Mortgage rates jumped to the highest level in two months ahead of the pivotal spring home-buying season‚ throttling demand among would-be buyers. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on a 30-year loan this week rose to 6.94% from 6.9% — the highest level since mid-December. While that is down from a peak of 7.79% in the fall‚ it remains sharply higher than the pandemic-era lows of just 3%. "Mortgage rates continued their ascent this week‚ reaching a two-month...