High home prices and even higher mortgage rates; that’s how most people would describe last year’s housing market—one that by some estimates was the least affordable since the 1980s.
It’s simple: Home prices skyrocketed during the pandemic and rose steadily last year despite mortgage rates more than doubling. Those high mortgage rates, having risen from historic lows, kept homeowners from selling, which further exacerbated already tight supply and kept home prices up—all while chilling the housing market. The situation was so dire, and still may be aside from slight improvements in affordability, that Zillow’s chief economist, Skylar Olsen, released her own “wish list” for this year’s housing market.
