In this Real Estate News Brief for the week ending March 19th, 2022... we check on the Fed’s rate hike, look at a range of inflation projections, and get the latest update on single-family rent growth.Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review.Economic NewsWe begin with economic news from this past week, and the first interest rate hike in four years. The Federal Reserve has said that a quarter point rate hike was likely at its March meeting to control inflation, and that’s exactly what committee members approved. That puts the overnight lending rate between a quarter and a half point. The Fed warned that another six rate hikes are likely this year and that half point moves are a possibility. Fed Chief Jerome Powell says: “I guess I would say the expectation still is that inflation will come down in the second half of this year, but we still expect inflation to be high this year.” (1)The Fed is expecting inflation will average 4.3% for the year. Inflation is currently running at 7.9%. If you remove food and energy from the calculation, the Consumer Price Index or CPI is 6.4%. The Russian war on Ukraine is expected to push prices even higher. (2) A survey by the New York Federal Reserve shows that many Americans believe that inflation will be running a lot higher than the Fed is predicting – at about 6% for the year. MarketWatch also reports that some analysts are forecasting even higher rates of about 9% by next spring. (3)The latest report on wholesale inflation shows that wholesale prices rose .8% in February. That brings the wholesale rate of inflation up to 10%. But as MarketWatch reports, there is a “silver lining” in this data because the core rate of wholesale inflation, which excludes food and fuel, was only up .2% for the month. On the other hand, economists say we haven’t yet seen the war’s impact on commodity prices. An Oxford Economics economist told MarketWatch: “Inflation in the pipeline is showing few signs of decelerating in the near term, especially as the Russia-Ukraine war wreaks havoc in energy and other commodity markets.” (4)The latest unemployment report shows a dip in applications. They dropped to 214,000 which is a 2-and-a-half-month low. The total number of continuing claims is also lower, at 1.42 million. Companies are holding off on layoffs because of the labor shortage, and employees are enjoying more options when it comes to who they are going to work for. (5)Builders broke more ground on new homes in February. The government says that new home starts rose 6.8% in February. On an annual basis, they were up 22% compared to last February. Most of the increase was driven by single-family home construction with a 5.7% increase. There was a drop in permit applications however, for both single-family and multi-family projects. As MarketWatch reports, builders may be focusing more on the permits they already have than they are on getting new ones. (6)Existing home sales were down in February. The National Association of Realtors says they decreased 7.2% to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 6.02 million. NAR’S chief economist, Lawrence Yun, says: “Housing affordability continues to be a major challenge, as buyers are getting a double whammy – rising mortgage rates and sustained prices increases.” (7)Mortgage RatesAnd those mortgage rates did jump higher this last week. Freddie Mac says the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage broke through the 4% mark for the first time since May, 2019. It was up 31 basis points to 4.16%. The 15-year was up 30 basis points to 3.39%. (8)In other news making headlines…Single-Family RentsSingle-family rents continue to run hot with rents in some metros rising four times faster than they did last year. The index shows that rental prices are up 12.6% on average compared to 2.6% last year. (9)CoreLogic offered an example saying that tenants with a $1500 a month rent might get a renewal lett