Money still isn't free, but finance and realty experts say local interest rates should dip slightly after the Federal Reserve cut a vital interest rate Tuesday.
The Fed's decision to lower a main interest rate by half a point means borrowers should see rates drop on a variety of loans. People will pay less to finance certain credit card debt, and homeowners will pay less interest on popular home equity lines of credit.
The cut also will relieve some homeowners whose mortgage rates are adjusted in the fall. Those rates still will go up but will not jump as high as they otherwise could have, analysts said.
"It helps the consumer to spend more," said Cal Bellamy, a partner at the law firm Krieg DeVault of Hammond, a former bank president and an instructor at Purdue University Calumet.
"The truth is, it's a good move," said Herm Hoge, of RE/MAX Realty Associates of Munster.
"I think it was inevitable," said Donald Coffin, an associate professor of economics at Indiana University Northwest.
The cut aims to limit economic wreckage from housing and credit market woes and prevent any possible recession.
If the Fed's move blocks a recession, that is "really good news for Northwest Indiana," Coffin said. The steel and oil businesses are vulnerable to economic troubles, he said.
"It's the dependence on the steel industry that makes us very sensitive," he said.
Consumers will notice the cut in three main ways, Bellamy said. Small business owners will get credit at lower interest rates, he said. Credit card interest rates should decline, he said. And rates should dip for people whose mortgages are set for adjustment, Bellamy said.
"It ripples down to main street in those three ways," he said.
As for the local housing market, Hoge doesn't think the dreaded "housing bubble" ever expanded into the region. The regional market is packed with houses, and Hoge's company is running near last year's sales, Hoge said. While he thinks the rate cut could goose home sales slightly, he thinks uncertainty about property taxes scares away buyers.
"I personally think the bigger issue we have in Lake County is that the government officials need to get off their you-know-whats and mail the tax bills," Hoge said.
