All posts by George Duarte

What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – April 15th, 2024

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is showing higher than expected inflation, and the Producer Price Index (PPI) is showing lower than expected inflation. The two are in conflict with each other; however, the Consumer Price Index is still the far greater indicator for inflation as it directly impacts the cost of living for everyone, not just production assets.

Find Something Wrong During a Home Inspection? How to Discuss Repairs or Defects with a Seller

When it comes to selling a home, it is a common belief that once the offer is accepted, there is nothing else to be negotiated. However, issues and obstacles that can arise during the home inspection can be a cause for discussion with the seller. Here are some tips in the event that the home inspection isn’t up to par.

3 Considerations When Making A Down Payment

When considering the journey of purchasing a new home, one of the fundamental decisions you’ll encounter revolves around determining the appropriate amount of money to allocate for your down payment. It’s a decision-making process that involves weighing the benefits of opting for a larger down payment against the potential advantages of utilizing some of those funds to purchase “discount points,” thereby reducing your interest rate.

What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – April 8th, 2024

With the upcoming CPI and PPI reports this week, last week still had a number of important data points to consider. First, the non-farm payroll data, helping reveal the situation of pay versus inflation data giving an overall description of the state of the economy in the future. Among that, the manufacturing data has shown to be contracting the past year, with the first signs of relief this month. Lastly, trade data has shown that the trade deficit has grown bigger than expected with Q1 coming to completion.

Understanding Interest-Only Mortgages

What exactly is an interest-only mortgage? Simply put, it’s a type of home loan where you pay only the interest for a certain period, typically the first five to ten years. After this initial period, you begin paying both the principal and interest, resulting in higher monthly payments.

What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – April 1st, 2024

As expected from the prior inflation reports with CPI and PPI, the PCE index had also shown the same corollary among its data points, reporting a higher than expected increase for the month of February across all products.

In addition, the Chicago PMI had shown a declining trend of activity among businesses for the 6th week in a row. All this points to that there might be a case for the Federal Reserve to continue holding rates in the next rate decision coming up in the summer of 2024. There has been much speculation that the Federal Reserve will begin cutting rates at this time; however this is evidence of the contrary.

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