Fed Raises Rates by a Quarter Point

Partner Mark Welsh was interviewed on WJLA, a DC news station, regarding the recent federal rate increase. Key takeaways from the interview included:

My main takeaway for consumers?

"Unfortunately, if you have credit cards or variable rate consumer loans, that’ll increase almost immediately. If you have fixed rate loans they will not be impacted and you should stay put for now. Then ultimately within a short period banks will begin to increase the rates on almost all of their fixed and variable rate lending products as a result of this Fed interest rate increase."

My recommendations for the consumers and businesses?

"If you can lock in right now in a short term fixed rate loan, that would be good, because rates are almost at the top. I wouldn’t lock in a long term fixed rate loan, but I would try to lock in a short term fixed rate loan for now. Just realize that if you do get a variable rate loan, it will likely go up one or two more times before you start seeing it come down later in 2024. Don’t go out long term on the fixed rate spectrum unless you can refinance easily when rates start to drop again."