The 7.28% Problem: America's Housing Market Isn't Just Expensive — It's Frozen in Place
Mortgage rates just posted their biggest one-week jump in four years, landing at 7.28% — and the real casualty isn't just affordability, it's mobility. When borrowing costs spike this fast, Americans don't just pay more to move. Increasingly, they stop moving at all, and that quietly reshapes everything from job markets to family decisions.
Bottom Line
This isn't a housing crash — it's something stranger and arguably stickier: a market where high rates and locked-in homeowners freeze activity rather than drive prices down. The week's rate spike came from the bond market, not from housing itself, which means relief depends on forces far outside any buyer's or seller's control. Until longer-term borrowing costs ease, expect a housing market defined less by boom or bust than by paralysis — and expect it to be a loud political issue in the weeks ahead.