Housing Hit

Housing activity is beginning to show the impact of rising rates. March sales activity, which is based on contracts signed in January and February when 30-year mortgage rates were rising from 3.29% to 3.9% fell for the second straight month and didn’t look worse only because February sales were revised way down. Moreover, first-time mortgage applications are currently down 14% Y-o-Y, and lock-box activity in March was down 19% Y-o-Y.