Written by Robert H. Ruth
Last week I discussed the impact rising interest rates have on mortgage affordability. As the chart in my article showed, as rates rise, the amount of mortgage that borrowers can obtain with the same payment goes down. Makes sense…as rates drop you can buy more with the same payment and as rates rise the amount you can buy goes down.
But my analysis seemed incomplete; I wanted to dig deeper into this topic and examine the impact interest rate fluctuations have had on mortgage affordability over time. I wanted to give you a greater view of this going back over the last 5 decades. Here then is a chart of the average 30 Year Fixed Mortgage interest rate by decade starting in the 1970’s to now. The chart
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