Source: The New York Times —
As the average 30-year mortgage rate eclipses 7 percent, home buyers and sellers are confronting sticker shock.
The interest rate for the most common home loan in the United States surpassed 7 percent this week, by one measure — the latest signal that the high-flying housing market is falling back to earth.
According to Mortgage News Daily, a popular industry gauge, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage reached 7.08 percent on Tuesday. Another survey, by the Mortgage Bankers Association, showed the rate averaging 6.52 percent, the highest reading since mid-2008. Freddie Mac placed it at 6.7 percent, up from 3.01 percent during the same week last year.
The measures vary based on survey criteria and the time of reading, but the message is clear, agents and analysts said: Home buyers and sellers are suffering from sticker shock, and the added borrowing costs are dragging down the market.
Assuming a 10 percent down payment, a home listed at the national median asking price — $435,050 in August 2022 — cost nearly $1,000 more each month than it did in August 2021, when the average mortgage rate was 2.88 percent and the median home price was about 14 percent lower, said Danielle Hale, the chief economist at Realtor.com.
