The Impact of a Rising Fed Interest Rate

An increasing Federal Reserve interest rate means more than just rising mortgage costs for new real estate buyers. This New York Times article, How the Fed’s Interest Rate Increase Can Affect You, takes a look at several downstream impacts you might feel in the coming months as a consumer and is a good quick read.

  • Rising mortgage interest rates – the flip side of fewer buyers means that application requirements may loosen as the pool of applicants becomes smaller
  • Credit card rate increases – which may cost you more on a daily and short-term basis than a longer term home loan (always a good reminder to carry as little high-percentage debt as possible, or at least for very short periods of time)
  • Student loan rates increasing
  • Increasing auto loan rates
  • Housing rentals – higher costs to rental property owners will be passed onto renters

With this in mind, there’s no time to buy like the present while rates remain relatively low.