30Y Mortgage rate 6.91%, highest level since early July. AND NO, INTEREST RATES ARE NOT COMING DOWN

[Fiendish Thingy]

7. If people can't qualify for mortgages at current prices, prices will have to come down

Or the market will collapse.

Sure, there are some cash buyers, but even with equity and corporate purchases, cash buyers are still the minority.

Low mortgage rates increase demand and that puts upward pressure on prices, because more people can qualify for loans, and there is more competition among buyers, leading to bidding wars. The 4.7% increase in median price this year is barely above inflation. When mortgage interest rates are around 2-3%, as they were during COVID, prices climbed by double digits.

Pro tip: instead of tracking prices, try tracking sales volume, especially region by region- that will tell you more about the state of the market. If significantly fewer homes are selling in a hot Bidenomics economy, that means prices are too high. Eventually, death, divorce and relocation create enough motivated sellers that prices drop. If sales stagnate enough, starving realtors will put tremendous pressure on sellers to lower their prices.