Inflation in the U.S. -- as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) -- hit a 40-year high of 8% in 2022 (annualized). As a result, the U.S. Federal Reserve embarked on a campaign to aggressively hike interest rates, taking the federal funds rate from a historic low of 0%-0.25% in March 2022 all the way up to 5.5% by August 2023. That rapid increase has crushed the housing market. In January of this year, U.S. existing home sales came in at 4 million annualized units, which was only a slight uptick from t ...