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Savings account interest forecast for spring 2024: Here’s what experts predict
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Amidst the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data showing prices rising at 3.2% per year, the Federal Reserve held rates steady at its March 2024 meeting. While inflation isn’t nearly as hot as it was recently, it’s remained stubbornly above the Fed’s 2% target. Although many consumers want inflation to slow down, the benefit has been that interest rates for savings accounts have been high, as there’s typically a direct correlation between savings interest rates and the fed funds rate.
However, at the last Fed meeting, the central bank still indicated that it expects to cut rates three times this year, so savings account interest rates might not stay high for long. That said, most experts agree that savings account rates will stay relatively high through most of the spring, with differing expectations as to when rates will start to fall. Below, we’ll break down their current predictions.
See how much more you could be earning with a high-yield savings account here.
Savings account interest forecast for spring 2024
Here’s what the experts we spoke to predicted for savings rates in the months to come.
Rates could start to fall around June
Many experts predict that the Fed will begin cutting rates following its June 12 meeting, with the CME FedWatch tool showing a 75% likelihood of rate cuts then.
“Interest rates overall are still high, and we are seeing savings rates holding at higher rates across financial institutions. I would expect savings rates to remain higher for this spring, but they may begin to decline if the Federal Reserve Board elects to start bringing the federal funds rates downwards,” says Chikako Tyler, chief financial officer and founder of the Banking on Women at California Bank & Trust.
Still, the savings account interest rate forecast could remain positive past this spring for savers, even if rates start to fall.
“For most consumers, the answer is that it probably doesn’t matter much. Rates are at a 20+ year high, and even factoring in small decreases over the coming year, rates will remain incredibly strong. But that only matters for people who are earning a competitive interest rate,” says Max Lane, CEO of Flourish, a financial product platform.
As Lane points out, many consumers aren’t taking advantage of high interest rates and instead have kept their money in savings accounts that have low rates compared to high-yield savings accounts that are paying above 4% or even 5% or more in some cases. Compare that to a regular savings account, which currently only pays 0.47%, according to the FDIC.
“That should be a typo, but it’s not. The fact is that most Americans are earning closer to zero than the Fed target rate,” says Lane. “If you do just one thing to meaningfully improve your financial situation this year, it’s this: Move your cash to a high-yielding, FDIC-insured account. The time and effort are minimal, and it’s basically free money.”
Get started with a top high-yield savings account online today.
Rates could hold steady past the spring
An even greater incentive to move money into a high-yield savings account could be that rates won’t necessarily start falling in June. Some experts foresee rates remaining higher for longer.
“My take, which is a bit contrarian, is that rates will stay higher for longer than many people expect. Economists and the Federal Reserve got the ‘transitory inflation’ call wrong, and I think we are facing a rather challenging period for everyday Americans — sticky inflation, high real estate prices, a rising stock market, unaffordable housing, and ballooning national debt,” says Brent Weiss, co-founder and head of financial wellness at Facet, which offers financial planning services.
“There’s simply too much money in the system right now, and rates may need to stay high to bring runaway prices down to earth,” he adds.
Similarly, Joe Camberato, CEO of National Business Capital, says that he foresees savings rates holding steady through the end of the year. So, for those who want the flexibility to access their cash if need be, while earning a competitive interest rate, high-yield savings accounts remain attractive, notes Camberato.
However, if you don’t want to face as much uncertainty around rate changes and instead want to lock in a high interest rate in case rates do fall, then you might prefer other savings vehicles like certificates of deposit (CDs), he says. CD rates for long-term CDs are lower than some high-yield savings accounts, but CDs offer more certainty.
Learn more about your CD options here now.
The bottom line
Although experts differ somewhat on when exactly savings rates will fall, most see savings accounts remaining attractive throughout the spring and beyond. Even if rates start falling in the summer, you can still likely get a good return from a savings account, but look for a high-yield savings account and compare rates to make the best decision.
Some savers, however, might not want to stress about potential rate changes and instead get a guaranteed CD interest rate. Doing so means your money would be less liquid, but you don’t have to face potential fluctuations in interest rates during the CD term.
Strapped into the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour, three NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut returned to Earth early Friday, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico to close out an extended 235-day expedition to the International Space Station.
After a high-speed re-entry above Central America and a steep descent to the Gulf, Crew 8 commander Matthew Dominick, co-pilot Michael Barratt, astronaut Jeanette Epps and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin settled to a gentle, on-target splashdown south of Pensacola, Florida, at 3:29 a.m. EDT.
