Will rising mortgage rates kill the recovery?

Interest rates on home loans have shot up more than a full percentage point in the last two months

Ben Bernanke
(Image credit: JASON REED/Reuters/Corbis)

Mortgage rates have shot up more than 1 percentage point since early May, including a jump of half a percentage point since Ben Bernanke addressed the media on June 19 to provide some more answers about how and when the Federal Reserve would pull back on its monetary stimulus program. Those spiking rates have fueled concern that the Fed's recent signals — or the market's reaction to them — could undercut the economy and, in particular, a key area that Bernanke pointed to as driving the recovery: housing.

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