U.S. housing stocks tumble to over 1-year low as mortgage rates climb

Applied Energetics

06/04/2022 14:56

** A widely watched gauge of housing stocks - the PHLX
Housing index  .HGX  - falls 1.7% to its lowest since Jan 2021
as mortgage rates climb 
    ** A survey showed the average interest rate on the most
popular U.S. home loan kept climbing last week to stay at a more
than three-year high  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nN9N26W02C
    ** The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said the average
contract rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 4.9% in
the week ended April 1 from 4.8% a week earlier
    ** Mortgage rates have now risen by nearly 1.6 percentage
points since the start of the year, the fastest run-up in home
borrowing costs since 1994
    ** Broader markets sell off on worries about aggressive
steps by the Federal Reserve to tame inflation; traders now see 
more than 80% odds of a 50 bps rate hike in May  .N 
    ** The PHLX Housing index has shed almost a quarter of its
value so far this year vs a 6% drop in the benchmark S&P 500
 .SPX 
    ** .HGX hit a record high last year as easy money policy
boosted home prices 

 (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar)
 ((sruthi.shankar@thomsonreuters.com;))