(by Nick Band)

The expected interest rates rise may cause U.S. home-prise appreciation to slow with the impact on economic growth, reported Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

In the past three years, home prices doubled. In 2001 personal incomes lifted 9.3% while home prices climbed as much as 19%, they add.

Forecasts are sad. “If the average slows to 4 percent to 5 percent, there’d be some negative figures in some parts of the country, and the confidence of those people would be shaken,’’ said Lyle E. Gramley, a senior economic adviser to Schwab Soundview Capital Markets in Washington and a former Federal Reserve governor.

Analysts predict U.S. economic growth to slow to 3.7% as soon as next year from 4.4% of the recent year. U.S. home price growth will fall 7.6% last year to 6.1% this year and 3.7% next year, they add.

Specialists underline that interest rates would have to climb as much as 3% to influence housing demand.