Photo Source: Instagram via @beckiowens

The median downpayment for a single-family home in the fourth quarter of 2017 was $18K, up 20% from one year prior. The top five highest downpayment cities can be found throughout California, with San Jose coming in at $268K and the other four all breaching $100K.

Logansport, IN won the title of 2018 Top 10 Affordable Small Towns (where you’d actually want to live). The list was configured by looking at populations between 10K and 50K, median home prices, low unemployment rates, below national average serious crime rates, and the annual income spent on housing costs (goal: less than 28%). The outdoorsy town in Indiana nailed it…..San Jose, not so much.

We don’t talk about traffic but in these towns you just might get roped into conversations on the daily regarding your morning commute to work. Best commute: the bike friendly town of Wichita, KS won that contest. Commute likely to increase your blood pressure: Washington, D.C. You can thank all the government employees hitting the road at the same time, apparently.

It’s Fed week. Currently, the Fed funds rate stands at 1.5% with a target of 1.75%. The expectation is for the Feds to come out of their meeting Wednesday announcing a 0.25% rate hike. This would be the first of the three or four expected in 2018.