Wait and See Attitude
March 25, 2025 The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee met last week and as expected, they did not lower or raise their benchmark interest rate. Despite evidence of a softening of the economic climate, they choose to sit back and wait to see what the effects will be as certain new policies are implemented by […]
Read MoreA Big Ho-Hum?
February 11, 2025 By all rights, we should have seen extreme market volatility during the past several weeks. After all, we have a new President implementing many new initiatives – from back to the office for federal employees to a constant threat of tariffs toward various countries. Yet, the stock and bond markets have been […]
Read More2025’s First Big Data and Event
February 4, 2025 The economic new year is now rolling along. While the markets await the anticipated results of the new Administration’s policies, the economy does not wait for anyone. Last week was the first big economic event of the year – a meeting of the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee. Most were predicting a […]
Read MoreHappy New Year Predictions!
December 31, 2024 We hope you all are having a great holiday season. With the new year we are always looking to bring the latest predictions concerning the real estate market and the general economy. Of course, this also comes with our annual warning – predictions are futile (adapted from Star Trek). No one can […]
Read MoreA Better Picture
December 3, 2024 We have had so many months of jobs gains that the monthly employment report has held little intrigue lately. As a matter of fact, the ancillary numbers such as wage inflation have garnered more attention than the number of jobs gained in some circles. For at least one month, this is no […]
Read MoreThe Budget Deficit
November 26, 2024 The initial response to the President-elect’s victory was a huge Wall Street rally. Despite the fact that there were already significant gains in 2024, stock market indices reached new heights immediately after the election. The bond market? Not so much of a rally, despite the fact that the Federal Reserve lowered their […]
Read MoreBack to the Inflation Picture
November 19, 2024 The election is over. The Federal Reserve has met and made their decision regarding short-term interest rates. The next question is – where do we go from here? While the Fed has lowered their rates, mortgage rates actually increased leading up to the election and the meeting of the Fed. And this […]
Read MoreThe Results
November 12, 2024 A lot has happened in the past few weeks. First, we had a slew of data showing that the economy is still on solid footing. The advanced estimate of economic growth (GDP) for the third quarter came in at 2.8% — a solid, but unspectacular number. The October jobs report was obviously […]
Read MoreWe Want More!
October 8, 2024 The Federal Reserve has lowered their Federal Funds Rate. As we have indicated, the move was expected – and the bond markets had strongly anticipated this move. But the Fed lowered their base rate by 0.5%, yet mortgage rates have moved down approximately 1.25% from their peak earlier this year. Why is […]
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