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(1193)

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

Goldman CIO Marco Argenti on the Warp-Speed Improvements in AI

Goldman CIO Marco Argenti on the Warp-Speed Improvements in AI

When we last spoke to Marco Argenti, chief information officer at Goldman Sachs, we were talking about how the bank was deploying AI, including the development of its own internal tools. But that was ...

30 Mar 52min

Anthropic, the Pentagon, and the Future of Autonomous Weapons

Anthropic, the Pentagon, and the Future of Autonomous Weapons

The last big story right before the war in Iran started was the collapse in the relationship between the Pentagon and Anthropic, with the latter objecting to any potential use of its models in either ...

28 Mar 51min

Now There's a Helium Shortage and It Affects More Than Balloons

Now There's a Helium Shortage and It Affects More Than Balloons

Ripple effects from the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz continue to widen. There's yet another brewing shortage, this time in helium. While most people associate helium with balloo...

27 Mar 50min

This Is How Big Money Is Trading the War in Iran

This Is How Big Money Is Trading the War in Iran

Markets are often said to be "headline-driven," but that cliché has rarely felt more true than it does right now. A single tweet or Truth Social post can send prices sharply higher or lower, and inves...

26 Mar 39min

The Petrochemicals Shock That's Already Rippling Through Plastics

The Petrochemicals Shock That's Already Rippling Through Plastics

Everyone knows by now that war in Iran is curbing the flow of oil around the world. But oil isn't just a gasoline and jet fuel story, of course. It's also a crucial feedstock for a bunch of petrochemi...

25 Mar 53min

Populært innen Business og økonomi

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