---
title: "Homes Are Sitting Longer as High Mortgage Rates Shut Out Buyers"
description: "From London to Los Angeles, borrowing costs that remain far above pandemic-era lows are stalling the housing market — leaving listings to linger, sellers to cut prices and buyers to wait for a rate relief that may not come soon."
category: "Business"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/business
author: "Valeria Ortiz"
published: 2026-06-30T06:58:00.000Z
updated: 2026-06-30T06:58:00.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/homes-are-sitting-longer-as-high-mortgage-rates-shut-out-buyers
tags: ["housing", "mortgage rates", "real estate", "Los Angeles", "California", "affordability"]
---
# Homes Are Sitting Longer as High Mortgage Rates Shut Out Buyers

From London to Los Angeles, borrowing costs that remain far above pandemic-era lows are stalling the housing market — leaving listings to linger, sellers to cut prices and buyers to wait for a rate relief that may not come soon.

The houses are for sale. The buyers, increasingly, are not.

## A market on pause

Across much of the English-speaking world, homes are sitting unsold for weeks or months as elevated mortgage rates keep squeezing affordability. In the United Kingdom, three in five homes listed since January remain on the market, and agreed sales are running about 7 percent below a year ago, [the BBC reported](https://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/articles/homes-harder-sell-high-mortgage-230850889.html), citing the property portal Zoopla. The trigger was a spring jump in borrowing costs — the average two-year fixed mortgage rate climbed above 5.9 percent in April before easing — that dented buyer confidence even as it has come partway back. "Sales are taking much longer," north London estate agent Jeremy Leaf told the BBC; correctly priced homes are selling, agents say, while overpriced ones sit.

## The U.S. lock-in

The United States faces a related problem with a distinctly American twist. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate stood at about 6.49 percent in late June, [according to Freddie Mac](https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms) — roughly steady for weeks, but still more than double the sub-3 percent rates millions of owners locked in during 2020 and 2021. That "lock-in effect" continues to choke supply: homeowners with cheap loans have little reason to sell and borrow anew at today's rates. The National Association of Realtors reported about 4.17 million existing homes sold in May, a modest monthly uptick, at a national median price near $429,300, with 4.5 months of supply — still short of the six months considered a balanced market. Surveys have found a majority of would-be buyers waiting for rates to fall; many said the same a year ago, and rates never obliged.

## California: a crisis of its own

If the national picture is sobering, California's is in a different register. The statewide median home price reached roughly $914,810 in April, [the California Association of Realtors reported](https://www.car.org/aboutus/mediacenter/newsreleases/2025releases/2026forecast) — nearly twice the national figure — with the Los Angeles County median around $845,000. At today's rates, financing a median Los Angeles home means a monthly principal-and-interest payment well above $4,000 before taxes and insurance. The result: only about 18 percent of California households can afford the state's median-priced home, by the association's affordability index, among the lowest shares in the nation. Thin inventory — the lingering shortage of listings — paradoxically keeps prices high even as buyer pools shrink.

## Waiting for a break

For now, buyers and sellers are locked in a standoff. Sellers who bought years ago or at low rates often hold enough equity to be patient; buyers, priced out by payments that dwarf what the same home cost three years ago, are renting longer or simply waiting. Most analysts expect U.S. mortgage rates to stay above 6 percent through the rest of 2026. Until that changes — or prices fall enough to close the affordability gap — the market looks set to stay stuck.

## Sources

- [Homes harder to sell as high mortgage rates frustrate buyers](https://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/articles/homes-harder-sell-high-mortgage-230850889.html)
- [Primary Mortgage Market Survey — 30-year fixed rate](https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms)
- [C.A.R. California housing market data](https://www.car.org/aboutus/mediacenter/newsreleases/2025releases/2026forecast)