That mortgage rates rising to their highest levels in three years to kick off the fourth quarter would collapse whatever mortgage demand still existed in the market was expected.
Just how bad the damage would be was uncertain until this week, when a pair of industry reports tracking monthly mortgage rate-lock activity were released. The early figures suggest that U.S. consumers want little to do with 7% mortgage rates.
“Housing is unlikely to contribute much to growth until turnover normalizes, and that depends on interest rates and on owners and buyers gradually accepting that mortgage rates aren’t going to return to pandemic lows,” said Cristian deRitis, deputy chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, in a recent note to Scotsman Guide.
“Nor...
