The average mortgage rate in the United States has jumped by nearly a third since the financial crisis, but the real estate industry remains stuck in a rut, with more than 1.5 million Americans without mortgages.
It has been that way for the past decade, and in the process, the industry has become increasingly expensive, as well.
The average loan is now nearly $250,000, according to the latest data from Fannie Mae, the federal mortgage lender.
This month, Fannie and Freddie, the two biggest banks in the U.S., cut the mortgage rates on many more homes and refinanced some of them at a steep discount to their original prices.
But those refinancing deals haven’t been cheap.
As Fannie said last week, the average mortgage for a new home in the country is now more than $250 million.
The industry’s share of the U