The average rate on the 30-year loan jumped nearly a quarter point to 3.69% last week. After rising nearly a half-point early in the year, the average long-term rate had been flat for three weeks. The Federal Reserve has signaled that it would begin the first in a series of interest rate hikes in March. Higher costs for just about everything has hammered consumers, wiping out pay raises and reinforcing the Federal Reserve’s decision to begin raising borrowing rates across the economy. The Labor Department said Thursday that consumer prices jumped 7.5% last month compared with 12 months earlier, the steepest year-over-year increase since February 1982. The price for a new home has broadly risen about 14% and as much as 30% . . .
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