Fun with numbers! 1: the number of Chinese surveillance balloons over Montana. (That we know of.) Did you know that the last day of 2023 is 123123? (You heard it here first!) While we’re on random numbers, Atlanta has almost 25 thousand surveillance cameras, grabbing the honors as the most heavily surveilled city in the U.S. with 50 CCTV cameras for every 1,000 inhabitants. (“The research also suggests that there is little correlation between higher camera figures and lower crime indexes.”) Shifting to mortgage-related numbers, given the Fed news this week, overnight interest rates aren’t the same as 30-year mortgage rates, of course, but moves in interest rates impact a potential borrower’s ability to buy a home in a given price range. Here’s a handy-dandy chart for LOs to help borrowers to see how rates impact affordability. With generic rates in the 6’s for home loans, LOs are keenly interested in how that compares to, say, student loan rates. Federal student loans for undergraduates currently have an interest rate of 4.99 percent for the 2022-23 school year, while grad students have interest rates of 6.54 percent or 7.54 percent for unsubsidized loans or Direct PLUS loans, respectively. Private student loan interest rates range from 2 percent to 14 percent and are based primarily on one’s credit score. Keeping with the homeowner theme, today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s is sponsored by Milestones. Giving homeowners an all-inclusive homeownership experience including home value and equity monitoring, home maintenance reminders and how-to articles, cloud-based document storage, one-click access to hire professionals for various projects around the home, and much more.