Powell: ‘Housing market faces some really significant challenges’ that a 25-basis-point rate cut won’t resolve |
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter.
After announcing another 25-basis-point cut to the Federal Reserve’s short-term rate, Fed Chair Jerome Powell—whose term ends on May 15, 2026—was asked about the U.S. housing market.
Powell acknowledged that recent rate cuts won’t restore affordability to the U.S. housing market. He suggested that the country needs to build more housing units—and noted that central bankers “don’t really have the tools to address” it.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters on December 10:
“So the housing market faces some really significant challenges, and I don’t know that, you know, a 25-basis-point decline in the federal funds rate is going to make much of a difference for people.
You know, housing supply is low. Many people have very, very low, low, low rate mortgages from the pandemic period, and they kept refinancing and caught the really low. So it’s expensive for them to move. And you know, we’re a ways away from that........