When the Federal Reserve began aggressively raising interest rates in 2022, many analysts expected home prices to fall. But they didn’t. Instead, they soared. A new analysis from the Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) at Harvard University helps explain why—and the answer is summed up in mortgage rate locks. From the start of 2021…
As housing experienced some unprecedented levels of affordability and other challenges in recent years, some of the rules of buying and selling have seen a definite shift. As 2026 looks to be shaping up as the year of market stabilization, the question remains on many minds on how fast the rules may see a shift…
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Editor’s Note: The Mortgage Mix is RISMedia’s biweekly highlight reel of need-to-know mortgage-industry happenings. Watch for it every other Friday afternoon. – Mortgage rates have, as of the week of January 12, 2026, hit their lowest level in over 3 years: the 30-year fixed rate mortgage came in at an average of 6.06% while the…
The lock-in effect—the gap between existing mortgage payments and the cost of financing a home today—continues to widely affect housing supply and is “trapping” homeowners into staying where they are, according to new data from Realtor.com®. The new Realtor.com report details how a homeowner wishing to move but locked-in at a lower mortgage rate…
It has been hard to predict the housing market in recent years. From the fastest ever tightening of interest rates in 2022, which brought the pandemic boom market to a screeching halt, all the way through tariff panic that appeared to derail the 2025 spring buying season, experts have had a difficult time anticipating shifts…