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- Rates on the 30-year fixed mortgage hit 8% on Wednesday, per Mortgage News Daily.
- It's the first time the interest rate on the most popular US home loan hit that mark since mid-2000.
- Bond yields jumped Wednesday to fresh 16-year highs, with the 10-year Treasury yield touching 4.9%.
For the first time since 2000, the rate on the typical 30-year fixed mortgage hit 8% on Wednesday, according to Mortgage News Daily.
The uptick comes amid a fresh spike in bond yields, with the 10-year Treasury breaching 4.9% as investors digest the latest economic indicators and monitor the results of the latest 20-year Treasury bond auction.
Mortgage rates are a critical input for the affordability equation for prospective home buyers, and in previous eras of rising rates, home prices have declined as borrowing costs increase. However, low home inventory has prevented that from happening, and many Americans as a result have remained sidelined from the market.
The rise in rates has sent mortgage applications tumbling to their lowest level in almost three decades, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Meanwhile, homeowners who previously locked in lower mortgage rates are now unwilling to move or refinance at more expensive borrowing costs, keeping inventory low in market that's already experiencing a long-term shortage of housing supply. The cost of financing a purchase and the deep freeze that's gripped the market has also dragged homebuilder sentiment to the lowest level in 10 months.
Last week, Redfin's Homebuyer Demand Index fell to its lowest level in almost a year, and Moody's strategists pointed out in an October report that every single state in the US has seen affordability wane over the last several years, with little relief in sight.
To that point, data from the National Association of Realtors shows the ability for a family to own a home is now at a decade-low.