Mortgage rate climb won’t dent housing recovery: Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo is confident that the U.S. housing recovery won’t be delayed by climbing mortgage rates. The reason? New families are forming and homes continue to be affordable, according to Tim Sloan, chief financial officer at the San Francisco-based bank, which is the largest mortgage lender in the country.

“When you look at any sort of statistics in the demographics in terms of household creation as well as household affordability, they are still very attractive and should drive a continued recovery in the housing business,” Sloan said, speaking at an investor conference in New York.

For 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, the average rate has increased 1.2 percentage points since dropping to a 3.35-percent low four months ago. U.S. home prices continue to steadily rise, by 7.7 percent this year through June, data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency show. [Bloomberg News] — Mark Maurer