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Real estate groups urged the Fed to stop rate hikes. Here’s why._我的网站

一 |     资料图虽然Google在推出该计划之前不需要FEC的批准，但它在今年夏天早些时候寻求投票以确保该计划不存在违反现行选举法规的风险。在周四的裁决中，FEC会确认，Google的计划是合法的。    Major housing industry groups voiced "profound concern" in a letter this week urging the Federal Reserve to stop raising interest rates.The rare public admonishment from top business advocates -- including the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders -- underscores a dramatic slowdown in the housing market due in large part to rising interest rates.The letter arrives roughly three weeks before the Fed plans to make its latest rate-hike decision.Mortgage rates have reached their highest level in more than two decades and they have continued to rise. Data released on Thursday showed that mortgage rates increased for the fifth consecutive week, according to Freddie Mac."The speed and magnitude of these [mortgage] rate increases, and resulting dislocation in our industry, is painful and unprecedented," the letter from the housing groups said.Here's what to know about why real estate groups called on the Fed to stop raising rates:

What's happening in the housing market?

Sky-high mortgage rates have dramatically slowed the housing market, since homebuyers have balked at stiff borrowing costs and home sellers have opted to stay on mortgages that lock them into relatively low rates.Mortgage applications have fallen to their lowest level since 1996, the Mortgage Brokers Association said earlier this month.Sales of previously owned homes, meanwhile, have plummeted more than 15% compared to a year ago, the National Association of Realtors found in August.The slowdown has coincided with a sharp rise in costs for potential homebuyers.The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage has climbed to nearly 7.6%, Freddie Mac data shows.When the Fed initiated the rise of bond yields with its first rate hike of the current series in March 2022, the average 30-year fixed mortgage stood at just 4.45%.Each percentage point increase in a mortgage rate can add thousands or tens of thousands in additional costs each year, depending on the price of the house, according to Rocket Mortgage.

What role is the Federal Reserve playing in the housing market slowdown?

An aggressive series of interest rate hikes at the Federal Reserve since last year has pushed up the 10-year Treasury yield, which loosely tracks with long-term mortgage rates.The Fed has fought elevated inflation with borrowing cost increases as it tries to slash price hikes by slowing the economy and choking off demand.While inflation has fallen significantly from a peak of about 9% last summer, price increases remain more than a percentage point higher than the Fed's inflation target.Price increases held steady in September, fresh data on Thursday showed, suggesting that elevated inflation remains resistant to the interest rate hikes.The persistence of elevated inflation has prompted the Fed to espouse a policy of holding interest rates at high levels for a prolonged period, which in turn has increased the 10-year Treasury yield and put upward pressure on mortgage rates.Moreover, the Fed expects to raise rates one more time this year, according to projections released last month.Speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C., last month, Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged the continued effect of interest rates on mortgages, noting that activity in the housing market "remains well below levels of a year ago, largely reflecting higher mortgage rates."

What do the housing industry groups want the Fed to do?

Housing industry advocates want the Fed to take swift actions that reassure investors and other market participants of an end to the policies cooling the industry.Most notably, the industry groups want the central bank to release a statement saying that it has abandoned consideration of additional rate hikes.In their letter to Fed officials, the housing groups cautioned that a further slowdown in real estate could help tip the U.S. economy into a recession, scuttling the central bank's effort to achieve a "soft landing.""We urge the Fed to take these simple steps to ensure that this sector does not precipitate the hard landing the Fed has tried so hard to avoid," the letter said.。委员Ellen L. Weintraub在FTC周四的公开会议上说道：“我很难绕过这样一个事实，即这是提供给政治委员会的独特利益，而且只有政治委员会。

二 | ”由于该计划的排他性，Weintraub将其比喻为Google向政治团体提供自己的“实物”捐助。Google宣布其政治过滤计划后不久，最近的一项研究发现，跟民主党立法者和候选人的电子邮件相比，该公司将共和党的筹款电子邮件不成比例地标记为垃圾邮件。这项研究激怒了美国共和党、激发了一系列批评声明并邀请Google首席法律官Kent Walker在国会山的一次私人会议上解释该公司的过滤决定。Google发言人José Castañeda周四在给The Verge的一份声明中说道：“我们在这个试点项目中的目标是评估解决来自批量发送者的担忧的其他方法，同时让用户明确控制他们的收件箱以减少不需要的电子邮件。随着试点工作的展开，我们将继续监测反馈，以确保它达到目标。”尽管提出了这个建议作为一种让步，但Google对该研究的结果提出了异议，称研究人员检查了一个小规模的电子邮件样本，且并没有考虑到竞选活动是否使用了服务中已经提供的适当的批量电子邮件工具。但Google的解释无法改变那些在本周期内努力实现其在线筹款目标的共和党人的想法。《纽约时报》上月报道，跟第一季度相比，第二季度捐赠给共和党实体和联邦竞选活动的总金额下降了12%以上。

三 | 这种下降是非常不寻常的，尤其是随着选举的临近，小额捐款传统上会增加。这种筹款的下降加上有争议的过滤研究在夏天激起了共和党人的狂热。参议员John Thune和其他近二十名共和党人提出了一项法案--禁止Google等电子邮件供应商用算法对联邦竞选邮件进行分类。在《华盛顿邮报》本月早些时候获得的一份备忘录草案中，美国全国共和党参议员委员会认为，“Google及其算法将明显的优势交给了民主党的筹款努力，并导致共和党人筹集的资金比他们应该筹集的少了数百万美元”。等到Google向FEC提出要求对其合法性作出决定，该委员会就将该计划开放给公众评论。在提交给该委员会的数百条评论中，几乎所有的评论都是负面的。民主党全国委员会(DNC)认为，Google的提议将是共和党人的福音，另外还为“滥用筹款策略”打开Gmail。“可悲的是，共和党人没有简单地停止发送垃圾邮件，而是参与了一场恶意的施压活动--更不幸的是，Google买下了它，”DNC副通信主管Danie Wessel曾在6月对The Verge说道。前总统唐纳德·特朗普的竞选团队因在其筹款邮件中使用垃圾邮件策略而受到抨击，他们经常使用误导性的主题词或模仿选民可能通过互联网与朋友和家人的对话。周二，宾夕法尼亚州美国参议院共和党候选人Mehmet Oz博士因在本周早些时候联邦调查局搜查特朗普的Mar-a-Lago住宅后仅数小时向支持者发送了一封主题为“FBI RAID - BREAKING INFORMATION”的竞选筹款电子邮件而受到抨击。随着FEC周四的决定，Google将很快允许像Oz这样的竞选活动申请该计划并确保他们的电子邮件--尽管使用类似垃圾邮件的方法和语言也不会从用户的收件箱中被过滤掉。

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Published on:20:44:10