“Mortgage rates rose above 7 percent for the first time this year, crossing a symbolically concerning threshold that threatens to keep millions of potential home buyers and sellers on the sidelines of a U.S. housing market that is increasingly showing signs of slowing. The average rate on 30-year mortgages, the most popular home loan in the United States, rose to 7.1 percent this week, Freddie Mac reported on Thursday, the highest since November. Mortgage rates reached a recent high of nearly 8 percent late last year — a level not seen since 2000.” (Via The New York Times)
If you would like more context on this matter, please consider Robert Van Order, the Oliver Carr Chair in Real Estate and co-chair of the Department of Finance at the George Washington University. He was chief economist of Freddie Mac from 1987 until 2002. In that capacity he worked on the development of Freddie Mac models of mortgage default, prepayment and pricing; approaches to risk, capital structure and capital requirements; mortgage market structure; and analysis of housing and the economy. Before that he served as director of the Housing Finance Analysis Division at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Professor van Order can discuss these rising mortgage rates as well as housing markets, mortgage markets and the economy overall.
If you would like to speak with Professor Van Order, please contact GW Media Relations Specialist Cate Douglass at [email protected] or 202-994-6460.
-GW-
