Chicago's Mortgage Choice - May 15, 2018 Real Estate Trends - Another Milestone

The economic recovery recently hit an important milestone. It is now officially the second longest expansion in our history. For much of the expansion, the recovery has felt more painful than others. For one, the Great Recession was extremely deep and painful. Therefore, most Americans needed a long-term for their personal recovery from the recession. Secondly, the recovery was quite slow. Sometimes it was so slow it did not seem like a recovery at all. On the other hand, the slow pace of the recovery brought some major advantages to the equation. Interest rates were able to remain low for a longer period of time. We had a sale on money that has lasted most of the previous decade. Additionally, the long life of the recovery can be attributed to the fact that the economy has not overheated during the recovery. Overheated economies bring inflation and rapidly rising interest rates which can turn the economy south in a hurry. Even as rates have risen in the past two years, it has been a slow and gradual process. As a matter of fact, long-term rates have taken their time to react to the Federal Reserve Board's short-term rate hikes. Of course, the next question is--how long will the recovery keep going? We know it can't last forever. Our hope is that when the recovery does pause, it does so in a very mild way, in contrast to the last recession. For now, the old guy is just trudging along. Keith Stewart 773-529-7000