On Wednesday, December 13th, the Fed increased its federal funds rate — which is what banks charge each other for overnight loans — by a quarter percentage point to a range of 1.25% to 1.5%.  Ok, so what does that mean?

Well, if you have a revolving loan with a variable interest rate such as monthly payments on credit cards or an adjustable-rate mortgage, you most likely saw an immediate increase in your monthly payments.

Fixed rate mortgages because of the long-term length have not seen muc...

                

Even though the Federal Reserve stated that they were not going to change the interest rate, they announced that starting in October the plan is to reduce the amount of mortgage backed securities that they now own. This is uncharacteristic of them to make such an announcement. Experts are predicting we will start to see the overall interest rates increase over the next 12 months and beyond. Simply put, if you are a buyer or seller now is the time to act to take advantage of th...