Source: Realtor.com —
Buying a home just became a lot more expensive—and it’s expected to only get worse in the coming months.
Mortgage interest rates surged to their highest point since March 2020—the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic—indicating that the heady era of locking in rates in the 2% range on a traditional home loan appears to be definitively over. Rates averaged 3.45% for 30-year fixed mortgages in the week ending Jan. 13, according to Freddie Mac.
“That’s a triple whammy hitting potential homebuyers,” says Len Kiefer, deputy chief economist at Freddie Mac. “People are looking at higher prices, there’s slim pickings in inventory, and now we have higher mortgage rates.”
;
