US Housing Market Stalls as Mortgage Rates Rise and Fewer Americans Move

Business Insider reports that the US housing market remains in a strange place in 2026 after pandemic-era buying helped push home prices sharply higher. Mortgage rates are high, but prices have barely pulled back from all-time highs, leaving many buyers facing a costly market. The key takeaway: affordability pressure is not just slowing demand — it is keeping the whole market in low gear.

Apollo’s Torsten Sløk said the market looks largely frozen, writing that “Nobody is moving.” Business Insider cites his view that fewer Americans are changing addresses, while the share of households planning to move over the next 12 months has fallen to a record low of approximately 7%. Many homeowners are also locked into low pandemic-era mortgage rates, reducing the incentive to sell and buy again at today’s higher rates.

Among Apollo’s takeaways, high mortgage rates and high home prices have crushed interest from prospective homebuyers. The report says 75% of US households can only afford a home priced below $300,000, while the median home is priced above $400,000. It also notes that first-time homebuyers have fallen to their lowest level in years, and the median first-time buyer’s age has risen to 40, up from 30 in 2008.

The article highlights several deeper pressures in the housing system: slower household formation tied to lower immigration, an aging housing stock, low new-home construction, and smaller new single-family homes over the past 10 years. Home-price growth has slowed to roughly 1%, though it is increasing for higher-end buyers who are less dependent on mortgage rates. Apollo also notes roughly $35 trillion in homeowner equity and says multifamily delinquency rates have passed their 2011 peak, reaching the highest point since the Great Financial Crisis.