Don’t Buy a Home, Rising Mortgage Rates

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jul 22, 11:05AM EDT

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Mortgage rates remain high, and home prices are likely to continue rising.
For some Americans, the dream of owning a home may be a thing of the past.

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Don’t Buy a Home, Rising Mortgage Rates — © PhilAugustavo / iStock via Getty Images

During any given week, mortgage rates may rise or fall. However, on the whole, they have stayed relatively high. According to Realtor.com, home inventories are currently very low, as home prices continue to reach new highs. Home prices are likely to continue rising. Recent S&P CoreLogic monthly data show that home prices have increased at over 3% year-over-year for all of 2025.

This week, the rate on 30-year mortgages is 6.75%. That is up slightly from the week before.

It may be a long time before mortgage rates come down. The Federal Reserve has not signaled that it will cut rates sharply. Mortgage rates are tied to the Fed’s number.

The difference between a 3% rate (the 2021 average rate was 3.15%) and a rate of 7% results in significantly higher payments. No wonder people who have locked in low rates don’t want to sell their houses.

The National Association of Home Builders analyzed monthly payments for 3% and 7% 30-year fixed mortgages. With a 20% down payment, a monthly payment on a $450,700 home was $1,925 at 3% and $2,923 at 7%.

FRED shows that the median household income across the United States was $80,610 in 2023. After taxes, the amount is closer to $60,000, or approximately $5,000 per month. Against a monthly mortgage payment of $2,923, the amount is barely affordable.

The housing market is in a state of gridlock, which is likely to persist, based on current home prices and mortgage rates. For some Americans, the dream of owning a home may be behind them.

What Happens If the Housing Market Crashes? How to Protect Yourself.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.