New built home sales had a very big miss this week. The sales of newly built homes sank to the lowest rate since the start of the Covid pandemic. A decline of 16.6% in April from March, was far more than expected (signaling weakness amongst homebuilders) and were down 26.9% from April 2021, according to the U.S. Census.
A new piece of legislation aims to assist VA buyers get their purchase offers more readily accepted. Although it is not common in San Diego for VA eligible borrowers to be outbid regularly, there are other parts of the country where that is the case.
Inflation has been dominating headlines for much of 2022. Federal Reserve policy decision making and rate hikes have contributed to some of the most quickly appreciating mortgage rates we have seen in years. There is a reason for it, whether we like it or not. However, this week’s question is: How can inflation eventually lead to lower mortgage rates?
Wednesday May 4, 2022 Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve announced their short term interest rate hike of +0.50%. This brings the Fed Funds Rate to a range of 0.75% – 1.00%. Previous commentary about rate hikes through 2022, and possibly into 2023, remain in place as the Federal Reserve desperately attempts to cool and control continuous inflation across the economy.