Average long-term mortgage rates jumped by more than a quarter-point this week to their highest level since 2007 as the Federal Reserve intensified its effort to tamp down decades-high inflation and cool the economy.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the 30-year rate climbed to 6.29%, from 6.02% last week. That’s the highest it’s been since August 2007, a year before a crash in the housing market triggered the Great Recession.

After more than doubling in 2022, rapidly rising mortgage rates threaten to sideline even more homebuyers. Last year, prospective homebuyers were looking at rates well below 3%.

On Wednesday, the Fed bumped its benchmark borrowing rate by another three-quarters of a point in an effort to constrain the economy, its fifth increase this year and third consecutive 0.75 percentage-point increase.... Read More: NY Post