Rising interest rates continue to rock the U.S. economy's housing sector as the average interest rate on the most popular mortgage in the U.S. jumps to the highest level since 2006.
The Federal Reserve's continued aggressive interest rate hikes have tightened the real estate marketand financial conditions for just about every area of the U.S. economy.
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released data on Wednesday that showed that the rate hike had caused mortgage application volume to sink to its slowest pace since the end of 1999.
Last week, as Barron's reported, the average contract interest rate for a fixed 30-year home loan with a conforming balance was at 6.81%, which was a jump from just the week before when it was at 6.75%.
Last week the volume of applications for mortgages was nearly 40% lower than at the same time last year. Refinance volume was at an abysmal 86% lower.