
Mortgage rates are highest since March 2020
CNN
In the second big jump of 2022, mortgage rates again rose again last week, rising to a new highs not seen since the start of the pandemic.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.45% in the week ending January 13, up from an average 3.22% the week before, according to Freddie Mac. It's the highest the average rate has been since March 2020, when it hit 3.5%.
"Mortgage rates rose across all mortgage loan types, with the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increasing by almost a quarter of a percent from last week," said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac's chief economist. "The rise in mortgage rates so far this year has not yet affected purchase demand, but given the fast pace of home price growth, it will likely dampen demand in the near future."

More than two decades ago, on January 24, 2004, I landed in Baghdad as a legal adviser, assigned an office in what was then known as the Green Zone. It was raining and cold, and my duffle bag was thrown into a puddle off the C-130 aircraft that had just done a corkscrew dive to reach the runway without risk of ground fire. Young American soldiers greeted me as we piled into a vehicle, sped out of the airport complex and then along a road called the “Highway of Death” due to car bombs and snipers.












