Welp. Interest rates are staying steady (at least) until the next announcement in October.

I don’t feel like inflation has decreased. Housing is still exorbitant. But there haven’t been mass layoffs, so we’ve got that going for us.

  • PxtlEnglish
    17·
    10 months ago

    I don’t know, I think the price hikes have stopped, but the sticker shock from the past price hikes remains. That by definition is the end of de jure inflation.

    The real scary problem that smart economists are pointing at is that now the prevailing rent for available units is horrifying – not the rent most people are paying, but the rent they’d pay if they moved today. Most people who are in rent-controlled units or just have friendly landlords don’t know how bad it will be if they have to start looking again. That’s a ticking time-bomb, one that a landlord can detonate prematurely with a renoviction.

    • Numpty
      4·
      10 months ago

      The pressure on rentals has potential to become MUCH worse too if the interest rates start pushing people out of their current owned homes.

      I’m a home owner. I am looking at a mortgage renewal in about 18 months. At the current interest rates I’m facing a painful mortgage payment hike. Can I manage it without extending my amortization period? Yes… painful, but yes. I can absorb the increase because I intentionally bought in a (at the time) marginally lower COL area at less than 50% of what I qualified for. Most people I know who bought around the same time went right to the max and they are screwed at renewal if rates don’t drop by a substantial amount. In some cases they will be forced into extending their mortgages well beyond 30 years or forced to sell… if they sell, they have to live somewhere… they will transition to renting…