The Great Housing Freeze: Half of Homeowners Have a Sub-4% Mortgage Rate—and Few Reasons To Move

For many American homeowners, selling their house would mean losing a low mortgage rate that they may never be able to get again. The average mortgage rate is at a three-year high of 7.4%, making it even more costly for homeowners to purchase a new house—especially those who were able to secure rates under 4% during the COVID-19 pandemic.Data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency's National Mortgage Database analyzed by the Realtor.com® economic research team shows that millions of homeowners are locked in to lower rates, with almost half (49%) holding a fixed rate below 4%. Robin B. Kirkman, a real estate agent with All About You Realty in Liberty, NC, tells Realtor.com that she has several clients who are ready to move but hesitant to leave behind the low mortgage rates they obtained during the pandemic. “I have a couple of clients who I brought along with me during the COVID era, and they are ready to move again,” Kirkman says. “But they are on the fence because, well, 3.25% rate versus 7% is a big difference.”That reluctance is contributing to major gridlock in the U.S. housing market. Millions of homeowners do not have enough of a financial incentive to sell their current ho...