Fed Hikes Rate, Begins Reducing Balance Sheet to Tame Inflation
The Fed increased its benchmark rate by half a percentage point and laid out a plan to reduce its balance sheet to fight inflation.
May 4, 2022 2 MIN
The Fed increased its benchmark rate by half a percentage point and laid out a plan to reduce its balance sheet to fight inflation.
A surge in home prices coupled with a jump in mortgage rates sent affordability for American homebuyers to the lowest level since 2008, according to a report from NAR.
The co-called “core PCE,” the Fed's favored inflation measure that excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 5.2% in March from a year earlier, slowing from February's pace.
Gross domestic product in the first quarter fell 1.2% from a year earlier, the first contraction since the beginning of the pandemic, as Covid-19 infections surged.
Signed contracts to purchase homes fell 1.2% in March to the lowest level in almost two years, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Surging mortgage rates and record-high prices for new houses are straining affordability, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
A shortage of listings is keeping U.S. home-price gains at near-record levels even as mortgage rates surge, according to a report on Tuesday.
The world’s largest economy probably will expand 3.1% in 2022, the second-fastest pace in 17 years, Goldman Sachs economists said in a forecast.
The U.S. housing market is showing signs of a return to pre-pandemic days, a First American economist said in a report.
The average U.S. rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage rose to the highest since April 2010, Freddie Mac said in a report on Thursday.
