{"id":19869,"date":"2023-08-09T00:38:53","date_gmt":"2023-08-09T00:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=19869"},"modified":"2023-08-08T19:44:56","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T19:44:56","slug":"how-inflation-affects-mortgage-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/09\/how-inflation-affects-mortgage-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"How Inflation Affects Mortgage Rates"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY ANNA & MICHELLE<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

When you read about the housing market in the news, you might see something about a recent decision made by the\u00a0Federal Reserve<\/i>\u00a0(the Fed). But how does this decision affect you and your plans to buy a home? Here\u2019s what you need to know.<\/p>\n

The Fed\u00a0is trying hard to reduce\u00a0inflation<\/span>. And even though there\u2019s been 12 straight months where inflation has cooled (see graph below<\/i>), the most recent\u00a0data\u00a0shows it\u2019s still higher than the Fed\u2019s target of 2%.<\/p>\n

While you may have been hoping the Fed would stop their hikes, since they\u2019re making progress on their goal of bringing down inflation, they don\u2019t want to stop too soon and risk inflation climbing back up as a result. Because of this, the Fed decided to increase the Federal Funds Rate again last week. As Jerome Powell, chairman of the\u00a0Fed,\u00a0says: \u201cWe remain committed to bringing inflation back to our 2 percent goal\u00a0<\/i><\/b>and to keeping longer-term inflation expectations well anchored.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Greg McBride, senior VP and chief financial analyst at\u00a0Bankrate,\u00a0explains<\/span>\u00a0how high inflation and a strong economy play into the Fed\u2019s recent decision: \u201cInflation remains stubbornly high.<\/i><\/b>\u00a0The economy has been remarkably resilient, the labor market is still robust, but that may be contributing to the stubbornly high inflation<\/i>.\u00a0So, Fed has to pump the brakes a bit more.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Even though a Federal Funds Rate hike by the Fed doesn\u2019t directly dictate what happens with mortgage rates, it does have an impact. As a recent article from\u00a0Fortune<\/i>\u00a0says: \u201cThe federal funds rate is an interest rate that banks charge other banks when they lend one another money…<\/i>\u00a0When inflation is running high, the Fed will increase rates to increase the cost of borrowing and slow down the economy.<\/i><\/b>\u00a0When it\u2019s too low, they\u2019ll lower rates to stimulate the economy and get things moving again.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

How All of This Affects You\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

In the simplest sense, when inflation is high,\u00a0mortgage rates\u00a0are also high. But, if the Fed succeeds in bringing down inflation, it could ultimately lead to lower mortgage rates<\/span>, making it more affordable for you to buy a home.<\/p>\n

This graph helps illustrate that point by showing that when\u00a0<\/i>inflation<\/span>\u00a0decreases,\u00a0mortgage rates<\/span>\u00a0typically go down, too (see graph below):<\/p>\n

As the data above shows, inflation (shown in\u00a0the blue trend line<\/i>) is slowly coming down and, based on historical trends, mortgage rates (shown in\u00a0the green trend line<\/i>) are\u00a0<\/span>likely to follow<\/span>. McBride\u00a0says<\/i>\u00a0this about the future of mortgage rates: \u201cWith the backdrop of easing inflation pressures,\u00a0<\/i>we should see more consistent declines in mortgage rates<\/i><\/b> as the year progresses, particularly if the economy and labor market slow noticeably.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Bottom Line<\/b><\/p>\n

What happens to mortgage rates depends on inflation. If inflation cools down, mortgage rates should go down, too. Let\u2019s talk so you can get expert advice on housing market changes and what they mean for you.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY ANNA & MICHELLE When you read about the housing market in the news, you might see something about a recent decision made by the\u00a0Federal Reserve\u00a0(the Fed). But how does this decision affect you and your plans to buy a home? Here\u2019s what you need to know. The Fed\u00a0is trying hard to reduce\u00a0inflation. And even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-better-homeowners-news","category-sponsored"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19872,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19869\/revisions\/19872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}