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A comment on Payroll employment rises by 353K in January; unemployment rate remains at 3.7%. Parent comment

Re:Payroll employment rises by 353K in January; unemployment... by bryanlarsen on Friday February 02, 2024 @10:05AM (#39229378)
It's not surprising that housing is the main exception: high interest rates make housing more expensive. Demand for housing is relatively fixed (roughly proportional to the number of people) so unlike most other goods higher interest rates don't affect demand as strongly.
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Re:Payroll employment rises by 353K in January; unemployment... by usaar333 on Friday February 02, 2024 @11:27AM (#39230542)
Interest rates only affect purchasing, not renting, at least at first order. Is purchasing demand actually fixed? I'd expect people to substitute renting for buying - I certainly do.

Also note theoretically purchase prices would adjust lower with higher interest rates. However, market is highly distorted by existing holders of mortgages not being able to transfer their low interest rate mortgages to other properties or people.

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Re:Payroll employment rises by 353K in January; unemployment... by throw0101d on Friday February 02, 2024 @10:07AM (#39229418)
> It's not surprising that housing is the main exception: high interest rates make housing more expensive.

Use the slider at the URL to see different years: this has been a growing trend, and not just a recent (1-2 year) phenomena.

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Re:Payroll employment rises by 353K in January; unemployment... by eru on Friday February 02, 2024 @08:53PM (#39236890)
High interest rates make house prices drop, until new mortgages are about as affordable as before.

(This might be easier to understand in the reverse: low interest rates make houses prices go up until the mortgage is just as (un-) affordable as before.)

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