🚨 9/28 - Interesting Topics Going on in the Economy 🚨

Many interesting things going on in the economy that I thought we all could benefit from. So these are mortgage and non mortgage related. I think this is for this applies to everybody out there. Natural gas bills, be on the lookout for that. This winter your heating bill could go up. Natural gas used to be 2 to $3 per million British thermal units. That's what they measure it by. So it used to be 2 to $3 per unit, now it's $5 per unit, so about double in price. And that's in large part due to Covid restricting drilling so we couldn't get as much. And now with wind powered energy kind of having a slump the last year or so, many people are reverting back to natural gas, needing it more. So demand is up, supply is down. We couldn't drill as much last year and now prices are double. So if the distributors are buying it for double, I mean what do we think is going to happen most likely to US citizens as we try to heat our houses this, this winter? So be on the lookout for that for your gas bills. They could be inflated, but little silver lining is it could be much worse. In Europe it's $18 per unit. So again we're just at 5, it's $18 in other parts of the world. But still for what we're accustomed to, heating bills could very well be up this winter. Also the Fed had to announce the their most. I know I touched on this more and more in other videos but they're going to start most likely increasing short term interest rates and that's what the Fed controls. They don't control longer term mortgage rates. It can kind of trickle down. I'll get to that in a second. But the Fed more directly controls bank to bank lending. So like if you go into a bank and say hey I want to withdraw my money and we know the bank doesn't always have that. They sometimes have to call the bank down the street, have money lended over to them. So bank number two lends it to your bank, your bank then gets you your money. Well your bank owes that other bank back their money. That's what the federal federal funds rate is. The Federal Reserve rate is, is between bank to bank. So very short term lending, they don't, they don't hold that money from another bank long. It also can, the Fed can also impact credit cards, auto loan rates, lines of credit, shorter term things. But mortgages. Now let's jump back over to that side of the fence mortgages, longer term, 15, 20, 30 year terms and they also are super quick to react those any kind of emotion from the Fed because the mortgage industry, the mortgage market knows that hey, we're locked into this rate for a super long time. So any little heads up we can get, we're going to take it. And that's across the board, every lender out there. So that's where the Fed, you know, when they speak, some of it's just like the verbiage that they say the mortgage market can react. So that's why when the Fed says, hey, we might taper, we might start increasing our rates, the mortgage market is not going to wait around. They don't want to lock in a 30 year rate. That was a bad deal. They're going to start, oh shoot. To be proactive and safe, let's start hiking up our rates. And the market works in unison. It's not one bank or lender, it's the entire market that we all have to go off of. So we all are affected the exact same way. Every lender out there, every bank and lender out there. But that's kind of more, more so how that works, it's just based off the headlines almost of the Fed met. They talked about this today. This is what it sounds like they might do. In reality, the Fed's probably not going to raise their rates until this time next year, you know, next fall. So for credit cards in auto loans and those type of shorter term loans, they won't be impacted till next year because somebody could still give out a credit card today and with it being such a quick payback on that, they're not in a bad situation. They're not held to that rate or like a mortgage rate is. So that's why the mortgage rates are can be much more volatile on that because they have to be ahead, they have to get every little tip and ahead of the curve that they can get because they're locked into whatever they offer for 30 years. Also, if you're looking for holiday shopping, which most of us are with Thanksgiving, Christmas and everything coming up, something you might want to jump on soon, the supply chains are still terrible. Not enough help, not enough workers in the supply chains. So. So shipping's super slow right now. Ports are down, you know, air traffic's down, so people aren't able to move products around. And also more and more people since COVID are shopping from home. You know, Amazon's booming for a reason. People now, people that weren't previously shopping with Amazon sure as heck are now because they found the convenience so much more demand, much Less supply and you know, shipping prices are going up. But also sometimes no matter what you want to pay, you know, holiday gifts might be delayed. So some something a little heads up, start that early this year. Also, government's making it more easy to get manufactured homes. This is a little mortgage update. So they're making it much, much easier by loosening up the lending guidelines and the zoning guidelines. So many people for one couldn't get a mortgage loan on a, on a manufactured home. That is something we do. So if you have questions, reach out, we can help specifically, we kind of specialize in that. But many people, you know, not many banks do manufacture or mobile homes as same thing manufactured, mobile, not many banks do them. So consumers, you know, homeowners or potential homeowners don't have a lot of options to get financing. Many have had to get personal loans and they're much shorter, maybe 10 year loans. So imagine, you know, jamming that same price of the manufactured or mobile home into a 10 year payment, that monthly payment, super high, much higher default rates. So people can't make that payment because it's super, super high. But the, the beauty of a mortgage is it could be stretched out to 30 years. And 30 years is normal. So you take that same house, stretch it out over 30 year payments, much more attainable, much more affordable. So this should open up some options for people. And the government's loosening up the zoning restrictions. So sometimes people say, hey, I want to get a mobile home, but the place they want to put it isn't