Mortgage rates rose to a two-year high of 3.78% in the last week of January. As yet that has done little to cool home purchase demand, with applications increasing to a one-year high. But a lot of that strength will reflect buyers rushing in now before they miss their change to lock-in an historically low mortgage rate. As those buyers drop out, higher mortgage rates will act to cool housing demand and bring applications back down to their pre-COVID-19 level.
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