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Economy
Breitbart Business Digest: The Housing Market Shows Interest Rates Are Too Low
2024-05-09
The idea that interest rates are not high enough is beginning to gain a foothold at the Federal Reserve.

Neel Kashkari, our esteemed monetary shepherd from the Minneapolis Fed, has once again taken to the digital pen with commendable transparency to point out that the economy is not behaving as you might expect it to if the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy were all that restrictive.

Kashkari’s focus is on the housing market. This makes sense. Housing is considered one of the most interest-rate-sensitive segments of the economy because homes are typically purchased with mortgages. As a result, the housing market is one of the primary channels through which monetary policy is transmitted to the real economy.

Here’s how that works. When the Fed raises its target for overnight interest rates for loans between banks, this tends to raise yields on longer term bonds because these are essentially just a series of short-term loans. Because mortgage-backed securities are a somewhat close substitute for Treasuries, mortgage rates tend to follow the yield on 10-year Treasuries.

Higher interest rates make buying homes less affordable. They can either depress home prices or at least slow down the rise in prices by reducing demand. They also tend to slow down home building, which is an economically intensive activity that employs lots of labor, materials, and manufactured products. So, if you can slow down the housing market, you can probably slow down the economy and reduce inflation.
Posted by:Skidmark

#9  We have an inventory shortage. Were money any cheaper prices would skyrocket (and rents too).
Posted by: Crusader   2024-05-09 18:06  

#8  Reduce demand? Somebody want to tell him about all the Newsomers and Blue Refugees needing homes?

Then the locals getting savvy and charging California Real Estate Prices.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2024-05-09 16:47  

#7  Anyone moving to New England is a retard.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2024-05-09 15:25  

#6  up here in NH apparently it's a real sellers market. Lots of buyers no product.
Posted by: alanc   2024-05-09 15:06  

#5  Interest rates should be high. Borrowing money should always be more expensive than earning it. As the gummint doesn't earn at all, it should pay a higher rate than the rest of us.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2024-05-09 13:39  

#4  Rising interest rates — isn’t that what President Reagan’s Treasury man did to kill Jimmy Carter’s stagflation?
Posted by: trailing wife   2024-05-09 13:33  

#3  Can we scheduled a organ harvesting appointment for people like Neel Kashkari?
Posted by: M. Murcek   2024-05-09 12:56  

#2  A friend of mine just bought a house, hes definitely not crowing about his mortgage rate.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2024-05-09 12:55  

#1   They can either depress home prices or at least slow down the rise in prices by reducing demand.

Or you can build smaller basic homes with less HGTV amenities.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2024-05-09 12:39  

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