Mortgage rates hit 20-year high of 6.92%

Yahoo Finance Live’s David Briggs discusses the rise in mortgage rates.

Video Transcript

- Let's get you up to speed now on the housing market. Inflation not the only thing heating up today. Mortgage rates jumping to a 20-year high, now averaging 6.92% on the 30-year fixed. That's up from 6.66% a week ago and well more than double from 3.05% from one year ago.

Now, Lawrence Yun, the chief economist at realtor.com, saying, quote, "Even with an anticipated fall in home prices in some markets, principally in California, homes will continue to be unaffordable while rents are squeezing non-owners."

Now, there is a glimmer of hope here on that front in terms of the rents. Rents grew 9% last month. That's the first single-digit increase in a year. According to Redfin, demand is cooling for rentals, and a record amount of building will improve supply. We expect that more than 400,000 units will come on the market this year. Haven't seen that in back-to-back years since the '70s, Seana.