Mortgage Rates Drift Higher; Markets Digesting Fed Move, Comments
The Federal Reserve Board’s Open Market Committee (FOMC) increased its target short-term interest rate this afternoon, but the move had been widely anticipated and already priced into markets. However, economic projections from the FOMC members suggested a more aggressive path of rate hikes moving forward.
Rapid Reaction: Federal Reserve Rate Hike
The Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted to raise the target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points, to between 1.75 percent and 2 percent. The federal funds rate influences consumer interest rates on everything from mortgages to auto loans and credit cards.
Vacation Home Markets Have Yet to Rebound From Housing Bust
As the appeal of vacation homes has steadily eroded over the past decade, markets with the highest densities of vacation homes have underperformed the market in all but one year since 2010.
Rising Trend of Stay-at-Home Dads Hits All-Time High
The overall share of U.S. children living with a full-time, stay-at-home parent was unchanged in 2017 compared to 2016, and has remained largely flat since the mid-1990s. But even as full-time, stay-at-home parenting overall has stabilized, the share of stay-at-home dads has reached an all-time high.
Geopolitical Uncertainty Wanes, Pushing Mortgage Rates Back Up
As it became clear in the second half of last week that there would be no need for early elections in Italy and Spain, global political risk waned and mortgage rates rose steadily in response.
Birth Rates Dropped Most in Counties Where Home Values Grew Most
A recent decline in fertility was sharpest in counties where home values rose the most, and the change was smaller—and sometimes even up —where home value growth was weaker.
From the share of homes in Ocean City, N.J., that are vacation homes (50.9 percent) to what year experts largely expect the next recession will begin (2020), these are the notable numbers from May 2018.
Rent Control: A Political and Policy Conundrum
Despite the idea’s popularity among the general public, there are strong reasons to take a cautious tack when it comes to rent control.
Global Politics Send Investors to Safety, Pushing Down Mortgage Rates
Mortgage rates were flat for most of the past week – holding steady at their highest levels since September 2013, according to Zillow Mortgages data. They edged lower late Wednesday after meeting minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) were released.
Negative Equity Dips Below 10 Percent for the First Time Since the Market Bottom
In the depths of the housing crisis – late 2011 and early 2012 – the share was 31 percent of homeowners with a mortgage. In the fourth quarter 2017, it dropped to 9.1 percent, the first time it’s fallen below 10 percent since the bottom of the market.
