What's Next? Economic Experts Weigh In After Fed Raises Short-Term Interest Rates
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A historic rate hike, the largest in 28 years. Stocks rallied on the interest rate news.
It's been a tough few weeks with the S&P 500 down 20% this year on inflation fears.
Most economists expected the fed would raise short-term interest rates and that's exactly what they did. They'll likely raise them again next month as well.
Eyewitness News spoke to two experts, one on the mortgage side and the other in wealth management, for an idea of what to expect next.
You may be surprised that mortgage rates actually fell following the fed's decision on Wednesday.
"The mortgage rates are more affected by long-term views of the interest rate environment. And that becomes very interesting because the view longer term could be very different than the short-term view," WSFS Mortage President Jeffrey Ruben said.
The fed raised rates affecting short-term borrowing, whereas mortgage rates are tied to the 10-year bond, which takes a long-term view and fell nearly 20 points between Tuesday and Wednesday.
"That's a pretty significant reduction in that long-term measurement of rates," Ruben said.
For home buyers and home sellers, Ruben's thoughts are simple.
"If you are financially prepared and you've identified a home, buying today usually will mean better for the consumer than waiting for tomorrow," Ruben said.
No matter who you are though, you've felt the effect of this global inflation.
"It's costing the average household about $460 more per month than it did last year just to buy the same goods and services," WSFS Capital Management Director of Research Andrew Davis said.
The inflation we're feeling and dealing with, quite simply, isn't political. It's worldwide and it's a result of the post-pandemic recovery and Russia's war in Ukraine, leaving the fed with few tools to address it.
"They're not going to be able to correct energy prices -- that's globally set by commodities. They're not gonna be able to fix supply chain and bring supply back. They need to dampen demand," Davis said.
Davis' advice to those of you with retirement accounts and concerns?
"I think you really do need, unfortunately, to take this with a little grain of salt," Davis said.
Neither Ruben nor Davis view it as a certainty that we will experience a recession because the fundamentals of the U.S. economy were strong pre-pandemic and remain so now.
