SoFi Blog

If you’re in the market to buy a home, or you recently became a homeowner, you’ve probably noticed that mortgage interest rates are ticking up. And just this past March, the Federal Reserve increased the Federal Funds rate by one-quarter of a percentage point for the second time since December. Coincidence? Probably.

We’ll get more into what the Fed rate hike is all about below, but the burning question is: What impact does it have on mortgage rates? Most importantly, how will it affect home affordability and your monthly budget?

To help you make major mortgage decisions going forward—ones that have the potential to impact you for the next 30 years—we’ve broken down what the Fed rate hike really means for current and future mortgage borrowers, and the actions you should consider.

One of the best things about earning a degree in the United States is that students can borrow money to go to school. One of the worst things about borrowing that money? Paying it back—with interest. And now, with the news that the Federal Reserve has increased the target range of the Federal Funds rate by 25 basis points, you’re probably starting to sweat over whether the student loan payments that already tax your budget every month will go even higher.

But instead of simply stressing and hoping for the best, you can make an informed decision about what’s right for your financial future—and we want to help., Below, we’ve identified four steps you can take to get centered and make the right move on the heels of the announcement.

The Fed made headlines this week when it announced it will raise its key interest rate for the first time in nearly a decade. While the initial increase is a marginal 0.25 percent, the Fed’s plan to steadily increase rates over the next few years clearly has implications for the broad economy – not to mention individuals like you and me.

Homeowners and prospective homebuyers in particular may be wondering what this news means for mortgage loan rates. Let’s take a look at four different types of mortgage borrowers and how they could be affected.

Today, the Treasury announced a public inquiry into marketplace lenders. As the nation’s second largest marketplace lender, we welcome the Treasury’s inquiry. At SoFi, fairness and transparency are critical factors in our partnership with our borrowers, and we strive to have an equally strong partnership with the Treasury. To that end, we’ve been forthcoming with the Treasury and have enjoyed regular, positive communications and meetings with officials for the past several years.

We had a good jobs report on Friday, adding 195K workers in June with unemployment holding at 7.6%.  And we had some good revisions to previous numbers as well, pushing the three month average to nearly 200K a month.  The bond market sold hard on this news, with a quantitative easing (QE) exit all but certain to start in September and tightening being priced in for late 2014.  While I’m not one to catch a falling knife – e.g., stand in the way of the one-way bond market sell-off, I think tightening doesn’t happen until 2017.