[fintstone]

Originally Posted by KC911

The rates should have risen much sooner, and faster after the housing debacle....

Low interest, variable APR has allowed another credit driven mess....5 yr furniture, 7 yr auto, ...

We're not even back to "neutral" on rates...and that 4T BS forever is just that .

That was my point. You cant fix 6 years of juicing the economy to mask/make up for an anti-business Federal policy in a single year. The impact is too great. Especially on folk too young or too stupid to remember the past or recognize it for what it is.

A good example is a rental property I own. It has an adjustable mortgage that has increased about 2 percent. In addition, HOA, taxes and insurance also increased dramatically (catch up after the real estate crash). I was already losing well over $1k per month (ignoring increase in equity due to increase value and paying down mortgage). Now, it is almost $2K. While I can afford to lose $2K per month, other folks in the same neighborhood cannot. It has started a wave of foreclosures. Some were family homes and others were rentals like mine (that will leave the rental market forever reducing the number of low cost rentals). Of course, it will eventually drive the rental income of mine up due to lack of competition...but it also creates a glut that keeps other homes underwater (zombie foreclosures Tabby talks about) and keeps first time buyers out of the market. It also means that a lot of other things bought on time went up very fast (cars, appliances, etc.)...preventing the people with those loans from buying other stuff. Small amounts are tolerable and people make adjustments. Rapid increases, not so much.