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Working Paper
Locked In: Mobility, Market Tightness, and House Prices
Rising interest rates in 2022 significantly increased moving costs for homeowners with low fixed-rate mortgages, leading to a sharp drop in mobility. After accounting for biases from selective refinancing, we find mortgage rate "lock in"– the decline in moves due to the rising gap between market rates and homeowners' fixed rates– explains 44 percent of the drop in mortgage borrower mobility from 2021 to 2022. This effect primarily reflects fewer local moves, with only modest impacts on moves across labor market areas. Consistent with a housing search model, we show that under certain ...
Working Paper
Locked In: Rate Hikes, Housing Markets, and Mobility
Rising interest rates in 2022 introduced large moving costs for homeowners with low, fixed-rate mortgages. Using a novel dataset linking mortgage loans, consumer credit profiles, and property sales, we examine the effects of rate hikes on household mobility and the broader economic impacts of the resulting mortgage rate lock-in. As market rates rise relative to those on borrowers’ existing loans, likelihood of moving falls with the highest elasticity among borrowers just “in the money.” Our results suggest about 44% of the decline in moves among mortgage holders between 2021 and 2022 ...