Back in March 2022, Fortune published an article with the headline "An economic shock just hit the housing market." The notion being that the Fed's inflation fight, which at the time of publishing had seen the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate jump to 4.5%, would create economic damage in the U.S. housing market.
Of course, that's exactly what happened: The economic shock spurred by soaring mortgage rates, which topped out at 7.37% in October, pushed the U.S. housing market into a sharp housing recession. The second half of 2022 saw sales of both new and existing homes fall at a pace not seen since 2006.
