The 7% Mortgage Is Back — And It's Freezing the Housing Market in Place, Not Just Pricing People Out
The average 30-year mortgage rate hit 7.03% this week — the first time it's crossed 7% since the start of last year. The obvious story is affordability. The less obvious story is mobility: at these rates, millions of Americans who already own homes effectively can't afford to move, and that gridlock reshapes everything from job markets to family decisions.
Bottom Line
Crossing 7% isn't a crash signal — it's a gridlock signal. The bigger risk isn't that home prices collapse; it's that the market stays stuck, with owners locked into old loans, buyers locked out by new ones, and the normal churn of American life — moving for work, for family, for retirement — grinding slower. This is a blip in the daily numbers but part of a multi-year pattern: the era of cheap money built a market that doesn't function well without it.