Mortgage rates are rising after years of downward pressure

2/17/22 7:00PM

Welcome trend-seekers, the answer was B, mortgage rates passed through 7% this week (see updated chart from October 27th, 2022). The story below is originally from a newsletter published February 18th, 2022 when mortgage rates were 3.9%.

More bad news for buyers

If you're a prospective first-time house buyer you've had to deal with the fact that your dream home is now likely to be 15-20% more expensive than it was last year. Now your mortgage rate is likely to be higher too as average 30-year fixed mortgage rates are getting close to touching 4% in the US, the highest reading for almost 3 years.

Cooling off

Higher mortgage rates might curb demand for houses which - in theory - might cool the red hot housing market a touch. But other data shows that there was a record low supply of houses for sale, with just 860,000 previously owned homes on the market last month. Demand might fall in the future, supply already has.

Tom Jones

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Texas sues Netflix, accusing streamer of spying on children and collecting user data without consent

The state of Texas filed a lawsuit Monday against streaming giant Netflix, alleging that the company has built a “behavioral-surveillance program of staggering scale.”

The suit alleges that Netflix is “deceptively designed” to be addictive, using features like autoplay to get viewers hooked, “mining those users for data, and then converting that data into lucrative intelligence for global advertising juggernauts.”

“When you watch Netflix, Netflix watches you,” the lawsuit reads.

“This lawsuit lacks merit and is based on inaccurate and distorted information,” Netflix said in a statement to Sherwood News. “Netflix takes our members’ privacy seriously and complies with privacy and data‑protection laws everywhere we operate.”

Texas is seeking civil penalties of “up to $10,000 per violation” of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act, along with an additional penalty of up to $250,000 per violation involving a consumer aged 65 or older.

“Netflix is not the ad-free and kid-friendly platform it claims to be. Instead, it has misled consumers while exploiting their private data to make billions,” said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the press release announcing the lawsuit.

Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.