Hot Mortgage Market Is the Fed’s House of Cards
Many Americans have weathered the pandemic by refinancing their homes and benefiting from soaring property values. But what happens next?
Mortgageville.
Photographer: Lass/Archive Photos/Getty Images
When the definitive story is written about U.S. financial markets during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, expect America’s housing market to play a starring role.
In many ways, it’s hard to reconcile worsening Covid-19 outbreaks with record-high levels for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index, or the unprecedented surge in unemployment earlier this year with the fact that American households are by some measures in their best financial shape overall in decades, regardless of wealth level. It becomes a bit easier to see what’s happening when using the mortgage market as a frame of reference.