Mortgage applications in America fell for a second week as the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage rose to the highest in almost four years.

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s index of applications to buy a home or refinance an existing loan dropped 1.7% to 569.6 from 579.4 a week earlier. The gauge of applications to purchase homes declined 2.5% to 407.4.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage reached the highest level since the week ended June 7, 2002. Higher mortgage rates and prices are putting homes out of reach for more Americans and may lead to the first decline in sales since 2000, economists said.

“Housing’s cooling and that should take the edge off of economic growth in the second quarter,” a senior financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in New York, Chris Rupkey, said.

The American economy probably expanded at a 5% rate in the first quarter, the fastest pace in almost three years. Economists expect growth to slow by the end of this year to a 3% pace, according to a Bloomberg News survey taken from April 3 to 7.

The 30-year mortgage rate was 6.56% last week, up from 6.5% a week earlier, the Mortgage Bankers Association said. At last week’s average rate, monthly principal and interest costs for each $100,000 of a loan would be $636. A year ago, when the average was 5.83%, the payment was $589.

The mortgage banker’s refinancing index fell 0.4% last week to 1526.1, the second-lowest level this year.