[quote=deadzone]30 year fixed over 5% today according to Mortgage News Daily.[/quote]

When the pandemic first hit I thought, “Boy, that will clobber the housing market.” After all, the economy was likely to go into recession, and people would become cautious. No way people would start buying houses like crazy. Of course, I was about as wrong as I could be.

A year ago, when interest rates started rising, I thought, “Boy, if interest rates get to 5%, that will cause the housing market to slam on the brakes. People won’t be able to afford these crazy prices with 5% loans.” Yet here we are with a housing market that is still rocking. Inventory in the area I watch (La Jolla) has dropped in the last couple of weeks from its already incredibly low level. So it seems I was wrong about 5% interest rates slowing the market.

Now I don’t know what to think. It seems hard to imagine that the pace of price increases will continue. But I’ve thought that for a long time and prices just keep going up at an astounding rate. Inflation will help justify some of the increases, but until inventory increases a lot I doubt we see price drops. Then again, I’ve been wrong before, maybe I am again.