Despite a steep rise in mortgage rates last month, escalating rates are not fueling another housing bubble, CoreLogic declared in its latest MarketPulse Report.
Instead, rising rates may be what's needed to prevent another bubble, the real estate analytics firm suggested.
While housing bubbles are difficult to measure, it is possible to measure housing affordability, which shows if prices are based on rational or fundamental conditions, CoreLogic noted.
The real estate and data research firm said that since the recession, the median household income has been moderately growing again while mortgage interest rates have been consistently below 4% through 2012.
Even with interest rates rising, they are still low enough by historic standards to keep homes at affordable levels.
In order for affordability to dissipate and return to the average level that we saw in the first part of the last decade, home prices would have to rise an additional 47% or interest rates would have to shoot up 6.75%.
As a whole, only the District of Columbia and Hawaii remain unaffordable. All other states are near their peak levels of affordability.
CoreLogic utilized data through March 2013 and analyzed the situation by assuming a person’s mortgage was a 30-year fixed rate, 20% down payment and had a 25% debt-to-income ratio.
"While the rational or irrational nature of buyers' expectations is not clear in housing today, CoreLogic believes there is still a long way to go before housing again becomes unaffordable," the firm said.