NASA TV
A SpaceX team stationed nearby was on the scene within minutes to stabilize the capsule, make sure no toxic propellant fumes were present and then to haul it aboard a nearby recovery ship where NASA flight surgeons and support personnel were standing by to carry the returning station fliers out of the crew cabin.
Despite two hours of exercise per day throughout their stay in orbit, returning station astronauts need about a month or more to regain their “land legs” after months in the weightless environment of space.
As such, Dominick, Barratt, Epps and Grebenkin were expected to be carried out of the Crew Dragon and placed on stretchers before being rolled inside the ship for initial medical checks and calls to family and friends. All four appeared in good spirits, smiling and waving as they were rolled inside.
Mission duration was 235 days three hours and 35 minutes, during which the spacecraft circled the globe 3,776 times covering 100 million miles since launch from the Kennedy Space Center on March 3.
NASA
The crew originally expected to return to Earth in September. But the flight slipped into early October in the wake of a decision to delay the launch of their Crew 9 replacements because of problems with Boeing’s Starliner crew ferry ship.
NASA eventually ruled out bringing Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams back to Earth aboard the Boeing spacecraft. Instead, the Starliner came down without its crew on September 7 and Crew 9 was launched with just two passengers — Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexander Gobrunov — on Sept. 28.
That freed up two seats aboard the Crew Dragon for Wilmore and Williams to use when they come home next February with Hague and Gorbunov.
Sorting all that out pushed the Crew 8 departure into October. NASA and SpaceX then were repeatedly held up by high winds and rough seas at the approved splashdown sites, much of it related to hurricanes Helene and Milton.
But this week, conditions in the Gulf finally met NASA’s safety guidelines and the crew was cleared to undock and head for home.
With Crew 8 safely back on Earth, the Crew 9 crew will board their own Crew Dragon capsule early Sunday, Nov. 3, undock from the Harmony module’s forward port and then redock at its space-facing port.
The next day, an ISS-bound SpaceX cargo ship is scheduled for launch from the Kennedy Space Center. After an automated rendezvous, the ship will dock at the just vacated forward port on Nov. 5, election day in the United States.
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A 15-year-old boy was charged Thursday with murder in the shooting deaths of his parents and three of his siblings at a home in Fall City, Washington, according to court documents obtained by CBS News.
The teen, whose name is being withheld because he is a juvenile, was charged with five counts of aggravated murder in the slayings of his parents, Mark and Sarah Humiston, two brothers, ages 9 and 13, and his 7-year-old sister, per King County court records.
He was also charged with one count of attempted murder for shooting and wounding his 11-year-old sister, the documents read.
That girl was in “satisfactory condition” at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, hospital spokesperson Susan Gregg told the Associated Press Tuesday.
Autopsies performed by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that all five victims died of gunshot wounds. The handgun used in the shooting was believed to belong to the victim’s father, the court records state.
According to the charging documents, just before 5 a.m. Monday, the suspect called 911 with a false story in which he claimed that his 13-year-old brother “just shot my whole family and committed suicide too” at the family’s home in Fall City, which is a community located near Seattle.
However, at about the same time as that call, 911 dispatchers received a second call from a neighbor who lives about a quarter-mile away. That neighbor said the suspect’s 11-year-old sister had ran to his house and was bleeding from what appeared to be a gunshot wound, the documents said.
The girl said her entire family had been fatally shot and identified her 15-year-old brother as the shooter. The girl told dispatchers she was also shot by her brother and “then described holding her breath and playing dead,” the documents read. The girl later told detectives that she had escaped through a bedroom window.
Deputies responded to the Humiston home, where they found the suspect in the driveway and took him into custody, court records show. The five victims were found dead inside the home.
In a hospital interview with detectives later that day, the suspect’s surviving sister said that she identified the firearm used in the shooting as “her father’s silver Glock handgun,” court documents state.
She said that her father kept the pistol in a small lockbox that “he would sometimes put by the front door so he could bring it to work,” the documents read. She told detectives that the suspect was “the only one who knew the combination to the Glock lockbox.”
Investigators determined that the suspect “systematically murdered” his parents and siblings and “then staged the scene prior to the arrival of first responders to make it appear” that the murders had been committed by his 11-year-old brother, documents read.
The court documents did not speculate on a motive.
The suspect is scheduled to be arraigned Friday afternoon. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said in a news release Thursday that the suspect is in custody at the Clark Child and Family Justice Center, which is a juvenile facility.
The teen is currently being charged as a juvenile, and prosecutors said a judge will determine whether his case “will be moved to adult court.”
In a statement Tuesday, public defenders representing the suspect said that “our client is a 15-year-old boy who enjoys mountain biking and fishing and has no criminal history.”
