Oct 14, 2026 · 2 min · 3 segments
Your 60-second money minute. Today's topic: Home Affordability Worsens Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection…
Jessica EttingerHost
Home affordability just got even tougher because people buy a house based on the monthly payment they can afford, and that just got less affordable when mortgage rates popped to a nearly three-year high at the start of October.
For everyday homebuyers, first-time homebuyers, they are deeply impacted by this increase in rates.
That's the CEO of the real estate firm Brown Harris Stevens, Bess Freedman on CNBC.
Many words are being used to describe the real estate market this fall: slow, lackluster, and frozen.
It is like a standoff because you have the lock-in effect, people who've locked in 2 and 3% rates who've decided that they're not gonna sell.
Why would they let go of that rate?
A number of would-be homebuyers have just resigned themselves to looking again maybe after the holidays and maybe next spring.
Inventory, high prices, higher rates, inflation.
You know, everything's gotten more expensive for people, so they're on the sidelines.
October started with the average rate on a 30-year fixed home loan around 7.5%.
That tracks closely with the 50-year historical average of roughly 7.2 to 7.5 as measured by Freddie Mac.
While current borrowing costs feel high compared to the 2021 ultra-low bottom of 2.65% for mortgages, today's mortgage rates really are quite normal by long-term historical standards.
You can keep up on the real estate market and mortgages at cnbc.com. I'm Jessica Ettinger, CNBC.
Home affordability just got even tougher because people buy a house based on the monthly payment they can afford, and that just got less affordable when mortgage rates popped to a nearly three-year high at the start of October.
For everyday homebuyers, first-time homebuyers, they are deeply impacted by this increase in rates.
That's the CEO of the real estate firm Brown Harris Stevens, Bess Freedman on CNBC.
Many words are being used to describe the real estate market this fall: slow, lackluster, and frozen.
It is like a standoff because you have the lock-in effect, people who've locked in 2 and 3% rates who've decided that they're not gonna sell.
Why would they let go of that rate?
A number of would-be homebuyers have just resigned themselves to looking again maybe after the holidays and maybe next spring.
Inventory, high prices, higher rates, inflation.
You know, everything's gotten more expensive for people, so they're on the sidelines.
October started with the average rate on a 30-year fixed home loan around 7.5%.
That tracks closely with the 50-year historical average of roughly 7.2 to 7.5 as measured by Freddie Mac.
While current borrowing costs feel high compared to the 2021 ultra-low bottom of 2.65% for mortgages, today's mortgage rates really are quite normal by long-term historical standards.
You can keep up on the real estate market and mortgages at cnbc.com. I'm Jessica Ettinger, CNBC.
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