Mid-February Mortgage Rates Just Under 7%. Panic Time?

Mortgage rates ended the week close to 7%. They’re at 6.875% to be specific, and Mortgage News Daily’s Matt Graham explains why in his recap for the week. And I’m putting a chart above for quick reference. He also notes that, while this is jarring, it’s not quite cause for panic.

The biggest news this coming week will be existing home sales for January, and we’ll see if they slow 12 straight months. I’ll come back shortly and comment on that, and what it means for affordability. Spoiler alert: there’s some underreported good news in that data.