When I was a kid I would put ketchup on everything – steak, broccoli, eggs, rice, mashed potatoes, etc. Pouring it on my dad would always look at me and say, “Stop the bleeding!” That quote comes to mind when I think about rates. How high are rates? well…there’s a reason the devil is represented by 6s. Yeah, they’ve had better days, Mortgage Fans. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, ketchup!
Ketchup Quote of the Day: “Does putting ketchup on everything affect your credit score?” – @gtcollins
This Week in Economic History: It was this week in 1934 when Congress passed the Silver Purchase Act. This was a bill that nationalized silver stocks and put pressure on President Roosevelt to increase the Treasury’s silver supply. This was viewed as a major victory for the long-suffering silver industry. And yes, here are the eight silver facts you ordered.
Wuss’up This Week: The Fed’s news conference will overshadow the rest of the economic news (retail sales today, Unemployment tomorrow, and Capacity Utilization on Friday) as they will announce the raising of rates by at least a half a point) and probably again every other month until the end of the year. It’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback and second-guess the Fed for not doing this sooner, reminds me of my wife who said I should’ve started using Rogaine sooner when I was convinced it was too early to start. (*not sure why I wrote that last sentence, I think it’s because my self-deprecation usually comes earlier in the blog). Sometimes mistakes are made and now we’re dealing with it, we’ll roll with the punches – lots of them – and one day inflation and rates will come down.
Interest Rate Update: Today we find 30yr fixed conforming rates (*that’s forany loan at $647k or less) at 6.5% give or take, and jumbo 30yr fixed (*over $647k) all over the 5s. ARMs aren’t as good as they were a month or two ago but at times they are lower than the fixed. As usual rates will vary based on type of home, equity in the home, credit score, and if you learned something new today.
Don’t Forget to Remember: Any purchase or refinance that closes with me gets a BIG discount of lender fees! Grab yourself a cup of instant karma and pass my info along to any friends, family, coworkers or people that are better at woodworking than you who can use this gift.
Ketchup Quote of the Day 2: “They always give you three ketchup packets. When you go back up and ask for more, the guy handing them out always treats you like you’re taking from his personal stash. ‘Looks like my kids aren’t having ketchup tonight.’” – Jim Gaffigan
Timeout for Trivia: Congrats to those who last week guessed Kanye West. Want to be entered into a drawing to win Sheep Dryer Balls? Simply email me the answer to this week’s Who Am I? question. Good luck: It was on this date in 2005 when my movie came out and earned only $371m on a $150m budget – this was considered a flop as far as superhero movies go. You wanna talk about flops? How about my marriage (2006-2012), an anagram for my name is Make Holiest and that’s what he and his faith tried to do to me. I felt the whole time like I was up the creek without a paddle. Ha – no, that’s not a reference to my 1997-2003 show. And speaking of water I made a cameo as myself in a 2018 movie whose title had nothing to do with water and everything to do with Clooney movies.”
