Stephen Basaja
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
There were signs of a return to optimism among single-family home builders at the end of the year.
The housing market index saw three straight months of gains, but that's now ended.
The index fell two points to 37.
Anything below 50 means an overall negative outlook.
Builders are dealing with rising construction costs and high interest rates.
Most of the builders responded before the Trump administration announced new housing policies, like ordering Fannie and Freddie Mac to buy up $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities to lower mortgage rates.
The average 30-year mortgage is down.
But that's still well above COVID-era rates that make many homeowners reluctant to sell.
A district court judge has temporarily blocked many of the administration's actions to dismantle the CFPB, but also recently wrote the agency is, quote, hanging by a thread.
Rohit Chopra was fired from his role leading the CFPB early in Trump's current term.
He says the agency's purpose is to protect people's pocketbooks.
The Bureau's acting director, Russell Vogt, has argued that staff have unfairly punished small lenders and financial institutions.
Visa and MasterCard are by far the biggest credit card payment networks.
And when you swipe one of their cards, the seller has little choice beyond accepting their fees.
But Republican Senator Roger Marshall and Democrat Dick Durbin are reintroducing a law that would let merchants sometimes use other networks, ideally with lower fees to save money.
They're re-upping the bill after President Trump supported it in a social media post.
Trump is also pushing to cap credit card interest rates at 10%, another policy with bipartisan support in Congress.