Spike in Mortgage Rates May Slow Down Housing Recovery

According to Charles Blumenkehl, managing partner of Blue Asset Management, the recent spike in interest rates could dampen the housing recovery

Soon after President Obama made a deal with Republicans to extend the Bush-era economic recovery initiatives, interest rates spiked to their highest levels since June and debt prices sharply fell. According to Charles Blumenkehl, CEO of Blumenkehl Companies and managing partner at Blue Asset Management LLC, “The sudden rise in interest rates to the consumer are disconcerting, Typically, a rise in rate in a normalized market could increase an urgency for buyers to get into the market before rates have a meaningful impact on their buying power.. But in the current market, real estate sales are not responding well to the incentives that are not being offered. With unemployment hovering close to 10% in most of the county, it is likely higher interest rates will dampen any meaningful real estate recovery in the first quarter of 2011”.

Blumenkehl did note that the decrease in demand has varied throughout the country, and pointed to reports that actually noted increases in certain markets including an increase in value of 3% in the New York area for 2009, as an indicator that while it may take longer, ultimately the real estate market will recover.

Blumenkehl added. “God stopped making dirt a long time ago, but hasn’t stopped making people, In the short term, anything can happen, but history has shown that in the long term, real estate will only become more scarce and as a result more valuable.”
For more information about Charles Blumenkehl or Blue Asset Management, log on to their companies website at www.bluemanagementllc.com or call the company directly at 973-835-1400