Rates on [tag]30-year mortgages[/tag] climbed this week for the eighth time in the past nine weeks, hitting the highest level in nearly four years. [tag]Freddie Mac[/tag], the mortgage company, reported Thursday that rates on 30-year, [tag]fixed-rate mortgage[/tag]s averaged 6.62 percent, up from 6.60 percent last week.

The [tag]housing sector[/tag], which has enjoyed five boom years, is exhibiting numerous signs of slowing under the impact of [tag]rising mortgage rate[/tag]s. The latest such evidence came Thursday with a report from the National Association of Realtors that sales of existing homes fell 2 percent in April with the median price of homes sold last month rising at the slowest pace in 4 1/2 years. Analysts believe that housing will experience a gradual slowing this year but not a crash as long as the [tag]Federal Reserve[/tag] calls a halt soon to its two-year campaign to push interest rates higher to slow the economy and control inflation. Federal Reserve Chairman [tag]Ben S. Bernanke[/tag] said last week that while housing is slowing down this year, “this looks to be a very orderly and moderate kind of cooling.”

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