The great news is that you own a very large asset that you use every single day and it continues to go up in value year in and year out. Congratulations on owning a home; it’s the single-most sure way to achieve financial stability, if not success. And I wish you great success!
The latest data from the brain trusts that produce volumes of eye watering numbers conclude that the rates of inflation on goods and services in the U.S. is “persistent”, and that disinflation is “absent”. In point of fact, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.1% more than expected this month. You’re thinking the same thing I am when I look at that number: “big deal; that’s nothing”. With a margin of error of a tenth of one percent, our impulsive takeaway is statistically accurate.
Further investigation of the compiled statistics reveals that the CPI is 3/10% higher this month than last month with a 3.5% upturn YOY. The cost of everything continues to rise. And we know that trend needs to be at or very near 2.0% for interest rates to come down. As a result of this weeks eyebrow-raising inflation numbers, longer-term rates jumped 1/5% between Tuesday and Thursday of this week.
So the bad news is that not only are other things that you want to purchase getting more expensive all the time, but they’re costing ever more to finance with persistently higher interest rates. This is our future near term.
