2022 marked the end of cheap mortgages and now the housing market has turned icy cold

December 26, 20225:13 AM

Children ride scooters past a house for sale in Los Angeles. Home sales have slowed as mortgage rates have climbed

Evan Paul and his wife entered 2022 thinking it would be the year they would finally buy a home

自进入2022年以来，埃文·保罗（Evan Paul）和他的妻子以为，今年他们终于能购买一个属于自己的房屋。

The couple — both scientists in the biotech industry — were ready to put roots down in Boston.

"We just kind of got to that place in our lives where we were financially very stable, we wanted to start having kids and we wanted to just kind of settle down," says Paul, 34.

This year did bring them a baby girl, but that home they dreamed of never materialized.

这对夫妻都是生物科技行业的科学家，他们已准备在波士顿扎根。

34岁的保罗说：“我们只是在生活中找到了一个经济非常稳定的地方，我们想开始有孩子，我们想定居下来。”。

今年确实给他们带来了一个女婴，但他们梦想拥有自己的房屋却从未现实。

High home prices were the initial insurmountable hurdle. When the Pauls first started their search, low interest rates at the time had unleashed a buying frenzy in Boston, and they were relentlessly outbid.

"There'd be, you know, two dozen other offers and they'd all be $100,000 over asking," says Paul. "Any any time we tried to wait until the weekend for an open house, it was gone before we could even look at it."

当保罗夫妇第一次开始找房,高房价成为了第一个不可逾越的鸿沟。当时低利率已经在波士顿引发了一场购买狂潮，他们的出价也被无情地超过了。

保罗说：“你知道，那会有20个其他的报价，而且都会超过10万美元。”。“每每，我们想等到周末再去看房子，但还没来得及看一眼就已被售出。”

Then came the Fed's persistent interest rates hikes. After a few months, with mortgage rates climbing, the Pauls could no longer afford the homes they'd been looking at.

"At first, we started lowering our expectations, looking for even smaller houses and even less ideal locations," says Paul, who eventually realized that the high mortgage rates were pricing his family out again.

"The anxiety just caught up to me and we just decided to call it quits and hold off."

紧随着美联储持续加息。几个月后，随着贷款利率攀升，保罗夫妇再也买不起他们一直在看的房子。

保罗说：“一开始，我们降低预期，寻找更小的和地理位置差一些的房子。到了最后我们终于意识到高额的贷款利率再一次将我们踢出购房一列。

“我突然感到焦虑，我们决定退出并等待时机。”

Buyers and sellers put plans on ice

购房者和售房者都将计划搁置

The sharp increase in mortgage rates has cast a chill on the housing market. Many buyers have paused their search; they can longer afford home prices they were considering a year ago. Sellers are also wary of listing their homes because of the high mortgage rates that would loom over their next purchase.

"People are stuck," says Lawrence Yun, chief economist with the National Association of Realtors.

抵押贷款利率的急剧上升给房地产市场带来了寒意。许多买家停下寻找房屋；他们再也负担不起现在的房价。由于贷款利率很高。卖家也很谨慎的出售房屋，怕再次购买房屋将超过预期价格

全国房地产代理商协会（National Association of Realtors）首席经济学家劳伦斯·云（Lawrence Yun）表示：“人们陷入了困境。”。

Yun and others describe the market as frozen, one in which home sales activity has declined for 10 months straight, according to NAR. It's the longest streak of declines since the group started tracking sales in the late 1990s.

根据NAR（National Association of Realtor）的数据，云和其他人将市场描述为冻结，其中房屋销售活动已经连续10个月下降。这是该集团自上世纪90年代末开始跟踪销售以来最长的一次下滑痕迹。

"The sellers aren't putting their houses on the market and the buyers that are out there, certainly the power of their dollar has changed with rising interest rates, so there is a little bit of a standoff," says Susan Horowitz, a New Jersey-based real estate agent.

新泽西州的房地产经纪人苏珊·霍洛维茨（Susan Horowitz）表示：“卖家没有把房子放到市场上，而买家在那里，他们的美元购买力肯定会随着利率的上升而改变，所以有点僵持。

Interestingly, the standoff hasn't had much impact on prices.

有趣的是，僵局并未对价格产生太大影响。

Home prices have remained mostly high despite the slump in sales activity because inventory has remained low. The inventory of unsold existing homes fell for a fourth consecutive month in November to 1.14 million.

尽管销售活动不景气，但由于库存仍然很低，房价基本保持在高位。11月，未售出现房库存连续第四个月下降至114万套

"Anything that comes on the market is the one salmon running up stream and every bear has just woken up from hibernation," says Horowitz.

霍洛维茨说：“市场上的任何东西都是一条向上游流动的鲑鱼，每只熊都刚刚从冬眠中醒来。”。

But even that trend is beginning to crack in some markets.

但即使是这样的趋势，在一些市场也开始出现裂痕。

At an open house for a charming starter home in Hollywood one recent weekend, agent Elijah Shin didn't see many people swing through like he did a year ago.

最近的一个周末，在好莱坞一个迷人的首发售房招待会上，经纪人Elijah Shin没有看到很多人像他一年前那样摇摆不定。

"A year ago, this probably would've already sold," he says. "This home will sell, too. It's just going to take a little bit longer."

他说：“一年前，这可能已经售出了。“这套房子也会卖的。只是需要更长的时间。”

Or a lot longer.

或者更长时间。

The cottage first went on the market back in August. Four months later, it's still waiting for an offer.

这座小屋于8月份首次上市。四个月后，它仍在等待报价

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