US mortgage rates hit 8% at 23-year high

Interest rates in the United States continue to rise, with those for a 30-year fixed mortgage hitting a 23-year high this month.

This is just the latest in a series of increases Americans have been dealt since 2020, when rates were just 3 percent.

According to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, Freddie Mac, as of October 19 the average interest for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage was 7.63 percent, with that of its 15-year counterpart sitting at 6.92 percent.

Mortgage News Daily pegged those numbers at 8.03 percent and 7.35 percent, respectively.

The last time prospective home buyers faced rates that high was in 2000, however at that time 8 percent was low compared to the preceding decades, where interest was as high as 18 percent.

Following the turn of the millennium, rates gradually fell, reaching their lowest point in 2020 at just 2.69 percent. Since then, however, there have been a number of subsequent jumps.

The rise in rates come as the US Federal Reserve attempts to bring down inflation by pushing up the cost of borrowing money, which the vast majority of Americans do when buying a new home.

As the BBC reports, mortgage rates have been impacted by a variety of factors, including waxing and waning demand for US government debt as the result of ongoing political chaos in Washington, DC.

MND's Matthew Graham, for example, suggested rising rates could have been spurred by news that President Biden had plans for "big spending on overseas war efforts."

"In a rising rate environment where long term boundaries have recently been broken," he added, "it doesn't necessarily take big news in order to say things like 'highest mortgage rates in 23 years'."

With interest rates having an impact on people's ability to buy homes, developers have been "losing confidence" that there will be customers for new properties. While the construction of new homes has increased slightly in September, rising rates could see that number trend downward in the coming months.