
Inflation Fears Rise, Sending Mortgage Rates Near 7 Percent
The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate ticked up again this week, starting the first full week of 2025 off at its highest level since July.
The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate ticked up again this week, starting the first full week of 2025 off at its highest level since July.
The president-elect campaigned on a promise to make homeownership more affordable by lowering mortgage rates, but his policies could do the opposite, some analysts say.
Wall Street is already making big bets on what take two for a White House led by Donald Trump will mean for the economy.
Between mixed economic signals and president-elect Donald Trump’s statements that he wants greater control over interest rate policy, it’s up in the air what happens next.
The president-elect outlined a wide-ranging agenda on the campaign trail that blends traditional conservative approaches to taxes, regulation and cultural issues with a more populist bent on trade.
With rent and mortgage payments encompassing almost half of one’s earnings in Massachusetts, it is becoming increasingly harder – and in some cases impossible – for residents to have financial stability.
With inflation nearly defeated and the job market cooling, the Federal Reserve is prepared to start cutting its key interest rate from its current 23-year high, Chair Jerome Powell said Friday.
The minutes of the Fed’s July 30-31 meeting, released Wednesday, said the “vast majority” of policymakers “observed that, if the data continued to come in about as expected, it would likely be appropriate to ease policy at the next meeting.”
A top Federal Reserve official warned Wednesday that the Fed needs to cut its key interest rate before the job market weakened further or it would risk moving too late and potentially imperil the economy.
Consumer prices in the Boston area rose about 3.5 percent over the last year, compared to a 2.9 percent increase nationally, according to federal data released Wednesday.
Some of America’s largest companies, from Amazon to Disney to Yum Brands, say their customers are increasingly seeking cheaper alternative products and services, searching for bargains or just avoiding items they deem too expensive.
The Federal Reserve’s favored inflation measure remained low last month, bolstering evidence that price pressures are steadily cooling and setting the stage for the Fed to begin cutting interest rates this fall.
Inflation in the United States is slowing again after higher readings earlier this year, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday, while adding that more such evidence would be needed before the Fed would cut interest rates.
The government’s latest snapshot of U.S. inflation will be released Wednesday morning, just before the Fed begins the second day of its policy discussions.
The sharp interest rate hikes of the past two years will likely take longer than previously expected to bring down inflation, several Federal Reserve officials have said in recent comments, suggesting there may be few, if any, rate cuts this year.
“If higher inflation does persist,” he said, “we can maintain the current level of [interest rates] for as long as needed.”
Consumer inflation remained persistently high last month, boosted by gas, rents, auto insurance and other items, the government said Wednesday in a report that will likely give pause to the Federal Reserve as it weighs when and by how much to cut interest rates this year
From Wall Street traders to car dealers to home buyers, Americans are eager for the Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates and lightening the heavy burden on borrowers.
A top Federal Reserve official said this week that he is increasingly confident that inflation will continue falling, but provided few hints of the likely timetable for Fed rate cuts.
In a year full of big numbers, with strong gains for stocks and even more fantastic flights for crypto, it was one shrinking number that superseded all.