6.66% and Frozen: Rising Mortgage Rates Are Locking Americans in Place — and That's the Real Damage
If you've been waiting for mortgage rates to drift down before buying, selling, or refinancing, this week moved the goalposts the wrong way. The average 30-year mortgage rate hit 6.66% — its highest level in a year — after four straight weeks of increases. For a housing market that was already stuck, this isn't just a price problem. It's a mobility problem.
Bottom Line
Mortgage rates at a one-year high of 6.66% aren't a crisis, but they are a sustained squeeze — and the deeper damage isn't to home prices, it's to American mobility. A market where owners can't afford to sell and buyers can't afford to buy is a market where careers, family plans, and household formation all quietly stall. Four weeks of rising rates suggests this is a trend to take seriously, not a blip to wait out.