Loans to purchase homes in small towns and in rural America are running far below pre-recession totals, says the Housing Assistance Council in a story on Daily Yonder. “Rural mortgage markets continue to struggle in the aftermath of the national housing crisis,” it says. Home purchase loans are 35 percent of lending activity. Home owners are scaling back on refinancing of mortgages due to rising interest rates and tighter standards for loans. “Rural borrowers are more likely to have higher interest rates than their urban or suburban counterpart,” says the council. It says the higher rates are due in part to the greater prevalence of manufactured homes in rural areas, which often are purchased through higher-interest personal loans.