Hello everybody! Welcome back to Suburban Snacks, where we not only inform you of current Real Estate topics but also review a different snack every month! This month’s snack is… garlic pita chips! Before we review the snack, we’ll be informing you on the Fed’s rate hikes and what it means for borrowers. Consumers can expect higher borrowing costs across the board after the Federal Reserve announced it would raise its short-term benchmark rate for the first time in three years, financial analysts say. The central bank is expected to increase its rate six more times by the end of the year as it tries to tame the highest inflation in 40 years. The Fed’s rate—which is the interest rate at which banks lend to one another—often indirectly influences mortgage rates. The rates on long-term fixed-rate mortgages are expected to move higher. And the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, which is above 4%, will likely continue to increase, Jacob Channel, senior analyst at Lending Tree, states. So this all sounds fancy and to be honest, might be difficult to understand. So how does this impact my monthly mortgage payment? On a $300,000 30-year mortgage with a 4% rate, borrowers may pay about $1,432 a month.