(FORTUNE) – Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told Congress earlier this month he favors upping rates in order to help rein in runaway inflation. In preparation of the first hike, financial markets are already pricing in higher mortgage rates. As of Friday, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate sits at 3.85% – up from 3.11% in December.
Spiking mortgage rates should help to cool the red-hot housing market, right? Not so fast, predicts a report due out this week by Bank of America.
While higher mortgage rates would price out some buyers, Bank of America says it won't be enough to stop the housing market from posting strong home price growth this year. Indeed, Bank of America predicts that U.S. home prices will finish 2022 up 10%. That's nearly double the average annual home price growth (4.6%) posted since 1989. However, it would be a bit of a deceleration: Between December 2020 and December 2021, the Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index – the leading measurement of U.S. home prices – jumped 18.8%.
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