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By John Hugh DeMastri
Daily Caller News Foundation
Thirty-year fixed-rate mortgages jumped past 6% for the first time since November 2008, more than twice what it was this time last year.
At 6.02%, the rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) is up more than twice from 2.86% at this time last year, while the average 15-year FRM is at 5.89% up nearly three times from 2.12% at this time last year, according to Freddie Mac, a federally sponsored home loan firm. The new data comes just days after Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jan Hatzius warned that the housing market was likely to stay weak in the near future, according to Yahoo Finance.
“Housing I think still has a significant amount of weakness ahead,” Hatzius told Yahoo Finance. “The indicators there have continued to come in on the weaker side. So while the consumer might be doing a little bit better because of lower inflation, I think housing is going to be pretty soft.”
“Mortgage rates continued to rise alongside hotter-than-expected inflation numbers this week, exceeding six percent for the first time since late 2008,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist, in a press release. “Although the increase in rates will continue to dampen demand and put downward pressure on home prices, inventory remains inadequate. This indicates that while home price declines will likely continue, they should not be large.”
6% mortgage rates/2022 home prices are like 15% mortgage rates/1980 home prices.
— Lance Lambert (@NewsLambert) September 14, 2022
The housing market has shown several signs of weakness lately, with the sale of new single-family houses in July decreasing 29.6% year-on-year and down 12.6% from June, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Existing-home sales fell for the sixth month running, down 5.9% from June and 20.2% year-on-year, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
The NAR’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun, had predicted that the decline in sales might “stabilize,” off the back of mortgage rates declining to around 5%. The median price of an existing home rose 10.7% year-on-year up to $403,000.
“We’re witnessing a housing recession in terms of declining home sales and home building,” Yun said, according to the NAR’s report. “However, it’s not a recession in home prices. Inventory remains tight and prices continue to rise nationally with nearly 40% of homes still commanding the full list price.”
Freddie Mac directed the Daily Caller News Foundation to the referenced press release above.
This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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IMPORTANT NOTE: How is it possible that the greatest and freest nation in world history has so rapidly come under the control of serially lying, deranged, power-mad sociopaths – leaders with nothing but contempt for America, for its history, its Constitution, its Judeo-Christian culture and its people? Orwell’s “1984” points directly to the answer: The elites are changing America’s language itself, so that people’s words – and therefore, their very thoughts – inevitably come under the control of the ruling class. It’s a way of bending reality in real time, so that what is illusion appears to be true, while what is real and true appears to be lies, misinformation, “hate speech,” “conspiracy theories” and “extremism.” This extraordinarily powerful but little-understood weapon of war employed 24/7 by the Marxist left is completely explained, exposed and exploded in the August issue of WND’s acclaimed monthly Whistleblower agazine, “NEWSPEAK 2022: How tyrants and lunatics are enslaving Americans by redefining everything.”
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