Good Wednesday AM,

Today is Fed day. More specifically, in 30 minutes we will get to hear what the Fed has to say about inflation, bond purchases and any rate increases. None of the news will be bond/rate friendly. The only questions is how much is already priced into current rates.  Markets are calm but coiled right now. Calm mostly because November retail sales were quite weak compared to consensus estimates; sales were thought to be +0.8% but increased just 0.3%, excluding vehicle sales the estimates were for an increase of 0.9%, as reported +0.3%. The weak sales may be due to the spike in prices recently as inflation is continuing to ramp up across the spectrum. The 10-yr Treasury is at 1.45% and ready to roll. Mortgage bonds already slipping down 10bps. We will see shortly how this comes together. I am not a fan of floating into this news.

THE WSJ shared that Millennials are supercharging the housing market. For years, conventional wisdom held that millennials, born from 1981 to 1996, would become the generation that largely spurned homeownership. Instead, they have reached a housing milestone, accounting for more than half of all home-purchase loan applications last year. In the first eight months of 2021, the generation accounted for 67% of first-time home purchase mortgage applications and 37% of repeat-purchase applications, according to CoreLogic. And as the largest cohort of millennials turned 30 this year—below the median first-time buyer age of 33—those percentages could rise higher still.

Good idea to include Millennials in your marketing plan…

Please remain safe and healthy, Happy Holidays, & make today great.