Welcome to December! If you’re anything like me you like to start the first of the month off by listening to the Bone Thugs n’ Harmony classic, “1st of tha month” where they tell you to “Wake up, wake up, wake up it's the 1st of tha month… To get up, get up, get up so cash your checks and get up.” Ironically enough it looks like we’ll definitely have to “cash our checks” in order to afford anything in 2018.
Experts say that after Janet Yellen’s speech yesterday, the probability of a rate hike this holiday season is inevitable. You can check out the story and view the minutes from the Fed Open Market Committee meeting here. Additionally, the MBA predicts that we’ll see rates continue to climb in 2018 moving from 4% to 4.6% and then above 5% in 2019. What’s that mean for the mortgage industry in the next few years? To be honest… nothing. I believe we’ll still see plenty of loans originated (around $1.6 trillion), but we’ll see a much more competitive market place. Which, is all the reason for mortgage brokers to pair with a lender that can provide competitive rates and innovative marketing solutions that help grow your network of realtors (cough, cough… lenders like Princeton Mortgage Wholesale).
In all honestly though, I don’t think we should be overly concerned about the rate hike though as, Michael Fratantoni
, the chief economist and SVP of research and technology predicts that not only will rates rise in 2018, but wages will as well… which is good, because the days of getting your first home at a 3.5% rate are long gone.