Lower interest rates making an impact locally

Thursday, November 7th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

This weekâ€™s Fed rate cut surprised most experts. They had expected a cut, but a smaller one. News on Six consumer reporter Rick Wells has some insight into what a half percentage point means to you and me.

"It's gonna save us about $200 a month." Brandi Taylor is refinancing her home and Wednesday's rate drop prompted her to call. Rusty Gaylor of the Harry Mortgage Corporation says there have been lots of calls, lots of interest in interest rates. "We've been flooded with calls, I've done four applications so far this morning." Wells, "Which is a really good day." Gaylor, "Usually do 2 - 3 a day I've done four this morning I have two more I've scheduled for tomorrow."

Lots of that business is re-financing, people taking advantage of rates lower than they had. Some folks have refinanced two or three times since the rates started dropping a couple of years ago.

Mortgage rates have been good and this weekâ€™s move by the Fed won't affect them directly for a while. What this weekâ€™s action did do was get people like Brandi Taylor off the fence and on the phone, and it's paying off for her and her family. "Just put more money in our pockets." And that may be just the right tonic for a sluggish economy, particularly right before the Christmas shopping season. Car shoppers may benefit too. It's hard to get better than zero down at zero percent and zero payments for a year, but this rate drop might service to make more people eligible for lower interest rate loans.

Low rates of return on traditional savings plans may drive some investors back to the stock market looking for a better rate of return. Although the Fed's move may not help everyone directly it has gotten people like Brandi Taylor to take action on something until Wednesday she was just thinking about.

Credit card interest rates will not change for most people, in fact, the Wall Street Journal reports many card companies plan to raise rates after the first of the year. They are losing money on all the bad consumer debt.