“The mortgage lock-in effect is also hurting housing inventory and sales, as many sellers are reluctant to list their home and give up a competitive mortgage rate. A staggering 72% of outstanding mortgage debt has interest rates below 5%, nearly two percentage points lower than the current level.”

“And so that plus a bunch of sellers being locked into low mortgage rates and not wanting to trade up, creates a supply-demand imbalance. That’s why you’ve seen prices run up so much from the pandemic,” he continued. “And it’s why even with prices starting to ease in so many markets, you’re still seeing volume low”

Imagine that, people having a house for 5 years and not selling it, oh the horror. Yes, the price of housing increased soo much cause no one wanted to “trade up” their house after 5 years. Def had nothing to do with investment firms scooping up houses for 200k plus over asking in cash. Right, that couldn’t be it. And it most certainly isn’t those same firms fault for buying up old affordable housing and transforming it into luxury a Airbnbs causing a domino effect of high costs and low inventory of affordable homes. No it’s the people who wanted to buy a house and live in it for like idk 20+ years. Zillow can eat a bag of dicks.