Could Rising Mortgage Rates Kill Housing Recovery?

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published

home prices

Will rising mortgage rates be the factor that kills the increase in real estate prices and sales. Both have risen at an astonishing trajectory, to the point of concern about a new real estate bubble in some regions.

CNNMoney said about the rise in mortgage rates:

In the past month, rates have been on the rise and they are expected to continue to climb. Last week, the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage climbed to 3.81%, up from 3.3% in early May, according to mortgage giant Freddie Mac. Meanwhile, those seeking a 15-year loan received an average rate of 2.98%, up from 2.56% a month earlier — a record low.

“It’s unlikely that rates will ever be that low again,” said Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s chief economist.
Those who didn’t take advantage of record-low rates have missed the boat — at least for now.

It will take months to see the effect because data from real estate research firms Corelogic, RealtyTrac, Case-Shiller and Trulia lag sales activity so much.

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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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