According to the housing consultancy, as a result of the effect jump in mortgage rates, the population of borrowers who could both likely qualify for and have interest rate incentive to refinance had been cut in half in just one month: "Mortgage rates have jumped 49 BPS in the 3 weeks following the election, cutting the population of refinanceable borrowers from 8.3 million immediately prior to the election to a total of just 4 million, matching a 24-month low set back in July 2015."

Fast forward to today, when Black Knight released its latest, December, Mortgage Monitor, which reveals another concerning observation, namely that with the recent rise in interest rates, housing is now the  least affordable it's been since 2010

According to the report, at the prevailing 30-year conforming mortgage rate (4.19% as of January 26th), it now requires 22.2% of the median income to make the monthly principal and interest (P&I) payment on the median priced home. Prior to this, the highest post-bubble ratio was 21.4% in 2013, before home prices began to decelerate and interest rates to pull back down.