Shares of home builders took a broad beating Thursday, amid growing concerns over housing affordability as interest rates have been surging. The iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF ITB, -2.98% dropped 2.6% in morning toward the lowest close since June 5, with 44 of 46 of its equity components losing ground. Shares of KB Home KBH, -3.73% sank 3.
slid 4.6%, of PulteGroup Inc. PHM, -4.33% declined 3.9%, of Toll Brothers Inc. TOL, -3.93% tanked 3.2% and of Lennar Corp. LEN, -3.53% lost 3.2%. The sector’s selloff comes amid disappointing home sales data as the yield on the 10-year Treasury note TMUBMUSD10Y, 4.468%, which influences mortgage rates, jumped 0.133 percentage points to 4.482%, the highest rate seen in 16 years, after the Federal Reserve indicated it was not necessarily done raising interest rates.