How higher Fed rates stand to affect Americans' finances

WASHINGTON (AP) — Record-low mortgages below 3%, reached last year, are long gone. Credit card rates will likely rise. So will the cost of an auto loan. Savers may finally receive a yield high enough to top inflation.

The substantial half-point hike in its benchmark short-term rate that the Federal Reserve announced Wednesday won't, by itself, have much immediate effect on most Americans’ finances. But additional large hikes are expected to be announced at the Fed's next two meetings, in June and July, and economists and investors foresee the fastest pace of rate increases since 1989.

The result could be much higher borrowing costs for households well into the future as the Fed fights the most painfully high inflation in four decades and ends a decades-long era of historically low rates.

Chair Jerome Powell hopes that by making borrowing more expensive, the Fed will succeed in cooling demand for homes, cars and other goods and services and thereby slow inflation.

Yet the risks are high. With inflation likely to stay elevated, the Fed may have to drive borrowing costs even higher than it now expects. Doing so could tip the U.S. economy into recession.

Here are some questions and answers about what the rate hikes could mean for consumers and businesses:

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I’M CONSIDERING BUYING A HOUSE. WILL MORTGAGE RATES KEEP GOING UP?

Rates on home loans have soared in the past few months, partly in anticipation of the Fed’s moves, and will probably keep rising.

Mortgage rates don’t necessarily move up in tandem with the Fed’s rate increases. Sometimes, they even move in the opposite direction. Long-term mortgages tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which, in turn, is influenced by a variety of factors. These include investors’ expectations for future inflation...