US mortgage rates are creeping closer to 7%.
The average for a 30-year loan climbed to 6.94% from 6.92% last week, Freddie Mac said Thursday.
Mortgage rates, now at the highest since April 2002, have more than doubled this year. The fast ascent has quashed the pandemic housing frenzy, an intended effect of the Federal Reserve’s efforts to tame inflation. With a key gauge of consumer prices at a 40-year high, another Fed rate hike is expected next month.
Sales of previously owned US homes fell for an eighth straight month in September, highlighting how rising rates have squeezed many Americans out of the market.
Rates have been pushing toward 7% in recent weeks — a level that would force about 68% of would-be buyers to pause their home searches, according to a recent survey by Zillow.
