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Working Paper
Is Mortgage Lock-In Responsible for Housing Market Tightness?
Elevated mortgage rates discourage homeowners from moving, as relocating triggers a reset of mortgage terms — a phenomenon termed “lock-in.” This paper examines whether elevated rates explain recent real estate market tightness: low transaction volumes, low time-on-market, and sustained price growth. Using transaction-level data, we estimate survival models of housing tenures — the probability of sale as a function of tenure and market conditions, including mortgage rate gaps. These estimates quantify missing sellers who have not entered the market because of elevated rates. We then ...