that the bank understands the financial hardship Americans are going through, and explained the raising interests rates were done in order to relief that inflation tension. “Inflation is much too high, and we understand the hardship it is causing,” Powell said.

Powell also emphasized his belief that the economy can withstand the higher rates, with unemployment rates dropping by 0.2% from February to March and total job openings rate at 7.1%, a year-over-year increase of 1.6%. “Nothing about it says it’s close to or vulnerable to a recession,” he said.

President Joe Biden has previously supported the Fed’s monetary decisions. “The Federal Reserve provided extraordinary support during the crisis for the previous year and a half,” he said back in January. “Given the strength of our economy and pace of recent price increases, it’s appropriate — as Fed Chairman Powell has indicated — to recalibrate the support that is now necessary.”

The actions aren’t without concerns, however. As the Associated Press notes, many have criticized the Fed for taking too long to tackle inflation, leading to doubt from analysts that a recession can ultimately be avoided.