I am heading to Lake Powell this afternoon. I heard that it’s going to be windy and rainy all over the state for the next few days and I thought “why not make an adventure out of the inclement weather by experiencing it on a houseboat on a body of water where the waves have nowhere to go but back at you?”.
But since I still have four hours to kill here at the office, let’s talk about interest rates and housing for a minute. The Bank of Japan committed to do whatever necessary to keep their 10 year bond at 0%. Our own central bankers of course meet today and there is a 12% chance that they will raise interest rates today, and a 60% chance that they will hike by December. I am of the opinion that they should raise them today for the same reason that I am going to Lake Powell in a fall storm: carpe diem. There is no such thing as perfect timing in this life; you just do the best you can with what you have. Plus remember that when they hiked last December, our mortgage rates actually decreased by 0.25% :).
Here is some interesting info that you might even find useful to pass along. According to Reuters today, the supply of homes under $250,000 has fallen by 12% from this time last year. The alarming statistic is that Salt Lake leads the country in dwindling starter home inventory, where the supply has decreased by 83% over the last four years.
