The Fed’s first rate hike of 2018 could happen in March; Super Bowl Sunday is upon us!

By Matt Joy, Princeton Mortgage Wholesale

Our friends at the Federal Reserve decided not to raise rates this past Wednesday… however, with the economy stronger than ever an increase is imminent. Market experts now believe that the Fed will announce its first rate increase of 2018 during its March meeting hosted by new Fed chair, Jerome Powell. These experts also believe that the increase will be around 25 basis points moving the target range for the federal funds rate between 1.5% to 1.75%. Now, don’t be alarmed, the Fed increasing rates does not mean that long-term mortgage interest rates will increase. It will be interesting to see what happens as the market is shaping up to mirror what happened in the mid-2000s. The Fed raised short-term rates while long-term Treasury yields stayed put. We saw the stock market boom… but we also saw an increase in spending and credit limits… which unfortunately led us into the worst financial crisis our country every faced… so yea, there is that.

This Sunday marks the celebration of America’s favorite unofficial holiday… Super Bowl Sunday. Did you know that Sunday is the second-largest day for food consumption in the U.S. (the first being Turkey Day of course)? Why is that? Why as American’s do we feel the need to watch this spectacle regardless of having a dog in the fight? For me… I’ll be tuned in to watch the commercials and to see whether Justin Timberlake has the brass to bring out Janet Jackson (could you imagine!?). Oh, and of course I’ll be cheering for the Eagles because as a Steelers fan, our coveted “most Super Bowl wins” argument is in jeopardy and trust me… to us Steelers fans that’s an important argument. If we see our title go down in flames to Tom Brady and Bill Belichick… well let’s just say Philadelphia won’t be the only city in mourning.

My prediction: Eagles win their first Super Bowl title on the strong arm of Nick Foles and hopefully an injury to Tom Brady. Either way… win or lose the city of Philadelphia better grease their light poles, board their windows, fire proof their cars and prepare some rooms at Curran-Fromhold Correctional.

Fly Eagles Fly… I guess.

The opinions expressed in this post are the sole view of the writer and do not reflect the opinion of Princeton Mortgage Corporation.

Photo by Adrian Curiel on Unsplash