Mortgage woes! Average rate on a 30-year loan rises to 6.96 percent — meaning buyers now have to pay an extra $1,000 a month for a standard home

Homebuyers faced more woes today as mortgage rates skyrocketed to just under 7 percent – after rising for three weeks in a row.

Data from government-backed lender Freddie Mac shows that the average interest rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is now 6.96 percent — more than double what it was two years ago.

It means that someone buying a $400,000 home with a 5 percent down payment now faces an additional $1,000 a year if they buy today compared to August 2021.

Mortgage rates have skyrocketed in response to the Federal Reserve’s brutal increases in fund rates.

The Fed has raised its fund rate 11 times in the past year and a half to curb red-hot inflation.

But lenders’ calculations on home loans are not directly tied to the Fed’s interest rates, but are instead dictated by the yield on 10-year Treasury bonds.

This is influenced by a combination of inflation, Fed actions and investor reaction.

The average deal on a 30-year mortgage has remained above 6.5 percent since late May, but the latest rate is the highest since November.

Freddie Mac chief economist Sam Khater said: “There is no doubt that sustained high rates will make affordability problems last longer than expected.

“However, upward pressure on rates is the product of a resilient economy with low unemployment and strong wage growth, which has historically kept buying demand solid.”

Experts have previously sounded the alarm about the impact rates have on the real estate market.

The average deal on a 30-year mortgage has remained above 6.5 percent since late May, but the latest rate is the highest since November

New York realtor Adie Kriegstein recently said she saw more and more homeowners interested in renting their property rather than selling it

A family buying a $400,000 house in August 2021 with a 5 percent down payment would have had a monthly bill of $1,555. At that time, the average interest rate on a 30-year mortgage was 2.77 percent.

However, under current rates, the same family would have to pay $2,518.

A survey by Freddie Mac last month found that 82 percent of real estate buyers were “stuck” in their current home because they snagged their deals when rates were low.

One in seven homeowners who had no plans to sell their home cited the current low rate as the main reason for staying.

The number of new homes offered in June was then 20 percent lower than in the same period last year.

Dailymail.com recently revealed that increased rates caused homeowners to become “accidental landlords.”

Real estate agent Adie Kriegstein, who founded the NYC Experience Team at Compass, said at the time, “We’re seeing more people across the board interested in renting, with properties of all different sizes.

‘There is so much uncertainty, that makes people very suspicious. I have a client on my books who recently decided to move out of town, so he rented out his apartment here while paying to rent elsewhere. It will definitely become a trend.’