The US housing market is in the midst of a “deep recession” that could put pressure on the Federal Reserve to ease up on interest rate hikes, a prominent economist warned on Monday. Homebuilder confidence declined for the ninth straight month in September as surging mortgage rates and steep prices pushed many buyers out of the market, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Builder confidence fell to its lowest level since 2014 when excluding the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the index showed. The prolonged downturn in confidence shows the housing market has been “in a tailspin...