When I see lover’s names carved into the wood on a tree, I don’t think it’s sweet. I just think how surprising it is how many people bring a knife on a date. Time passes, life goes by fast, first dates turn into long-term relationships, a hot summer has been forgotten, turned into a beautiful autumn, and turned into an arctic winter. Time has passed, and it is nearly Christmas Eve. Ya’ll sick of Christmas carols (again)? The Winter Solstice has occurred, meaning that the minutes of daylight will only increase for the next six months in the northern hemisphere. People are planning for 2023, as if the calendar changing from December to January will have an impact on rates, volumes, margins, or revenue. Augie Del Rio with Gallus Insights did a video interview with Tammy Richards and me about how lenders and vendors are reacting to the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023. (Gallus Insights helps lenders make data-driven decisions.) And before we know it, Wi-Fi
moodboard/Getty Images(NEW YORK) The Federal Reserve's string of interest rate hikes this year has thrown cold water on the once red-hot housing market. Existing home sales fell for the seventh straight month in August, down 0.4%, according to the National Association of Realtors, as the central bank aggressively raises interest rates to cool the economy and drive down high inflation. That has led to higher mortgage rates, increasing borrowing costs for home buyers by hundreds of dollars a month. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has more than doubled since the beginning of the year and was at 6.02% in the week ending Sept. 15, according to housing finance agency Freddie Mac. "The latest Fed rate hike could continue to have an impact on affordability," Glenn Brunker, president of the financing company Ally Home, told ABC News. While home prices have fallen from their springtime peaks in some markets, prices remain above where they stood a year ago. The