The Housing Market is Cooling Off

The Federal Reserve is serious about battling inflation. They’ve raised their policy interest rate from near zero in February to an average of 2.33 percent in August. Earlier this week they raised it three-quarters of a point. It hasn’t been above 3 percent since early 2008.

The idea is to get people to borrow less, so they’ll spend less, so businesses have less reason to raise prices. Not much has happened to inflation yet – except in the housing market. That’s no surprise. Most houses are bought with mortgages, so if borrowing is more expensive, fewer people will buy houses.