Is the housing market, an engine of economic growth, starting to sputter?
Home sales are slowing, spurring debate about whether the culprit is rising mortgage rates or low housing supplies.
The past week, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate increased from 4.61% to 4.66%, the highest level since May 2011, mortgage giant Freddie Mac said Thursday. The rate is up from 3.95% at the start of the year and a recent low of 3.78% last September.
Thirty-year mortgage rates have risen in 15 of the first 21 weeks of 2018, the largest share since Freddie Mac began tracking the data in 1972. The healthy economy and prospects of higher inflation are pushing up yields on the 10-year Treasury bond to about 3%, and that rate directly affects mortgage rates.
The nearly three quarters of a percentage point increase in mortgage rates so far this year would boost the monthly payment on a $200,000 mortgage by about $85, according to Greg McBride, chief economist of Bankrate.com.
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