It’s easy to hold up sub-3% mortgage rates as the gold standard. Four years ago, the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 2.65%. Bargain mortgage rates made it cheaper to purchase a house and refinance a mortgage, and the number of borrowers taking out new home loans reached a more than two-decade high. But don’t forget. We were also in the middle of a global pandemic and an economic downturn, with widespread unemployment, investment losses and financial instability. Mortgage rates typically fall during a recession. Bad news for the economy…