Early signs of a deep freeze in the US existing home market

The article points out that the US existing home market has been frozen for three consecutive years, with annual transaction volume about one-third lower than pre-pandemic levels. At the same time, the median home price continues to hit new highs, creating a stalemate where neither buyers nor sellers have any incentive to trade. Currently, about 60% to 70% of outstanding mortgages have interest rates below 5%, and homeowners are unwilling to replace low-interest loans with high-interest ones. Combined with factors such as the housing construction gap, rising insurance and taxes, and increasing special assessment fees for apartments, these factors have jointly led to a drying up of market liquidity.