Jim Egan on the Mortgage Gap That's Dividing America
Odd Lots16 Jun 2025

Jim Egan on the Mortgage Gap That's Dividing America

Somehow, the American consumer remains quite strong. Despite higher interest rates, tariffs, general economic uncertainty and so forth, people are continuing to spend. And yet there are some pockets of weakness that you can observe, especially if you look at delinquency data for various types of credit. But even here the patterns aren’t totally obvious, as it doesn’t break down nicely among prime vs. non-prime borrowers. But there is one important divide: Do you have a ZIRP-era mortgage or not? According to Morgan Stanley housing strategist Jim Egan, there is a massive difference in how strained people are for those who locked in their housing costs prior to 2021 vs. those who didn’t. People with ZIRP-era mortgages are benefiting from low stable payments (which have declined on a real basis), as well as broad equity accumulation. Those who didn’t are much more strained in their finances. We discuss how this is playing out, as well as the state of the housing market more broadly, which has seen rising inventories, and the possibility for an overall downturn in prices nationwide.

Only Bloomberg.com subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox — now delivered every weekday — plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episoder(1190)

How Shipping Insurance Really Works During a War

How Shipping Insurance Really Works During a War

When the conflict with Iran started, some of the first headlines we saw had to do with shipping insurance. Marine insurers were said to be canceling war risk coverage for vessels going through the Str...

10 Apr 53min

Thomas Peterffy on Interactive Brokers' Plan to Professionalize Prediction Markets

Thomas Peterffy on Interactive Brokers' Plan to Professionalize Prediction Markets

Right now, when you think about prediction markets, you basically think about two main companies: Polymarket and Kalshi. And then when you think of what's being traded on those platforms, there's a wh...

9 Apr 50min

Search Engine Presents: Are you a good driver?

Search Engine Presents: Are you a good driver?

The story of how a secret project at Google led to driverless cars on American roads. And, an answer to the question: are the robots actually safer drivers than we are? Find Part 2: “The Trial of the ...

8 Apr 1h 8min

Gina Raimondo on How European Industry Is Getting Crushed

Gina Raimondo on How European Industry Is Getting Crushed

The relationship between the US and Europe is deteriorating along both security and economic dimensions. The Trump administration has imposed tariffs, while also being sharply critical of NATO allies....

6 Apr 45min

Scott Bok Explains What Investment Bankers Actually Do All Day

Scott Bok Explains What Investment Bankers Actually Do All Day

There's obviously a lot of talk these days about AI and possible destruction of white collar jobs. Intuitively bankers might be expected to be victims of this. But before we can answer whether AI can ...

3 Apr 54min

This Is How to Tell if Writing Was Made by AI

This Is How to Tell if Writing Was Made by AI

When you consider the fact that many people don't know how and where to place a comma, it's safe to say that AI is already better than most people at writing. It's clean copy. It can be surprisingly p...

2 Apr 48min

Javier Blas on Why Oil Could Go Much, Much Higher

Javier Blas on Why Oil Could Go Much, Much Higher

Oil has shot up by a lot since the start of war with Iran. But it could still get much worse. So far, the massive disruption (due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz) has been cushioned by the draw...

1 Apr 41min

Why NASA Hired a Chief Economist

Why NASA Hired a Chief Economist

This week, NASA is scheduled to launch Artemis II, a mission that will send astronauts around the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. But this comes at a time when the space agency is facin...

31 Mar 49min

Populært innen Business og økonomi

stopp-verden
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
dine-penger-pengeradet
e24-podden
rss-borsmorgen-okonominyhetene
rss-penger-polser-og-politikk
pengepodden-2
livet-pa-veien-med-jan-erik-larssen
finansredaksjonen
utbytte
pengesnakk
stormkast-med-valebrokk-stordalen
tid-er-penger-en-podcast-med-peter-warren
morgenkaffen-med-finansavisen
liberal-halvtime
rss-sunn-okonomi
lederpodden
rss-pa-konto
rss-investering-gjort-enkelt
rss-markedspuls-2