zoned for it. And that, that stops all the progress. So government's loosening up things on both sides there. And one thing I didn't realize, but this is like, this is a stat that kind of surprised me. 10% of new homes right now are mobile homes and manufactured homes. So 1 out of 10, super high number, but for a reason. House prices are booming. People can get a nice new home, although it's a mobile home. I mean many, you can't tell the difference. And they're able to get it much more affordably. So kind of a developing story there. Also interesting thing in the, in the, in the White House if you will, or in Congress I guess would be better going on right now between the Dems, the Democrats and the Republicans. And of course, you know, they can never seem to agree on things. And we're not getting political here, just kind of black and white telling it how it is here. So the Democrats, no secret about it, they want to increase the debt limit, they want to be able to increase their spending and pass some of the bills that they're wanting to do. Republicans, not so much for it. So with the new twist to it that the Democrats have put on this, this proposal because they need some Democratic support, I'm sorry, they need some Republican support to have enough votes to pass the filibuster and put the bill actually in action. And they haven't gotten that yet with it just at face value of, hey, we want to increase the debt ceiling and be able to spend more money. And the reason the Republicans are kind of opposed to that is by doing it, they can print more money and that weakens the dollar, increases inflation, the cost of everything for all of us goes up. So Republicans are not for that, but the Democrats want to spend towards their infrastructure deal, for example. So the way that they've packaged it now, the Democrats are saying, well, you know, the hurricanes, like the relief funds and whatnot, in order, they're wrapping that in all into one. So they're saying, hey, if you, if you want to pass, you know, to the Republicans, if you want to pass the hurricane relief funds, well, that's also wrapped in and kind of baked in with the debt ceiling limit being increased. So we'll see. This could pick up some more Republican support. Some Republicans want the relief funds, but they don't want the debt ceiling. But could it be enough to sway a few or enough of them in favor with the Democrats and get the bill passed? Something to look out for. Also, the government's easing restrictions on travel into the country, air travel. So those tourism tourists from other countries wanting to come to the U.S. they're starting to loosen up restrictions, which, and this does not, this does not mean like at the borders, those, those restrictions haven't changed. Just, you know, air traffic into the US from, from tourism, which was tightened up when Covid started, they started to unwind that a little bit. Some major relief for the airlines because although things have gotten better, as you know, those that have traveled recent months, you've seen the airlines are getting busier. They're starting to book more full flights. Still, the airline industry is down 74% from where it was pre Covid. So still way, way down, this could start bringing some more life back to the industry. Also, another kind of developing story, there's thousands of Haitians from Haiti at the border in Texas, migrants trying to get into the country. The reason why this is such a hot topic is of, you know, those polled since the election, the biggest black eye for the Biden administration is their immigration laws and their immigration stances. So 56% of voters do not approve of the way Biden's immigration has gone. So kind of another developing story. We'll see how that plays out at the border in Texas. Also, many experts are expecting it not to be quite as big of a wave of COVID this fall. Last fall it was many people coming indoors in close, close knit areas with other people. And that flared up, you know, many, many Covid cases. But 55% of America is vaccinated and they expect in early October that they'll approve vaccines for those of kids 5 to 11 years old. So that's a whole nother sub subgroup of the population that now can be vaccinated. So the experts believe that'll go from 55% of the country to 66% of the country being vaccinated. You know, helping prevent another wave of COVID cases. And another kind of interesting thing, just a global deal. US and China are kind of now keeping an eye on one another. So China's been boosting up their Navy fleet and they actually have the biggest Navy in the world, something I admittedly did not know until kind of researching it. But China, strongest navy in the world, the US is taking, taking note and they've started buddying up with the UK and Australia, forming more allies there to have a larger network of Navy fleet. And the US does have the best, most technological Navy fleet. So it's kind of the US's technology versus the sheer size of China. But they're both kind of boosting up their, their, their stock of, of submarines. The US is turning towards more nuclear submarines. So that's, that's the technology part. They have submarines with nuclear power. So an interesting kind of development thing there. But each side is still kind of boosting up as they're both, both global powers continue to grow and recover since COVID And another kind of interesting deal for all. I'll wrap it up with this look for in the coming year. More and more influencer marketing on social media. And that'd be Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, et cetera. But, but probably as we all have known, like many of the younger generation that's coming up, they buy their products and they get influenced by influencers on YouTube or TikTok or whatever it may be. If they see their favorite influencer or their favorite celebrity advertising some product, they're much more apt to buy it. So they're showing that next year expect 3.7 billion with a B dollars in marketing money spent spent on advertising through influencers. So companies are taking note and they're saying, hey, we need to get this in the hands of people that are influencers and they'll influence the population to buy things. So interesting development there. That 3.7 billion, that's up 30% since last year. So things are rapidly growing in that market. Hope that helps reach out. If you have any questions.