From an investing perspective, U.S. homes have paled in comparison to the stock market in recent years, and the surge in mortgage rates will likely widen that mismatch.
The housing market has been largely frozen since the COVID-era boom ended in 2022, when the Federal Reserve embarked on an aggressive rate-hiking campaign to rein in inflation. The Fed is now tightening policy again, and the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate is back above 7%.
